Met Gala Monday is the most highly anticipated event on the annual fashion calendar, with A-Listers, tastemakers, fashion royalty (and, sometimes, actual royalty) descending on the famous steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The 2024 Met Gala celebrated the opening of the Costume Institute's exhibition Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion and asked celebrities to adhere to a Garden of Time dress code to mimic the fragility of both nature and the exhibition's archival pieces.
Balenciaga hosted a star-studded table for the benefit, dressing friends of the House including Serena Williams, Michelle Yeoh, Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts in hand-crafted couture creations showcasing the Maison's craftsmanship. Serena Williams wore a gold foil-laminated gown which was a reimagining of a piece from the 2022 couture collection and utilised draping techniques from the 1950s; Michelle Yeoh wore an original design reminiscent of the House's ballroom silhouettes of the 1940s, modernised with creative director Demna's new signature aluminium-bonded fabric.
Hand-in-hand with husband Keith Urban (also dressed in Balenciaga), Nicole Kidman wore a recreation of a tiered Cristóbal Balenciaga gown from 1951, while Naomi Watts shone in a crystal-embroidered lace dress.
Photographer German Larkin was on-hand at the Mark Hotel to capture candid moments before the celebrities made their way to the Met. Scroll through the gallery above to go behind-the-scenes.
