Met Gala 2023: The best and worst looks

Jared Leto stood out for his quirky take on the theme - dressing in a Choupette-inspired mascot outfit
Jared Leto stood out for his quirky take on the theme - dressing in a Choupette-inspired mascot outfit Copyright Copyright Getty Images
By Saskia O'Donoghue
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Euronews Culture dives into Met Gala 2023's best and worst looks. From cats on the carpet to Pedro Pascal's short shorts, here's everything you need to see...

The standout looks

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Fashion is always open to interpretation and some guests at the Met Gala certainly took an unusual approach to the 'Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty' - namely dressing as the late, great designer's iconic cat Choupette.

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Jared Leto in his full Choupette lookCopyright Invision

Actor Jared Leto took his feline look the furthest, donning a full mascot-like costume, which really did look like a giant cat. When he removed the head to reveal himself, it was truly one of the most surreal moments on any Met Gala carpet, ever.

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Leto looks at his 'Choupette' head admiringlyCopyright Getty Images
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Doja Cat taking her name literally, dressed as ChoupetteCopyright The AP

Doja Cat was cat by name and cat by nature at The Met, also dressing as Choupette. While she looked slightly less like an actual feline than Jared Leto, she fully committed to the bit, even refusing to answer with anything but 'meows' during a Vogue interview.

@voguemagazine If there's one thing to know about #DojaCat, it's that the singer will stay in character. For her first-ever #MetGala♬ original sound - Vogue

Perhaps the most 'fashion-y' tribute to Choupette was made by Lil Nas X. The rapper wore only a silver Dior thong and chunky silver glitter platform boots but accessorised with silver body paint and gemstones from head to toe, with cat-like make up adding some added glamour to the stunning look.

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Lil Nas X adds sparkle to his Choupette tributeCopyright AP Photo

The famous cat - who only travels by private jet - didn't attend the Gala, but did pay tribute to her late human father on Instagram, with a member of her team writing: “Many people invited me to walk the red carpet of the Met Gala 2023 in tribute to Daddy, but we preferred to stay cosy and at home. We pay tribute to my Daddy every day since his parting and we are very moved to see one more day dedicated to him".

The more traditional tributes to Karl Lagerfeld

The Met Gala is notorious for having some stars totally misinterpret or avoid the theme of the event - see last year's 'Gilded Glamour' as an example - but 2023 saw the 'Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty' brief fulfilled by almost everyone in attendance. Jeremy Pope quite possibly won the Met Gala with his stunning custom Balmain 30 foot cape, featuring an enormous image of Karl Lagerfeld in his signature white collar, ponytail and dark glasses. It made for an impressive statement as the actor walked up the Met's iconic staircase.

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Jeremy Pope wins the Met Gala with his Lagerfeld train tributeCopyright Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
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Supermodel Gisele Bündchen wears a Chanel dress she first modelled in a 2007 editorialCopyright Invision

Gisele Bündchen was a standout too, wearing a Chanel couture dress she first modelled in an editorial for Harper's Bazaar South Korea in 2007. The supermodel has been a long time guest at the Met Gala, but this was the first time she attended the glitzy night since her divorce from Tom Brady.

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Gisele Bündchen in the dress in a 2007 photoshoot in Harper’s Bazaar South KoreaCopyright Harper’s Bazaar South Korea

Nicole Kidman also wore a look from her personal Chanel archive, donning a stunning, feathered gown she first wore in 2003 when she appeared in a short film advertising the brand's iconic No 5 perfume. 

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Nicole Kidman in the Chanel dress she first wore in a 2003 advert for the brandCopyright 2023 Getty Images

Actress Elle Fanning wore custom Vivienne Westwood, but added a flower crown in a nod to one of her first times working with Lagerfeld. She was photographed, aged 13, by the late designer for his 'Little Black Jacket' book, in which celebrities were asked to wear the iconic Chanel piece but accessorise it in their own way. Writing about the look on Instagram, Elle explained, “Though we all wore the same jacket, Karl let our individual styles and personalities inform how it should be worn. For my portrait he put a daisy crown on my head, and put the jacket over the white dress I arrived in”.

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Elle Fanning pays tribute to Lagerfeld with her floral headpieceCopyright Invision

The Last Of Us star Pedro Pascal, who's garnered huge amounts of fame thanks to his endlessly memeable persona, went for an interesting Valentino look which most men wouldn't have been able to carry off. But Pedro isn't just most men!

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Pedro Pascal turned heads in his red and black get upCopyright Getty Images
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Janelle Monáe takes a whimsical tribute to Lagerfeld's designsCopyright Invision

Janelle Monáe wore a Thom Browne designed, Chanel-inspired tuxedo look featuring the French design house's signature camelia flowers and carried a bag in the shape of Choupette, Karl Lagerfeld's famous feline companion.

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Blackpink's Jennie Kim wore vintage Chanel from 1990Copyright Invision

Hugely popular K-pop star Jennie Kim transformed into a Chanel doll with her classic look from the brand's archive - this subtle black and white piece is from 1990 but looked timeless at the Gala.

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Karl's collar - Kendall Jenner pays homage to the legendary designer in her Marc Jacobs bodysuit lookCopyright Invision

Karl Lagerfeld was famous for his signature ponytail and white collar - and Kendall Jenner paid tribute in her sequinned Marc Jacobs ensemble complete with enormous platform boots.

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'Wednesday' actress Jenna Ortega adds some gothic glam to her Thom Browne dressCopyright Invision

Jenna Ortega leaned further into 'Wednesday-core' in a Thom Browne designed outfit inspired both by Lagerfeld's favoured black and white theming as well as her role as 'Wednesday' in the popular series.

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Anne Hathaway poses ahead of the Met Gala with her dress designer Donatella VersaceCopyright AP Photo

Anne Hathaway's look could have been mistaken for a Chanel original with its tweed fabric, but the pin details were all Versace. She attended the Gala with the dress designer Donatella Versace.

Emily in Paris star Lily Collins took inspiration from the French capital in her black and white look, which featured a tribute to Lagerfeld, literally spelled out on the train of the dress. 

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Dua Lipa, one of the Gala's co-chairs, wore a dress from the 1992 Chanel archiveCopyright AP photo

Dua Lipa was one of Anna Wintour's co-chairs for the Met and stunned in this corseted Chanel couture tweed gown, originally worn by supermodel Claudia Schiffer for Lagerfeld's 1992 couture show in Paris.

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Karl Lagerfeld poses with Claudia Schiffer wearing Dua Lipa's dress at the 1992 haute couture show in ParisCopyright Getty Images

Penelope Cruz was also a co-chair of the event and similarly to Dua Lipa, dove into the Chanel archives, settling on this heavily embellished couture dress from Chanel's 1988 collection.

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Co-chair Penelope Cruz wore a bridal look from the Chanel Couture spring/summer 1988 collectionAP Photo

2023 marked the first Met Gala Paris Hilton had ever attended, despite her two decades of fame. She chose Marc Jacobs for the occasion, accessorising with a Chanel-esque camelia choker around her neck and enormous platform heels. 

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Paris Hilton made her Met Gala debut in an all-black numberCopyright The AP

A faux-pas or two...

As is bound to be the case with any event like the Met Gala, not everyone can look their best or avoid making fashion faux-pas - and not everyone did.

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Barry Keoghan and Burna Boy turned up in strikingly similar looksCopyright Getty Images

As surprising as it might be, there were two cases of celebrities wearing incredibly similar looks to The Met. With only around 400 guests and an entire archive of outfits to choose from, actor Barry Keoghan and singer Burna Boy both wore almost identical Burberry two pieces, albeit with different styling. 

Actress Olivia Wilde and Vogue China editor Margaret Zhang had a similar problem, both arriving in exactly the same violin-inspired dress, just in different colours. The gowns, vintage-inspired Chloé pieces based on a 1983 Karl Lagerfeld design, were no doubt thought to be unique by both wearers. Luckily they styled them differently and Euronews Culture has to side with Olivia Wilde and her matching gold cuffs in this style battle. 

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Who wore it better? Olivia Wilde and Margaret Zhang in different colour versions of the same dressCopyright Getty Images

Florence Pugh might have got Lagerfeld's signature colours right, but that's about all she did succeed at. Making a statement with her head shaved for an upcoming role, she added a bizarre headpiece to her otherwise quite attractive look, making her look like a rare bird - or, perhaps, a shuttlecock. Badminton, anyone? 

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Extraordinary - but not in a good way: Florence Pugh misses the markCopyright Invision

One of a handful of influencers invited to the Met Gala, Emma Chamberlain, felt the full force of the internet's scorn for this Miu Miu look. Critics say despite its attempts to look like a Chanel two-piece, the design looked unfinished and scruffy with the sequin at the mid-section out of place. At just 21 and with 12 million YouTube subscribers, though, it's unlikely she'll take the snark to heart.

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Influencer Emma Chamberlain pays tribute to Lagerfeld, but doesn't quite succeedCopyright Invision

Nepo babies galore

New York Magazine dubbed 2022 'the year of the nepo baby' and it looks like it's carried on into 2023. Despite the relatively small guest list, a number of attendees sit firmly in the nepo - or nepotism - baby category. Although, to be fair, they have mostly made their mark on the entertainment industry despite their famous parents.

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A swing and a miss - Maya Hawke's wedding-inspired lookCopyright Getty Images

Naturally A-List from birth, Maya Hawke - daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman - has made a name for herself with roles in Stranger Things and Do Revenge, but this Met Gala look needed some of that stardust injected. The custom Prada wedding-inspired dress and cape are delicately beautiful, but the kitten heels and un-done hair added nothing to the overall get up. 

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Maude Apatow makes a second trip to the Met Gala in this basic lookCopyright Getty Images

Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann's daughter Maude was at the Met Gala for the second time this year, but her Chloé gown didn't stand out. Best known for her role in teen favourite Euphoria_,_ the dress was perhaps a little safe for such a glittering event.

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Lila Moss joins her mother, supermodel Kate, at the GalaCopyright Invision

With a style icon like Kate Moss for a mother, it's perhaps unsurprising that Lila Moss looked far-and-away the best of all the nepo babies on the night. 

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Following in her mothers modelling footsteps, she wore feathered Fendi, a gown designed by Lagerfeld for the brand's autumn/winter 2018-19 couture collection. Kate also chose to go with Fendi, sporting a custom look made by the Italian fashion brand’s artistic director, Kim Jones, who succeeded Karl Lagerfeld in 2020.

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