The 5 best archival looks from the Met Gala 2024

The Met Gala 2024 was, as usual, a small lesson in both recent and past fashion history. Even if this year the guests were relatively cautious with their looks, dominated everywhere by floral decorations, even those who did not fully adhere to the theme of the evening The Garden of Time, inspired by a Ballard story, had the excellent idea of associating themselves with the theme of the exhibition that opened yesterday, namely that of sleeping beauties, couture dresses that, preserved from time and the elements, manage to find life through technology. And among the various looks from the latest Margiela collection, the various references to the repertoire of the great Alexander McQueen, it can be said that the great couture of the '90s and especially the (relatively) tumultuous Haute Couture of Givenchy, among the grandiose looks of Galliano and those of McQueen himself.

Here are the top 5 archive looks from the Met Gala 2024

1. Kendall Jenner in Givenchy FW99 & SS97 Haute Couture

Kendall Jenner's red carpet look is the very definition of deep cut. Beyond the financial and organizational ability to recover a Haute Couture look that, after being presented 25 years ago on a robotic mannequin, was closed in its box and stored in Alexander McQueen's archives, the idea of recovering that very look, whose initial presentation took place through technology, was incredibly on-theme for the evening. Not content, Jenner doubled down for the Met Gala after-party with another look, still from McQueen's Givenchy, from the unfortunate SS97 collection to be precise, the one titled Search for the Golden Fleece, which McQueen produced in three months and ended up disavowing in front of the scandalized comments of the critics (apparently the collection was instead appreciated by the atelier's team).

2. Emily Ratajkowski in Atelier Versace FW01

The FW01 from Atelier Versace, which two decades ago walked during the Couture Week in Paris, represented one of the triumphs of Donatella Versace's career, who at the time had assumed full powers in the atelier of her brother who had passed away a few years earlier, in 1997, at the peak of the brand's success. Along with this collection, one still remembers the party that followed at the Cabaret du Place du Palais Royal in Paris, a venue that by the way is still open, and which brought together under the same roof some of the most legendary names of the star system of that time.

3. Troye Sivan channeling Prada FW08

A bit off-theme but always able to demonstrate that Prada's archives are an all-encompassing universe, where you can find the right look for any mood or public figure, Troye Sivan has "reconstructed" a look from the Prada FW08 collection, one of the best ever signed by Miuccia for the menswear of her brand. Specifically, that collection managed to ingeniously and balancedly incorporate Prada's two moods, the bourgeois and the vaguely erotic one, transforming the classic office uniform composed of tailored trousers and a light blue shirt into a sort of BDSM suit with a vest resembling a tight top closing on the back and a poplin band, coordinated with the shirt, which looks like a "polite" version of the whale tail style that was popular at the time of the show.

4. Nicole Kidman in Balenciaga SS51 Haute Couture

Balenciaga did an interesting job with their guests this year, dressing one per decade, starting with Isabelle Huppert's dress, inspired by the '30s and the Callot sisters, superstars of early 1900s Parisian Haute Couture, and continuing through the various eras of the brand up to Serena Williams, representing contemporaneity. Among so many divas was Nicole Kidman, who wore a 1:1 replica of a look from Balenciaga's SS51 collection, now preserved in a museum in Philadelphia, which required 400 hours of handwork to create about 3,000 fabric petals that were individually pleated, fringed, and hand-placed on the skirt base, adding another 800 hours to the construction, for a total of 1,200 hours of realization.

5. Zendaya in Givenchy SS96 & Alexander McQueen SS07

Zendaya was co-host last night and went all in with her looks. Her "godfather", in addition to the omnipresent Law Roach, was John Galliano who not only signed the opening look which was made by Maison Margiela but replicated a dress from Dior's Haute Couture by Galliano himself, but also created during his time at Givenchy the huge black dress worn for the second outing. In this case, Zendaya and Law Roach ideally reunited Galliano and McQueen by adding to the look one of the Philip Treacy hats created for McQueen's SS07 collection, Sarabande, which is one of the great masterpieces of the late British designer.