For her first-ever appearance at the 2024 Met Gala, Amelia Gray almost didn’t make the cut. But it wasn’t because she couldn’t find a dress; rather, the dress had already been invited, and it was down to the fit whether or not she would be its plus one.
Speaking to Dazed, the model, who ended up attending the event in an ethereal terrarium look from Undercover’s Spring 2024 collection, revealed that she was unaware whether or not she’d be attending mere days before the event.
“I actually found out that I was going to the Met in Undercover three days before,” she told the publication. “The Met’s on Monday, and I got confirmed on Friday. I was in LA for my Model of the Year award, and I got a call the day before that from my agent saying, ‘Hey, Vogue is interested in you wearing this dress for the Met Gala. They don’t know where it is in the world. You need to try it on before you leave for Marseille for the Chanel [Cruise 2025] show. There’s deadlines and they have to check people off for the Met.”
“Long story short, the dress was lost,” she continued on the whirlwind story. “We didn’t know where it was, if it was in Japan, if it was in Paris, if it was in New York. It was gone. Nowhere to be found. I just surrendered and thought, ‘Whatever is meant to be is meant to be’ … but with my job, I find it hard not to always be in control.”
So, what happened? Well, the plot thickened when it came down to the fit of the dress.
“I got to New York on Friday, I went straight to [the Vogue office] from the plane to try on the dress,” she explained. “The dress is not alterable—it’s a plastic art piece to be screwed on, you cannot make a change to it. So, it was very much my own Cinderella moment of, ‘We’re proposing this dress to her, but if it doesn’t fit, then she’s not wearing the dress, and she’s not going.’
“It was just meant to be, I guess.”
Suffice it to say, the dress may have fit, but the race to get the look together in just a couple of days was on. Luckily, the statement dress that featured loose roses encased in a plastic bubble skirt with sheer mesh overlayed didn’t require much in the accessories department. To complete the look, she kept it simple with gold peep-toe platforms and a Messika choker. For glam, she opted for a wet-look for her hair and a bold plum-hued lip that popped against her luminous skin.
According to Hamlin, though, the experience was worth every nail-biting moment. As someone who prefers to be in the driver’s seat—a self-confessed ‘control freak’—the chaos of the lead-up was even somewhat liberating.
“Going to the Met has been something I’ve wanted to do since I was really little,” she shared. “I had always imagined I would have so much time to plan it, but I think the way that it happened was the way it was supposed to be for me because I probably would have freaked out if I had too much time to think about it.
“I just had to go, which is how everything has happened in my career. It’s just been super last minute, just ‘go, don’t think, just do it.’ That works for me the best, even though I’m a big control freak and love to plan.”
