Glossy lids, pastel blush, crystal skin—oh my! Make no doubt about it, the 2024 Met Gala was a feast of sleeping beauties as fashion’s upper echelon reawakened our imaginations with a parade of glamour. This year saw the Metropolitan Museum of Art invite attendees to dress for ‘The Garden of Time’, a sensory gesture inspired by the evocatively haunting 1962 short story of the same name by J.G Ballard. Complimenting the exhibition titled ‘Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion’, guests literally and figuratively embodied the preciousness of the natural world on display through over 250 pieces of sartorial mastery.
For some like co-chair Zendaya, this involved plunging into the darkness and decay that underscores Ballard’s work in a breathtakingly vamp custom John Galliano for Maison Margiela haute couture gown. With cherry wine lips and watercolour lids, the actress transformed herself into a witchy wanderer of the garden’s grounds. Others, like Kaia Gerber, evoked the fragility of the crystal flowers present in the tale through her pearlescent Prada dress and lit-from-within skin. Of course, there was no shortage of botanical hues, be it the peony pink blush that dusted over Ayo Edebiri’s cheeks or the scorched earth tones that put the finishing touches on Emma Chamberlain’s thorny vintage Jean Paul Gaultier dress.
Ahead, the best beauty moments from the 2024 Met Gala.
The Best Beauty Look At The 2024 Met Gala
Amanda Seyfried
With platinum hair, a diamond crown and mauve lips, Amanda Seyfried paid homage to the “glass rods” and “frosted fronds” of the time flower found within Ballard’s text. Seyfried’s custom Prada gown featured Victorian-era hip detailing and embroidered flowers.
Ayo Edebiri
One of several ‘It’ girls making their Met Gala debut in LOEWE, The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri sartorially embodied a blooming garden in a laser-cut botanical dress that bloomed from stark white to vivid colour.
Cardi B
Cardi B officially closed the 2024 Met Gala in a voluminous gown made from 3,000 meters of organza and required nine men to carry. On the beauty front, the rapper delivered an emerald fantasy with sculptural teal acrylic nails and a wash of metallic green eyeliner.
Chloë Sevigny
When your Dilara Fındıkoğlu Met Gala gown features fabrics from the Victorian era and human hair detailing the skirt of your dress, you’re destined to appear in the ‘best beauty looks’ lists from the evening. Of course, when you’re Chloë Sevigny, you don’t stop there, either. The recent Feud: Capote Vs. The Swans actress furthered the motif by styling her signature blonde tresses into traditional Victorian mourning hair with braided loops that framed her face.
Cynthia Erivo
Cynthia Erivo, who will soon portray the career-defining role of Elphaba in the film adaptation of Wicked, emulated insects crawling beneath the soil in a custom Thom Brown two-piece. This continued to Erivo’s makeup with clumpy but chic spider-leg eyelashes—yes, our early 2000s mascara mishaps finally are red carpet approved.
Da’Vine Joy Randolph
Oscar winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph channelled a medieval aristocrat with her Zac Posed for GAP demi-couture gown, but it was her tumbling auburn locks that piqued our interest. Very Guinevere from the King Arthur folklore, if we do say so ourselves. A renaissance beauty, indeed.
Doja Cat
Doja Cat brought new meaning to the wet look in a drenched Vetements t-shirt dress and dripping chrome tears. There might be no more tears left to cry, but the musician’s metallic eye look was worth every drop.
Dua Lipa
Met Gala training season is indeed over for Dua Lipa, as the star became an event veteran with her third appearance. Wearing custom Marc Jacobs, the star leant into the sweaty, boudoir fantasy of her third studio album, Radical Optimism, with textured tresses and glimmering lids.
Emma Chamberlain
Emma Chamberlain evoked her dark feminine side with a thorny Jean Paul Gaultier dress. Speaking on her fawn gothic makeup, the internet star said the “reflective and dynamic” look “has a bit of spookiness to it”. She could haunt us anytime she likes.
FKA Twigs
FKA Twigs dazzled in a nude Stella McCartney ensemble, with the crystal motif continuing into her beauty look. Gem embellishments and 90s supermodel brown lip liner are the secret to an excellent Met Gala look.
Gigi Hadid
The belle of the Thom Brown ball was none other than Gigi Hadid. As fresh-faced as Spring itself, the supermodel styled her freshly chopped blonde bob into sweet curls and contrasted the yellow roses of her gown with a statement red lip.
Gwendoline Christie
Gwendoline Christie might not have had Pat McGrath on hand for her Met Gala look, but the actress continued the Belle Époque aesthetic created by the legendary makeup artist for Margiela’s now-iconic Spring/Summer 2024 Haute Couture collection. A doll of the Parisian underground garden, indeed. Perhaps the Jardin des Tuileries?
Jodie Turner-Smith
For her second Met Gala, Jodie Turner-Smith offered another mesmerising look in the form of a wispy blonde pixie cut and a sultry smokey eye.
Jordan Roth
Jordan Roth is in bloom with a hooded gown lined with embroidered flowers and a shimmering pink and green eye look.
Kaia Gerber
Kaia Gerber looked close to home for the inspiration of her Met Gala beauty look—her supermodel mother, Cindy Crawford. Crawford’s 90s voluminous blowout is the stuff of beauty legend, but Gerber’s soft-barreled version feels ethereal and contemporary for this year’s soirée.
Keke Palmer
Keke Palmer also took cues from the 90s. This time with an Aaliyah-inspired nude lip and a higher-than-heaven ponytail.
Kendall Jenner
Kendall Jenner made fashion history—not just Met Gala history—by donning a vintage Alexander McQueen-era Givenchy gown from 1999. The 818 Tequila founder complimented her deliciously embroidered and panelled gown with gothic, textured tresses that almost reached her exposed backside.
Kim Kardashian
“This is like the wildest night of my life in a garden, and I just ran out and grabbed my boyfriend’s sweater, threw it on and my hair is all messed up,” was how Kim Kardashian defined her custom John Galliano for Maison Margiela silver ensemble. Of course, as we know from a behind-the-scenes documentation process courtesy of her hairstylist Chris Appleton, there was a little more that went into the tousled plait like that. But for low-maintenance girls, this shaggy style and piled grey sweater combination is the ideal.
Lily Gladstone
Lily Gladstone had one of, if not the most, profound beauty looks at the 2024 Met Gala. The piece paid homage to her ancestors with her gown an articulation of a blanket of stars sweeping the night sky.
“Both Kiowa and Blackfeet, my nation, we have an origin in the stars,” Gladstone shared on the red carpet. “Our people came from the stars and that’s where we return when we leave this Earth. We join the Milky Way, we join our ancestors, and that’s what the stars are to us.” A supernova force herself, the celestial gown was paired with a wash of midnight-colour eyeshadow and braids traditional to her Indigenous culture.
Michelle Williams
Karl Lagerfeld once said, “think pink, don’t wear it”. But as fellow Chanel muse Marion Cotillard displayed at the 2023 Met Gala, there’s no better way to style an ethereal white mini than with a cropped, bubblegum haircut.
Naomi Campbell
Naomi Campbell’s Daniel Lee-designed gown might be more reminiscent of his tenure at Bottega Veneta than Burberry, but there are only two words needed to summarise her beauty look—face card!
Paloma Elsesser
In H&M, Paloma Elsesser’s draped bubble skirt and trompe l’oeil corroded corset is the literal embodiment of Ballard’s short story. Consider her metallic lip, freckled complexion and skinny brows the line of beauty within this garden of glamour.
Pamela Anderson
For a rare departure from her no-makeup mode, Pamela Anderson leant into the “fairytale ending” of her people’s princess Hollywood story with a barely-there makeup look befitting of her natural radiance. (Of course, her Pandora jewels helped achieve this, too).
Quannah Chasinghorse
Indigenous model Quannah Chasinghorse evoked Rihanna’s 2017 Met Gala makeup look with a dashing of glimmering pink blush scattered across the apples of her cheek all the way to her temple.
Rita Ora
Newlywed Rita Ora complemented her waterfall of vintage Marni beads with a silver smokey eye and ‘wet’ hairstyle. That must be the Typebea Hydra-gloss treatment!
Sydney Sweeney
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MAY 06: (Photo by Theo Wargo/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images)
No, that wasn’t Billie Eilish on the Met Gala red carpet in custom Miu Miu, but Sydney Sweeney! The actress abstained from her signature blonde tresses for a punk-inspired black bob. Featuring a layered bob and textured waves, the look brought a storybook touch to this fantasy garden by emulating Snow White’s trademark look. The star also doused her décolletage in body glitter, making her literally shine bright like a diamond.
Taylor Russell
Taylor Russell also made her Met Gala debut in LOEWE. Ensuring her trompe-l’œil wooden corset was the pièce de résistance of her ensemble, the star’s makeup was kept minimal with a dainty cut crease, feathered brow and lightly sculpted cut-crease.
Zendaya
The co-chair of the millennium. Zendaya fulfilled her role as co-host of the evening by opening and closing the red carpet with two interpretations of the ‘Sleeping Beauties’ theme. Not only did she completely change her gown, but her entire beauty look, too. Take note of her 1920s art deco eyebrows that silently transformed into bleached brows by the red carpet’s end. Ladies and gentlemen, your best dressed.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MAY 06: (Photo by Theo Wargo/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images)
