"I don't think I fully understood the theme," a DVF-clad
Kate Upton
said at last night's
Met gala. "I'm really excited to see the people who went all-out,
though." The theme in question, of course, was punk, in honor of this
year's exhibition,
Punk:
Chaos to Couture. And if it wasn't exactly anarchy on the red
carpet, there were plenty of A-listers who approached the project with
great enthusiasm.
Madonna—fashionably
late, as always—went pants-less, wearing fishnet stockings, layers of
chains and crucifixes, and a Givenchy jacket. "Punk is about not caring
what anybody thinks," she told the crowd before striking a pose.
Beyoncé's custom-made
flame-print Givenchy dress, replete with a patent bodice and a positively epic train, had a noticeable punk tinge, and
Sarah Jessica Parker, too, took the dress code seriously, topping her Giles Deacon gown with a Philip Treacy mohawk.
But as Met ball chair
Riccardo Tisci put it, punk "is not so much about the look, it's
about the personality." This, he explained, is why he dressed co-chair
Rooney Mara
in a white lace gown (albeit a white lace gown embellished with a
buckled leather strap and zippers). "I wanted to respect Rooney," he
said. "She's a very romantic girl, and
the sexuality of the dress, and the romanticism of the lace, represents
her."
Earlier in the day, at the exhibition's press preview, Costume Institute curator Andrew
Bolton offered his own pronouncement: "Punk means different things to different people."
Carey Mulligan,
Giovanna Battaglia, and
Karolina Kurkova embraced only safety pins. Others, like
Zandra Rhodes,
Vivienne Westwood, and
Donatella Versace (who, having crafted
a spiked gown for the affair, declared "my soul is punk!"), oozed rebellion from top to toe. So did
Debbie Harry—although
she argued otherwise. "I'm not really a punk, you know. I'm just a
schmuck," quipped the rock star, who donned a black skull headpiece
with her studded Tommy Hilfiger look. "You have to work really hard to
be a punk in 2013," she added.
It comes easy to Kristen McMenamy. Flustered that her date,
Alexander Wang,
was running
late, the Balenciaga-clad model proffered a red-carpet critique. "This
is the antithesis of punk," she laughed. "Punk is not putting it on.
Punk is angry. Punk is not pretending. Punk is real. This is like a
costume party for punk," she said before spitting
on the steps.
Greta Gerwig,
cloaked in Saint Laurent, was dubious, too. "Punk is doing your own
thing, sticking the finger to the man," she said. "I feel that we're not
doing a good job of it tonight. But the night is young!"
One complaint overheard on the carpet was that the gala's glitz and glamour weren't in
line with punk's original values. And then there was the fact that many of the evening's glitterati,
Allison Williams,
Dakota and
Elle Fanning, the Olsen twins, and
Anne Hathaway included, were born long after punk, in its purest form, had fizzled—although
the Fanning sisters did look the part in Fall 2013 Rodarte. The rumored—and since confirmed—performance by
Kanye West (who arrived with a rose-print Givenchy-clad
Kim Kardashian by his side) raised an eyebrow or two, too. Was it OK to have a rapper
take the stage at a punk party? "Kanye knows what's up. He's the new punk. He knows what to do," said
Jimmy Fallon,
who arrived with stitches on his nose. (He joked that his bandage was
Saint Laurent.) The real vote of confidence, however, came from Ms.
Harry
herself. (Blondie also performed.) "Kanye's one of the biggest punks in
the world. Didn't he jump up onstage at some awards thing? That's
pretty punk. I hope he jumps up on me."
