The Met Gala is famously known as the Super Bowl of fashion. Why? Well, it’s one of the most exclusive social events in the world, and celebrities always go all out for the occasion.
Like the championship game, though, sometimes stars and their glam squads surprise Us with the unexpected — be it a never-before-seen hairstyle or a wildly unpredictable eye makeup.
Celebrities aren’t afraid to deliver drama at the Met Gala, even if it means polarizing fans with totally head-turning beats.
Take Nicole Richie, for example. She commanded attention with gray-white hair at the 2013 soirée to fit the event’s “Punk: Chaos to Couture” theme. The following year, Joan Smalls proved a bold lip is always a good idea when she rocked a metallic blue shade for the “Charles James: Beyond Fashion” theme.
Through the years, Met Gala beauty has gotten better and bolder. At the 2019 celebration, Billy Porter nailed the “Camp: Notes on Fashion” theme by transforming into what he said was an “Egyptian Sun God,” while Gigi Hadid showed up with spiky white eyelashes made of feathers.
When the 2020 party rolled around, Anna Wintour, unfortunately had to postpone to September 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The event is traditionally held on the first Monday in May, benefitting the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York City.
The new date was a fitting choice as it marked the end of New York Fashion Week that year. The “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion”-themed shindig was hosted by co-chairs Timothée Chalamet, Billie Eilish, Amanda Gorman and Naomi Osaka.
The stars shined brightly on the red carpet — due in part to a popular beauty trend: pink and purple eyeshadow! A number of A-listers donned the look, including Rihanna and Camila Cabello.
Kim Kardashian stunned crowds by wearing an all-black ensemble by Balenciaga that completely masked her face, leaving her flawlessly-styled hair to speak for itself. While the getup will go down in history as one of the most out-of-the-box Met style statements, the TV personality “fought against” it.
“I was like, ‘I don’t know how I could wear the mask. Why would I want to cover my face?’” she told Vogue in February 2022. “[Creative director] Demna and the team were like, ‘This is a costume gala. This is not a Vanity Fair party where everyone looks beautiful. There’s a theme and you have to wear the mask. That is the look.’”
A few months later, Kardashian returned to fashion’s biggest night. At the 2022 gathering, titled “In America: An Anthology of Fashion,” the Skims CEO arrived with bleached hair. Her platinum blonde ‘do complemented Marilyn Monroe’s “Happy Birthday Mr. President” dress, which Kardashian borrowed for the evening from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!
The reality star opened up about the “tedious” and “annoying” dyeing process in an episode of Hulu’s The Kardashians, which premiered in November 2022. “It has to be the right color [and] my hair can’t fall out. We have to get it right because we have only one day to dye it, so we are going to be up for the next 15 hours just dying it,” Kardashian explained.
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Keep scrolling to relive the wildest Met Gala hair, makeup and more in their full glory:
