Ranking the Best and Worst Met Gala Outfits

June 3, 2024

Since 1948, the Met Gala has been one of the biggest and most expensive fashion events in America. The event raises money for the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and tickets are typically extremely expensive. This year, tickets to the exclusive event were 75,000 each, and 350,000 for a whole table. About 26 million dollars were raised from this year’s event. According to Callie Holtermann of the New York Times, “that’s a $4 million increase over last year’s total, and more than double what the event raised a decade ago, in 2014. Celebrities who attend the Met Gala typically wear extravagant outfits and dress to fit a theme, this year, “Garden of Time.” Met Gala outfits are known to be attention-grabbing, and sometimes controversial. Here are my rankings for the five best and five worst outfits at this year’s Met Gala.

5. Nicki Minaj

Although many Met Gala attendees arrived in floral designs, Nicki Minaj outdid them all. The rap superstar wore an hourglass mini dress, custom made by avant-garde designer Francesco Risso. The dress is made of hand-painted golden silk duchesse material and hand-painted 3D metal flowers. It all comes together so well, and matches the theme perfectly.

4. Karlie Kloss

Not only is this dress absolutely stunning, it also fits the theme to a tee. Hannah Jackson of Vogue writes, “affixed with a corset of 3D flowers, the gown featured falling petals—a reminder of the fleeting cherry blossom season.” The dress holds 60,500 crystals and was made over 1,600 hours. The trailing crystal-studded strands that wrap around her neck and arms and light pink makeup bring the whole look together so perfectly. She looks like she just emerged from a magical field of flowers and decided to drop by the Met Gala to grace everyone with her presence.

3. Emma Chamberlain

This is another look that absolutely nailed the theme. Gaultier house spokeswoman Maria Eugenia Perez Pinaud explains that the dress “alludes to brambles, to an apocalyptic garden, in response to the Garden of Time.” Emma Chamberlain wanted a look that signified nature and its decay, and she did just that with a dress that looks like it’s decomposing in the most gorgeous way.

2. Sabrina Harrison

Entrepreneur and philanthropist Sabrina Harrison arrived at the Met Gala in a stunning gold clock dress with a functional clock handbag and headpiece with clock hand details embellished with Swarovski crystals. This look takes “Garden of Time” to a new level with its Dalí-esque bodice. For designer Chris Habana, the look was a challenging one to achieve. He says, “when it comes to such a large platform like the Met Gala, where every inch of a person’s body is put under scrutiny, there is no room for error. So naturally, we have to take every last detail into consideration.”

Alia Bhatt

Alia Bhatt stole the show this year in a custom-designed sari by Indian designer Sabyasachi. Shriya Zamindar of Vogue reports that “the actor’s ethereal look featured a 23-foot-long train detailed with florals delicately hand-embroidered using silk floss, glass beading, and semiprecious gemstones.” This look is absolutely perfect and hits every mark. It’s extravagant and delicate, and though it is inspired by Bhatt’s Bollywood background, it fits the theme perfectly.

Worst look of the Met Gala:

5. Zoë Saldaña

Although this look vaguely hints at the sand aspect of the theme, it looks cheap and there’s not anything special about it. The metal “Chloe” is tacky and adds nothing to the look. Saldaña’s hair, makeup, and shoes are a solid foundation for what could have been a really nice look, but the dress is so disappointing. “The ensemble felt a little too casual for fashion's biggest night,” writes Maria Noyen of Business Insider. “If this were a roundup of the best looks celebrities wore to a music festival like Coachella, for example, she would make the list.”

4. Taylor Russel

I don’t like anything about this look. I don’t like the shiny wood corset or the floral motif. I don’t like the skirt or the way it bunches up around her hips. The worst part is, Taylor Russell is so beautiful and could have shown up in something really breathtaking, but she chose this.

3. Greta Gerwig

Typically when you decide “hmm, I think I’ll go to the Met Gala this year,” you also think about getting a nice dress. And typically you think about which designer you want to custom make your dress for half a trillion dollars, not which Big 5 Sporting Goods store has tents on clearance. Not only does this look have nothing to do with the theme “Garden of Time”, it has nothing to do with any theme whatsoever.

2. Cara Delevingne

Maybe if the theme was medieval knighthood I could get behind this look, but it’s just so ridiculously out of place at this year’s Met Gala. Interestingly, a lot of Met Gala viewers loved this look. “Her looks just keep getting better and better, and bolder and bolder,” says Audrey Noble of Vogue. Regardless, I don’t like it. Rhinestone chainmail just isn’t for me.

Michelle Yeoh

The worst part about this look is that Michelle Yeoh had her dress custom made by Demna Gvasalia, the creative director of Balenciaga, when she could have spent thirty dollars on a few rolls of tinfoil and gotten the same effect. It was inspired by Gvasalia’s childhood, which is “something he did when he was a young child, playing with tin foil and making dresses on his sister's toys,” explained Yeoh. Cute, but not Met Gala worthy, and it certainly has nothing to do with the theme. This is a look that would have been much better suited to a summer camp diy challenge.

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