Misryoum looks at how the Met Gala used painting and sculpture references to make couture feel like living history.
The Met Gala’s red carpet this year didn’t just borrow from art, it stepped into it, turning a stone-garden setting into a kind of runway gallery.
Fashion. as Misryoum sees it. remains the evening’s most persuasive translation device: silhouettes behave like brushstrokes. fabric becomes texture. and styling decisions read like curatorial notes.. Across the best-dressed conversations, the references moved beyond static inspiration.. Paintings and sculpture were treated as atmosphere, then reassembled into wearable form.
Corsets led the charge, returning to earlier couture memory with a wink to the late 1960s.. Hailey Bieber’s look drew from a Saint Laurent couture moment that revisited sculptural work by French artist Claude Lalanne. where two bodices became objects of fashion devotion.. Wrapped in gold. and paired with royal blue silk chiffon. the result felt less like costume and more like a reenactment of craft as heritage.
This matters because it signals a shift in how audiences are asked to read fashion: not only as trend, but as an archive you can walk through.
Meanwhile. Cardi B’s interpretation leaned into surrealism’s darker charm. with design echoes linked to Hans Bellmer’s unsettling dolls.. The layering was the point: a sheer black floral lace surface over a nude base. then padded shifts that altered the body’s geometry. with flashes of pink and purple slipping through like secret annotations.. In this version of “Fashion is Art,” the artwork’s unease survives the translation.
Hunter Schafer’s look brought Gustav Klimt into the present with an empire silhouette traced in roses. referencing Mäda Primavesi.. Misryoum notes how the garment language here leaned into deconstruction. with the floral structure pulled apart and restacked over a dress tuned to the painting’s palette.. Even the polish read like a conversation with a specific moment in art history rather than a general aesthetic mood.
Gracie Abrams. too. looked to Klimt. this time toward The Kiss. while Matthieu Blazy channeled the same golden geometry in a way that felt built for the room.. Abrams arrived in a custom Chanel gown with that signature warmth and pattern intensity. with the jewelry context adding another layer to the museum-meets-runway logic.. The references landed not as citations, but as visual engines.
By the end of the night, the shared takeaway is clear: when the Met Gala treats art as a design partner instead of a backdrop, fashion becomes cultural commentary you can wear. Misryoum sees that as the real headline, because it reframes creativity as continuity, and glamour as scholarship.