Before the Met Gala started on Monday, May 2, seven A-list guests of New York-based designer Thom Browne gathered at The Pierre Hotel for an elegant group photo, spotlighting their outfits for the “Gilded Glamour and White Tie”-themed evening.
Every year, designers dress a selection of stars who sit at their table during the evening, which raises funds for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. Browne’s grouping this year included Lizzo, Oscar Isaac and his filmmaker wife Elvira Lind, Maisie Williams, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Christine Baranski and stylish NBA player Russell Westbrook.
Browne tells The Hollywood Reporter that he sees his band of talent — dressed in variations on black, white and gold — as “all reflections of our time, true to themselves and the best at what they do.”
Browne’s guests fit in gorgeously and easily with the aesthetic of the night, which was more elevated overall than in years past, where often a carnivalesque, anything-goes atmosphere has dominated the red carpet.
The group’s looks included Baranski in a matte-black sequin jacket with a scalloped-hem matching corset, floor-length skirt, white piqué wingtip shirt and bowtie; Williams in a dramatically pleated black jacket and skirt with a white piqué corset; Abdul-Mateen in a floor-length mohair tailcoat embroidered with gold orchids and laurel leaves with white tie; and Westbrook looking notably dapper with a top hat and white bow-tie paired with an ankle-length black silk moiré tailcoat and a pleated mohair skirt. He completed the look with a gold necklace by Greg Yüna.
Isaac and Lind playfully dressed in gender-swap outfits by Browne — she in a tuxedo look and he in a trompe l’oeil dress in mohair that looked like a men’s suit.
In the center of the photo is Lizzo, wearing a corset dress in black silk moiré worn with a Chesterfield coat in black duchess satin embellished with embroidered gold roses and foliage and a custom neck piece by Lorraine West.
Lizzo’s look required 22,000 hours of needlework to complete. As Browne told Vogue, the outfit was an “old dress-making way of creating something. It’s one of the most beautiful things I have done for someone.”
The singer — who carried a gold flute as an accessory on the red carpet and even played it — said approvingly of her look, “22,000 hours to make, this flute is a rare $55,000 flute, and I’m in Thom Browne. It’s like are my curves just right — I look amazing.”
Others wearing Thom Browne on Monday night were Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker, rap star Gunna, Adrien Brody and theater producer Jordan Roth.