An Art-Critical Ranking of the Top 11 Looks From This Year’s Met Gala

artnet News | Sarah Cascone

All eyes were on the Metropolitan Museum of Art last night for the Costume Institute’s annual megawatt Met Gala. The star-studded evening was celebrating the opening of “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,” featuring contemporary fashions inspired by the Catholic faith, as well as a selection of garments lent by the Vatican, on view at the museum through October 8. Appropriately, the celebrities in attendance included a number of famous Catholics, such “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert and Madonna, who later performed her 1989 hit, “Like a Prayer”—known for its controversial music video’s use of religious imagery, such as burning crosses—inside the party.

Keeping in mind the more conservative tastes of the Vatican, which loaned a slew of works to the exhibition, guests largely avoided the so-called “naked dresses” popular at Met Galas of recent vintage. The main trend was elaborate headpieces, crowns, and halos, clearly inspired by religious iconography. The Catholic theme also lent itself to plenty of art historical references, thanks to the church’s long history as a patron of the arts. Here, we turned a critical eye to rank the evening’s best art-inspired looks…read more

Image: Katy Perry at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination Costume Institute Gala. Photo by Sean Zanni, ©Patrick McMullan.