Florence Pugh has hinted at what her outfit for her first Met Gala will be.
In a joint interview with Valentino’s creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli for The New York Times, Pugh opened up about attending the upcoming event with the designer. When asked if her dress is going to “surprise people,” the actor confessed that it was going to be “big”. She also spoke candidly about the pressure she’s prepared to feel when posing on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s red steps.
“But we like big, don’t we?” the Don’t Worry Darling star said. “When I’m on those red carpets, there is so much pressure because you’re either selling a movie or trying to make a moment. They’re nerve-racking.”
Pugh went on to note what fashion means to her and how excited she is to appear at the event in her outfit, despite what other people may think about it.
“The whole point is that you are expressing yourself with what you are wearing,” she said. “Every time I step out in whatever dress, that’s a version of me that I’m really proud of. So it doesn’t matter if people don’t necessarily like it.”
She emphasised that she doesn’t need people to love her style, adding: “I don’t think anything that I do has to be 100 percent loved. Things being up for debate is good. It means people are interested.”
The Good Person star also acknowledged that “glamour” that will come with attending her first Met Gala, which includes posing for pictures. “And people who know how to pose and walk, and you’re like, oh my god, I’m so out of my depth,” she said.
Despite the pressure she may feel at the star-studded event, Pugh still addressed how excited she is to walk alongside Piccioli during it, who helped create her outfit.
“But to have this person with you who designed the dress after talking and planning and creating for months takes away 30, 40 percent of the fear,” she said. “The idea is to be as bold as possible. I love the power that it gives me. I love how it sparks conversation.”
Piccioli agreed with the actor’s sentiments and opened up about being her designer, adding: “You create objects that have to be worn by someone. And Florence is the person that makes sense of what I am doing.”
The theme of the 2023 Met Gala will be “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty”. It will also pay homage to the late designer through its dress code: “In honour of Karl”. According to Vogue, there are “wondrous ways” that guests can “salute one of fashion’s greats”. For example, the magazine explained that the “most authentic approach would be to wear an archival look from one of the labels Lagerfeld led”. While Lagerfeld was known as the creative director for Chanel, he also did work with brands like Valentino and Chloé.
While Pugh is opting for a look by Valentino for Monday’s big event, this won’t be her first time working with the brand. In August 2022, she made headlines for her sheer pink dress by the fashion house, which showcased her nipples. During her conversation with The New York Times, she reflected on the widespread criticism that she faced over her look and how she was caught off guard by it.
“I did have a lot of positive comments, but I was surprised that people felt they were allowed to be really awful and say some disgusting things because of me showing my nipples,” she said. “Even though the dress was daring, it wasn’t in any way gratuitous. It wasn’t over-sexualized. It was basically this beautiful dress and this beautiful fabric, showing off whatever it was that I had underneath.”
She emphasised her shock about the criticism, as she addressed her decision to hit back at it on social media last year.
“I just could not wrap my head around the fact that showing my breasts was causing such anger — to the point where people were saying that if I got hurt, I deserved it,” Pugh added. “That was why I had to comment.”
When addressing the criticism on Instagram in July 2022, she wrote: “So many of you wanted to aggressively let me know how disappointed you were by my ‘tiny t***’, or how I should be embarrassed by being so ‘flat chested’”.
However, the Midsommar star explained that “not a wink of [her] was nervous” to wear the gown “before, during or even now after” being body shamed.
