Gown and a nice cardi? As is customary, Kim Kardashian caused a stir as she arrived at 2024’s Met Gala — this year she opted for a Maison Margiela Artisanal by John Galliano chainmail-esque silver skirt with an industrial-level corset made from rewoven antique silver brocade.
The internet has wailed about the size of her waist — certainly snug inside one of John Galliano’s constricting constructions — but it was her choice of shawl that has raised eyebrows. A delicately embroidered number this was not — rather, the Queen of the Met wrapped up in an old-looking, piling “thistle-grey” cashmere cardigan. The sort you’d rather find at the bottom of an Oxfam bin, or the back of your grandpa’s closet (cc: grandpacore).
The silver linked embellishments of her skirt — oak leaves, floral motifs cut from mirror fragments, crystal pendants and pearls — played into the night's dress code The Garden of Time, the short story by J.G Ballard, which acts as a warm up to The Costume Institute’s new fashion exhibition “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” which will open May 10.
As for her waist size, London-based corsetmaker Brian De Carvalho suggested it could be constricted to “about 19 inches. It looks to be fully boned, so you wouldn’t be able to take full breaths or to bend or hunch over for sure,” he says. As for the sensation, he continues: “It feels like someone is giving you a really tight hug, and they're squeezing you for the whole night. It’s not painful, per se, but when you breathe you don’t feel like you can push your chest all the way out.”
The controversy is but a ripple in comparison to Kardashian’s other outings to the Gala; most memorably 2022, when she wore Marilyn Monroe’s 1962 gown, famously worn to serenade then-President John F. Kennedy on his 45th birthday. Collectors screeched “permanent damage”! Others criticised her for claiming to lose 16 lbs to fit in the outfit. She did well not to make comments about her weight on the carpet this year.
It is far from the first time Kardashian, who in 2018 revealed she has a 24in waist, has flaunted her figure on the Met steps. Memorable corset looks count the Schiaparelli pearl strung dress and nude corset she wore last year; the Mugler ‘water effect’ gown she wore in 2019 to the Camp gala; and the skin tight, gold Versace gown she wore to the Heavenly Bodies themed event in 2018.
No doubt Kardashian will be relieved to whip the corset off, and snuggle into her cosy cardigan.
Kim Kardashian’s Met Gala corsets:
2024:
2023:
2022:
2019:
2018:
