In celebration of the Metropolitan Museum's "In America: An Anthology of Fashion" exhibit, organizers gave this year's Met Gala the dress code of "gilded glamour white tie," referencing New York City's
famous Gilded Age. The period between 1870 and 1890 was defined by financial prosperity, and the rich spent their money on the latest, most ornate and excessive clothes and accessories available. You truly never know how celebrities and designers are going to choose to interpret a theme, but jewels are a staple on any red carpet, so it makes sense that sparkling tiaras would be one of the night's early trends. Few accessories are as effective in conveying glamour and formality, after all.
Proving the tiara's appropriateness was the event's engineer herself, Anna Wintour, who smiled for photos as a classic version adorned her iconic bob. Her longtime colleague Hamish Bowles, one of the co-hosts of Vogue's livestream, wore his own version of a tiara, a gold style made by Verdura in 1957.
As depicted in the addictive HBO series of the same name, society during the Gilded Age was all about old money versus new money, so if Wintour and Bowles represent "old money" in the 2022 version of this dynamic, there may be no Met Gala attendee more representative of "new money" than social-media star Emma Chamberlain — and she topped off her non-traditional Louis Vuitton look with a very traditional platinum-and-diamond tiara by Cartier, made in 1911.
Photo: Angela Weiss/Getty Images
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Hollywood star and event co-chair Blake Lively, who made a very glamorous and dramatic outfit transformation mid-red carpet, also chose a tiara to further glamorize her look. Designed by Lorraine Schwartz, it features seven spikes to reference the Statue of Liberty.
See all the evening's glittering head-toppers in the gallery below.
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