It's not a chandelier or a hamburger, but Katy Perry did wear something intriguing for her return to the Met Gala. Mere hours after donning a seashell bra and mermaid tail
for Disney night on American Idol, the singer dramatically subdued her usual antics with a simple black and white one-shoulder gown accented with floral lace.
This was Perry's first time at the gala since 2019—the chandelier year, in case you're keeping track. Her fiancé Orlando Bloom, with whom she shares daughter Daisy Dove Bloom, born in August 2020, was not in attendance.
Some (not me, but some!) were likely pleased to see Perry take her look down a few notches this year—most notably designer Tom Ford, who served as one of the evening's co-chairs. In an April interview with Time, Ford called out Perry, though not by name, for contributing to the decline of good taste at fashion's biggest night.
“The only thing about the Met that I wish hadn’t happened is that it’s turned into a costume party,” he said. “That used to just be very chic people wearing very beautiful clothes going to an exhibition about the 18th century. You didn’t have to look like the 18th century, you didn’t have to dress like a hamburger, you didn’t have to arrive in a van where you were standing up because you couldn’t sit down because you wore a chandelier.”
In theory, I understand and agree with this argument. The problem is that there are dozens of events every year in which “very chic people” wear “very beautiful clothes.” The internet has become a never-ending parade of celebrity red-carpet and street style photos, each a little less interesting than the one that precedes it. The Met Gala doesn't always deliver, but when it does, it's like a bolt of lightning—refreshing and irreparable. Stars are more likely to take risks for an evening where risks are encouraged. Perry might not fall perfectly in line with the descriptors “stylish” or “chic,” but that criticism lies with Perry's stylist rather than the Met Gala as an event. And besides, if your heart doesn't flutter a little at the idea of a celebrity standing in a moving vehicle while dressed as a Beauty and the Beast extra, well...I'm afraid I can't help you.
Regardless of Ford's opinion (or mine), Perry seems to have gotten the message. She told Page Six in April, “It would be pretty obvious for me to go play the kooky, crazy, wild, big, fun, colorful card. This time, I’m going to play a whole different card.” And, sure, fine, we can live without a burger costume. But the real question is: Where's our Celine Dion kiss??