Kendall Jenner has become an impressive vintage collector, with a closetful of impeccably preserved Alaïa and Mugler, but the 2024 Met Gala marked her most impressive archive pull yet.
“I made a dream list of who I would ideally want to go with, and I would have died to wear something by Alexander McQueen,” says Jenner, who covers the summer 2024 issue of Vogue. The model dove into his Givenchy archive to find her perfect Met look. (The late designer served as creative director of Givenchy from 1996 to 2001.) “The house of Givenchy is in a unique transition of creative directors, and the house opened its privately protected archives for Kendall at the Met,” says Jenner’s stylist, Dani Michelle. “We did a ton of research, specifically on the work of the talented and remembered Alexander McQueen, and Kendall and I both fell in love with this dress. Shockingly, they had it.”
Last night, Jenner became the first person to ever wear one of McQueen’s fall 1999 looks for Givenchy haute couture. The collection was presented on mannequins and never shown on the runway. Since its presentation, Jenner’s look was preserved in the Givenchy archives, where it returned after the model wore it to the 2024 Met Gala. “It’s been sleeping for the last 25 years. It’s literally a ‘sleeping beauty,’” Jenner says. “It’s such a special moment. I feel extremely honored that they’re allowing me to wear it.”
Following the event, Twitter sleuths uncovered a photograph of Winona Ryder wearing what appeared to be the same dress in a 1999 issue of Flaunt Magazine. But Givenchy confirmed that Ryder wore a replica of the look, meaning that Jenner was, in fact, the first person to ever wear the dress.
Since the dress had been kept in pristine condition, tailoring was forbidden. “So the big moment of truth was, Does it fit me? And it literally fits me like a glove,” Jenner says. “The rest is history, and it really feels meant to be in a way.”
Constructed of nude and black tulle, the dress is covered with more than 100,000 black and brass beads and sequins, which were hand-embroidered over 500 hours. Not only is it an impressive feat of labor, the waist cutouts and regal, sculptural collar and shoulders make it a true work of art. “No matter what Kendall does with her style, it has to speak to her—the look has to come alive,” Michelle says. “We saw such a story behind the dress and the darker queen of a Sleeping Beauty story.”
Vintage was an especially inspired choice—and a massive flex on Jenner’s part—for the “Sleeping Beauties” exhibition, which seeks to examine how we can engage with clothing we can no longer wear. As soon as Jenner learned the 2024 Met Gala theme, she saw it as a chance to dabble in her love of vintage as well as create an opportunity to wear garments that speak to her. “The theme, to me, screamed archival,” Jenner says, adding that she also interprets it as “beauty that’s been slept on.” Plus, “the way it’s cut in the back, and the low butt—all these beautiful things feel very me.”
The structured Givenchy wasn’t the only piece Jenner wore on Met Gala night from Alexander McQueen’s time at the House. For the after-parties, she changed into a white dress from 1997, complete with a silk skirt with a high-low hem, and an angel wings bodice.
The 2024 Met marked Jenner’s 10th Met Gala, and her first wearing an archival look, which she accessorized with custom Studio Amelia shoes and Lorraine Schwartz jewelry. In the past decade she’s delivered some truly jaw-dropping moments—from her foray into naked dressing in La Perla in 2017 to her Vegas showgirl look with her sister Kylie in 2019. But this year, thanks to McQueen’s Givenchy archive at her fingertips, may mark the most impactful Met showing for Kendall Jenner yet.
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