The A-list do avant-garde:Katy Perry and Rihanna embrace this year???s Met Gala theme on the red carpet
The theme of tonight???s Met Gala was Comme des Gar??ons:The Art of the In-between, a celebration of the ultimate avant-garde designer Rei Kawakubo and her 40-year-long commitment to challenging the fashion norms with her wearable works of art.
As such, it was a challenging dress code to tackle - if there were any conservative dressers left in Hollywood (or tonight, Manhattan) then this was simply not the do for them.
Luckily, however, many of tonight???s attendees were up for embracing the theme, and the fashion industry???s biggest annual red carpet event became a display of the outre, with outfits by Comme des Gar??ons, as well as Maison Margiela, Monse and other key conceptual brands on show.
Katy Perry, a co-host this year alongside Vogue editor Anna Wintour, was one of the first to arrive and gamely adopted the night???s dress code by wearing a scarlet veil designed by John Galliano for Maison Margiela Couture.
Rihanna paid homage to the night???s host, wearing a bold Comme des Gar??ons dress constructed with enormous ruffles, from the label???s autumn 2016 collection.Solange Knowles, too, embraced the oversized, wearing a black Thom Brown puffa jacket that cocooned her figure.
Others who were perhaps a little more tentative in their artistic experiments included Homeland actress Claire Danes, who wore an architectural white shirt by young New York label Monse, and the supermodel Lily Aldridge, who experimented with outre accessories by Balenciaga.
The trouble with avant-garde style and its crazy silhouettes, of course, is that it provides the best fodder for memes.Twitter responded accordingly to Katy Perry???s Margiela effort with fans comparing the look to everything from the bride of Beetlejuice to the Flamenco Lady emoji, and dubbing her and Rihanna the queens of the themes.
Rihanna, remember, has experienced the hype before, her 2015 Guo Pei cape being immortalised as a pizza, a waterslide, and a runny egg yolk by fans online.Perhaps such a reaction is the highest compliment of all?
Met Gala 2017 red carpet