The day before the 2025 Met Gala, Aimee Lou Wood’s shoulders are “like rocks.” The Stockport star’s flight to New York was beset by delays and bad weather that left Wood and team “circling in the air for hours and hours” over JFK, she says. “At one point the pilot said, ‘We have enough fuel to keep us up.’ I was like… I hadn’t even thought about that!”
Despite this bumpy (in every sense) start to her first Met Gala experience, on the eve of the event Wood isn’t feeling too nervous, for a couple of reasons. First: support from her co-stars past and present. Her Sex Education castmate Ncuti Gatwa will also be on the red carpet tonight, ditto Patrick Schwarzenegger from The White Lotus. “So I’ve got people there,” she says. “As soon as I knew Ncuti was going I was like, Oh, okay—this will be fine!” Michelle Monaghan–evidently more sisterly in real life than her on-screen alter-ego Jaclyn Lemon–also had some words of wisdom for Aimee. “Michelle was like, you just have to get past the carpet. Once you’re inside, it’s really, really fun.”
The other thing giving Wood confidence? Her look. Her floor-skimming tailored black wool coat and dramatic silk sash, worn over a crisp white cotton shirt, opaque black tights, and white ankle socks and accessorized with Cartier diamonds, is the work of London designer (and former British Vogue cover star) Priya Ahluwalia, who riffed on 2025’s “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” theme by nodding to the distinctive elegance of the Congolese Sapeurs. The result, the designer says, is a “celebration of cultural pride and appreciation.”
“I met Priya at a party a few years ago, and I was just like: I love her. She’s the coolest,” says Wood, who had been hoping the designer could create her first Met look and was thrilled to discover that her stylist, Felicity Kay, was on exactly the same page. Ahluwalia herself, meanwhile, was “completely elated” to dress Wood for what will be her eponymous brand’s first appearance on the Met steps.
“I’ve got a lot of time for Aimee–I love her work,” Ahluwalia tells Vogue. “I’ve been watching her in The White Lotus and Toxic Town, and I watched all of Sex Education. I just think she’s so endearing.” The designer, who is of Nigerian and Indian heritage, had also admired the star’s willingness to call out injustice. In the run up to the Met Gala, which is taking place as escalating violence in Congo has left millions of people displaced in one of the worst humanitarian crises on earth, “I wanted to do something that spotlights Congolese culture,” Ahluwalia explains.
Her research led her to the Sapeurs, whose embrace of a dapper Jazz Age wardrobe began as a form of resistance against their Belgian and French colonizers in the 1920s and informs everything from Aimee’s silken lapels and buttons to the placement of her Cartier brooches. Her shoes, meanwhile, bloom with helvola water lilies and yellow trumpets, the national flowers of Congo and Nigeria, respectively. “Both Aimee and I are passionate advocates for global liberation,” Ahluwalia says, “and I wanted to channel that energy into a look that represents strength, beauty, and resilience.” Dressing Wood for her first Met Gala was an honor, Priya adds. “She’s so nice. And she looks fucking amazing.”
The absence of color means the actor’s Met Gala look is all about “the shape and the detail,” says stylist Kay, who notes that the flowers on Aimee’s shoes were hand-crafted by M&S Schmalberg in New York, while her ankle socks are from the ethical brand Bombas, which donates a pair of socks for every pair that it sells. “Priya came at it with this incredible energy. It’s a real demonstration of what tailoring can do, and how powerful it can be.”
On top of its layers of meaning, the Ahluwalia design also resonated with Aimee’s personal style. “I’m so obsessed with a shirt and tie,” Wood says. “My favorite ever thing is Julia Roberts wearing that suit [for the 1990 Golden Globes]. So it’s exactly what I would want.” The star has happily stepped away from the florals and frills of her earliest red-carpet appearances–something she attributes now to the subconscious influence of her Sex Education character, the sweet, ditzy schoolgirl Aimee Gibbs. “It was really girly, and that’s not me. Felicity is the perfect person for this—she’s all about tailoring.”
Kay (who also styles Paul Mescal and Wood’s friend Ncuti), says she and Aimee were keen to take her overall look in a new direction in light of this “massive new chapter” for the star in the wake of The White Lotus. “My approach, always, is to try to get an understanding of the person I’m working with–and especially at this moment for Aimee–to really make sure that she’s seen. She’s very cool. I love her.”
This first Met Gala is certainly a cherry on top of a career whirlwind for the 31-year-old, whose adorable, astrology-obsessed Chelsea became an instant fan-favorite among the millions tuning in to season three of Mike White’s cult show. And (again with some encouragement from her co-stars) Wood is resolved to soak up every second–shoulder tension notwithstanding. “I think my brain instinctively goes to fear,” she says of the intense interest surrounding the show and the subsequent invitations to high-profile events. “I go to: ‘Oh, this is terrifying… I just wanna stay home.’ But it’s been so helpful to speak to Leslie [Bibb] and Michelle. They were like, This doesn’t happen all the time, the show is a phenomenon–you’ll regret not doing it, so just deal with the exhaustion later!”
When I ask if her friends and family back home in Stockport will be tuning into the livestream to see her walk the red carpet alongside A$AP Rocky, Zendaya, and Dua Lipa, it dawns on Wood that she’s neglected to let them know that she’s going. “I need to text my mum and tell her,” she says. “I’ve just been chatting to her about booking a holiday in Yorkshire and I forgot to say.” And her dad? “I don’t think my dad knows what the Met Gala is, so that’s absolutely fine.”
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