Alia Bhatt made her second appearance at the Met Gala wearing an intricately handcrafted sari and a blouse studded with real gems. If there’s one way to make your look memorable on a red carpet, a dramatic train and rare gems are a sure success. Bhatt took on the challenge with an elegant but unconventional approach to red-carpet jewelry—millions of dollars’ worth of baubles affixed to her blouse and bodice.
While the Heart of Stone actor chose a Prabal Gurung gown to make her grand debut last year, this time she looked toward her Indian roots for inspiration. With gems twinkling from atop her loosely knotted hair to her train, Bhatt made her way up the Met staircase wearing a custom-designed mint green sari by Indian couturier Sabyasachi. Keeping with this year’s theme inspired by—and named after—the short story penned by J.G Ballard, “The Garden of Time,” the actor’s ethereal look featured a 23-foot-long train detailed with florals delicately hand-embroidered using silk floss, glass beading, and semiprecious gemstones.
Bhatt enlisted the help of longtime stylist and red-carpet collaborator Anaita Shroff Adajania to interpret the theme announced with this year’s Met exhibition, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” “The sari’s design, with its translucent, glasslike appearance, is not just a nod to the ethereal quality of the garden in Ballard’s story but also a tribute to the exquisite, enduring craft of sari making,” explained the actor ahead of her red-carpet appearance. Packed with whimsy using ruffles, tassels, and a smattering of sequins and gemstones all over the flowing silhouette, Bhatt’s concept took visual cues from the story, specifically the fantastical life led by Count Axel and his wife. The sari and the amalgamation of jewelry into the bodice fulfill the glamour quotient but also play into the theme of a mythical creature, a forest nymph wandering the wilderness.
“What drew me to this look was the sheer audacity of it—how it merges traditional craftsmanship with avant-garde aesthetics. Sabyasachi, known for his dedication to bringing old-world charm and modern sophistication together, seemed like the perfect choice to encapsulate the theme of this year’s Met Gala,” said the actor. This look also marks the second time the Indian designer has been worn on the Met Gala red carpet after his debut with Indian heiress Natasha Poonawalla in 2022. “I am honored to create the signature garment of India, a sari, handcrafted from techniques handed down over generations and mastered during a lifetime of effort for Alia. It represents the history and pride of Indian craftsmanship that I have dedicated my career to promoting, protecting, and preserving,” said Sabyasachi Mukherjee, remarking on his decision to craft a sari.
To create this custom look for Bhatt, the designer expressed his vision of the nature-oriented dress code by going against what he deemed overt “mechanization, modernization, and uniformity.” He executes this ideal by focusing on craft, “that embodiment of human touch, tradition, and diversity that will safeguard culture from the passage of time,” he said. Handcrafted in India by a team of 163 people including craftsmen, dyers, and embroiderers, the delicate couture sari took approximately 1,965 hours, across months, to create. Apart from the intricately crafted silhouette, Sabyasachi explored his new affinity with jewelry by creating a bejeweled bralette for Bhatt that nods to India’s rich heritage of jewelry, using precious emeralds, Basra pearls, tourmalines, and multicolored sapphires.
Of course, there’s no such thing as “extra” on the Met Gala red carpet, so in true Indian fashion and simultaneously paying homage to the fictional countess, Bhatt added more drip and drama to accentuate the final look. The star’s loosely knotted hair was fastened together using ropes of gemstones. She added the final touch with shoulder-grazing earrings featuring tourmalines and diamonds and a stack of cocktail rings from Sabyasachi Accessories.
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