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Whenever Doja Cat hits the red carpet, she raises the bar. Case in point: the rapper and singer has only been to three Met Galas, but all of her fashion and beauty looks have cemented themselves as some of the most memorable to date. An ode to Karl Lagerfeld s pet cat Choupette? Glam mascara tears? No one does it like Doja.
Now that we ve seen the feline energy she brought to the 2025 Met Gala celebrating the theme of “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” we take a look back at the exclusive look Vogue got of her past appearances.
2023’s Ode to Choupette
Choupette didn’t make an appearance at the 2023 Met Gala honoring her beloved owner Karl Lagerfeld, but that didn’t mean we would be short of feline-like tributes on the red carpet. The best one of the night was none other than Doja Cat’s—and it was an instant classic for a Met debut.
Celebrity makeup artist Ernesto Casillas told Vogue that the goal for the makeup was to look less like a costume and something more elevated. “We wanted the makeup to read feline, but still soft and pretty,” he said. “Doja and I agreed that we needed to do a thin and delicate cat-inspired eyeliner.
To get the perfect cat-eye look, he used the appropriately named Charlotte Tilbury’s The Feline Flick liquid eyeliner and matched her lip color to her faux nose (“[A] small but endearing detail,” he said) with the Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Collection on her lips and cheeks. The last detail of her beauty look included a jeweled “third eye” that had to be done for her first appearance at The Met.
“I mean, there’s a million-dollar diamond that’s just sitting in the middle of her forehead,” Brett Alan Nelson, Doja’s creative director and stylist, told Vogue. “It’s the most major art moment of the year. It’s her first Met Gala, and we need this to be bigger than what we’ve done in the past.”
2024’s Mascara Tears
For the 2024 Met Gala, Doja Cat went the more unconventional route. Instead of floral or green-inspired to match the night s theme of Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, she tapped into water elements and enlisted celebrity makeup artist Pat McGrath to create her look of bold mascara tears.
She debuted the look outside the Mark Hotel, wearing a towel wrapped around her head and her body. It gave “I-just-got-out-of-the-shower” meet ultra-glam vibes that everyone absolutely loved.
“We used glitter to paint shimmering, enchanted tears of joy streaming down her cheeks,” McGrath told Vogue. “On her lids, we created the most beautiful gilded cat-eyes using black pencil, black liquid liner, lots of mascara, and the warm scintillating shades in my Mothership V: Bronze Seduction palette. She looks absolutely major!”
For the red carpet, Doja Cat kept the tears and makeup but switched from her towel to an oversized T-shirt dress with a wet-like finish. Unique and bold, leave it to Doja to leave us wanting more of her beauty looks.
2025 s Feline Energy
For the 2025 Met Gala, Doja Cat channeled “feline energy.” Dressed in Marc Jacobs, Doja donned a crystal pinstriped bodysuit and a matching wool jacket with padded shoulders and an ocelot-print velvet intarsia body. “I wanted to incorporate the ocelot print because I really love big cat prints,” she told Vogue. “I think it was a really fun touch, because I don’t know how common that is, and leopard can be quite common. Marc is just brilliant in helping choose those things.”
For for Doja’s makeup look, celebrity makeup artist Pat McGrath made a nod to the 1940s and ‘50s. McGrath created a winged eye with the Pat Mcgrath Labs PermaPrecision Liquid Eyeliner. She also opted for pastel lids using the Mothership XII: Petalmorphosis and a classic red lip with the Dramatique Mega Lip Pencil in Garnet Glow. To finish the look, she wore teased textured hair with major volume for added drama.
