Emma Chamberlain is back as a presenter on the Met Gala red carpet, but you’ve never seen her like this before. Having worked glitzy, neo-Edwardian, and Mean Girls looks in the past, the “Sleeping Beauties” theme seems to have awakened her inner goth, abetted by the house of Jean Paul Gaultier and her stylist, Jared Ellner. This episode of “Sketch to Dress” documents the creation of her image for this year’s fête, including jewelry—by Cartier, ooh la la—nails, and even a customized mic.
“The Met, it’s the time to put on a show, no?” posits Chamberlain, expounding on the evening’s dress code. “The theme is the Garden of Time, which is [the title] of a short story. This is sort of a fantasy, enchanted-like theme. It’s fun to do a dark twist on it; the underbelly of nature.” Looking to capture “fragility” and “decomposition,” the Gaultier team pulled various references, most notably the mocha-colored lace corset Suzanne von Aichinger wore in the spring 2003 couture show, called Morphing. It served as a starting point for a dress that wafts around the body, offering an elevation of the “she’s come undone” vibe that Chamberlain dubs her “swampy mode.”
The name Gaultier is associated with corsetry, and “the initial sketches of the dress started with a strong lacing idea; enclosing the corseted body, tightening it at the top, and opening the volume of the dress at the bottom. A lacing that unravels, falls, and intertwines,” house spokeswoman Maria Eugenia Perez Pinaud told Vogue. The silhouette, she said, is “modernized by adding volume; there are layers, combinations of several textiles, and transparencies with satin whalebones, a blocked knit base, and lace on top.”
The softness of the color and lace are contrasted by the solidity and sparkle of a Cartier diamond necklace and watch. “This is the most collaborative we’ve ever been,” says Chamberlain. “It’s nice to feel like you’re a part of what you’re wearing. And I know for a fact that when I put this dress on it’s going to feel like mine because Jared and I and the Jean Paul Gaultier team put our heads together to make it for me.”
The savoir faire that contributed to these custom looks is jaw-dropping. Forty hours alone went into patternmaking; four seamstresses spent about 600 hours assembling the corseted dress with transparent supports and lace inlays. The main material is a Chantilly lace dyed brown. In contrast to the archival pattern, which was “quite soft and floral,” the lace used for Chamberlain’s dresses is “sharper,” said Pinaud. It features ferns and “alludes to brambles, to an apocalyptic garden, in response to the Garden of Time” dress code. Underlying the aspect of uncontrollable nature, “a bramble climbs up the body, enveloping Chamberlain’s shoulder and neck.”
“This will be my fourth Met Gala,” says Chamberlain. “To me, it sort of feels like this unveiling of me as an adult in fashion in a way.” It looks that way too.
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