At last year’s Met Gala, Nicole Kidman delivered one of the night’s most dazzling looks in a re-creation of a 1950s couture gown by Cristóbal Balenciaga, created by Balenciaga under the aegis of the house’s (now outgoing) creative director, Demna. And for the 2025 Met Gala, the actor and her stylist Jason Bolden decided to continue the theme—and, this time around, up the ante.
“Balenciaga is a house that has developed and evolved in such a specific way over the years,” Kidman tells Vogue of her fascination with delving into the maison’s archives. “When Demna sent me this sketch, I was inspired by the way he was able to take such a beautiful piece from the house’s past and modernize it in a way that felt so uniquely me.”
The original look was devised in 1952 by the Spanish designer and was famously photographed by Richard Avedon for Harper’s Bazaar London’s October issue that same year. The dress is a corset gown with a picot-edge basque crafted from silk organza, featuring multiple layers of petticoats to create a tilted effect and silk-satin bow belts at the waist and hips. Kidman and Bolden then finished the look with a black lace scarf, black spandex jersey gloves, a Raven pump in black crepe satin—and a dramatic hair transformation with a cropped side-part bob. (She also wore earrings, a bangle, and a ring from Cindy Chao the Art Jewel’s White Label collection.)
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“When I spoke to Anna [Wintour], she shared with me that the red-carpet theme was Tailored for You, and this dress embodies that,” Kidman continues. “From the hips to the bows around the waist to the corset, Demna and his team have this dress tailored to perfection. The fabric and the tulle is divine.” The actor also notes that part of the inspiration came from images Bolden sent of female dandies, in particular Eartha Kitt: “Tonight is an honor to them!”
“I think what’s really special about my relationship with Nicole is that we get to collaborate on more than just a surface level when it comes to history and design,” Bolden says. “This one hits home in a different way, and it’s very awesome to see one of my references through her.”
Crafted by hand in the Balenciaga couture ateliers at 10 Avenue George V, the look involved 700 hours of tailoring and dressmaking techniques using Balenciaga’s original sketch as a starting point rather than the version he actually made. (One notable alteration from the gown’s previous iteration was making it in silk organza for a more defined structure.) Meanwhile, the tailoring element speaks to this year’s theme, with the hourglass-shaped basque at the heart of the dress crafted with traditional tailoring techniques.
Kidman notes that they spent a significant amount of time considering the length of the dress, in particular. “When we think of the fabulous Harlem Cotton Club parties, Jason and I talked about these really playful lengths that these women would wear,” she says. “It added a piece of tailoring to the look while still keeping it very feminine. We also loved the bows on the front of the dress as an homage to the bow tie.”
And despite being something of a Met Gala veteran at this point—Kidman attended the event for the first time all the way back in 2003 and has continued to walk the museum steps on the first Monday in May numerous times since—the thrill of the night hasn’t worn off. “I still find it incredibly exciting, and I still get nervous walking up those stairs!” she says. What was she most looking forward to about the night this year? “Dandyism is all about self-expression, so seeing designers and people express themselves with exquisite tailoring and flair.” We couldn’t have put it better ourselves.
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