While we tend to associate gardens with flora and fauna, Uma Thurman teamed up with Tory Burch to shine a spotlight on the insects. For the 2024 Met Gala, Thurman worked with the designer to imagine a sweeping iridescent periwinkle dress made of taffeta, and affixed with 3D butterflies in an array of purples and blues. The swarm of hand-painted creatures isn’t the only breathtaking detail though. Not as loud, but equally as lovely were the ruched bodice and the pleats that jutted out from the hip, creating a cascade of taffeta.
“I started with an extinct butterfly, the American Xerces Blue; it had the most extraordinary iridescent blue wings that reminded me of Uma’s eyes,” Burch tells Vogue. “The construction of the gown honors old-world techniques, with a hand-molded corset bonded to hand-pleated, hand-pressed silk taffeta.”
“She made some really beautiful sketches and created a stunning mood board, which had this iridescent blue butterfly that is sadly extinct as the inspiration and I just loved it,” Thurman says of working with Burch. “It was really a pleasure because I think we’re all rowing in the same direction from from the beginning, and there’s been a lot of ease and grace in the process of working with her, which I truly appreciate.”
Thurman had previously attended four Met Galas—and wore white for the last three—making the 2024 Met Gala an exciting break from tradition. (At her first Met in 2013, “Punk: Chaos to Couture,” she arrived on the arm of Zac Posen in a body-hugging olive green mermaid dress.) The actor last attended the benefit for the Costume Institute in 2018 for “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,” wearing a white satin, off-the-shoulder dress by Gabriela Hearst dress, who was also her date that evening.
For Thurman, what stands out in her mind from Mets past is an unforgettable performance. “I [remember] waiting an hour and a half for Madonna to perform and then just being blown away by watching her on the stairs," she tells Vogue. It was all just so perfect. In fact, if there hadn’t been the anticipatory wait, the expectation, I don’t even think it would have been nearly as good.”
See the behind-the-scenes making of Uma Thurman’s 2024 Met Gala dress.
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