Amanda Gorman Reveals the Message Behind Her Met Gala Beauty

Last night’s Met gala red carpet provided a view of a national treasure, arriving in the form of National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, representing a modern-day Lady Liberty. “As soon as I was asked to be a cohost for the Met gala, I immediately knew I wanted to reimagine the Statue of Liberty,” Gorman tells Vogue. “It was important to me to hold a book much like the statue’s, with a line from the poem at the base of Lady Liberty, as well as to wear a laurel crown to symbolize my experience as a laureate,” she says about the Edie Parker bag and Jennifer Behr headpiece that accessorized her Vera Wang gown. For the museum’s “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion” exhibit, Gorman also carried a newly lit (metaphorical) torch for Estée Lauder as the brand’s Global Changemaker, a role in which she serves as the curator of a special Writing Change initiative created to advance literacy, particularly among women and girls.

“I was on a ‘Met Glam Squad’ group chat all last week discussing the look with my team,” says Gorman, who worked with makeup artist Joanna Simkin to design a beauty moment that played off her ultramarine gown embroidered with over 3,000 stones. “We became obsessed with the idea of stones across my face, and completing that element took about five of us over an hour,” says Gorman of the billowing stars that swept across her eyes. The shape of the constellation had meaning as well: “When I saw the dress with the stones, I immediately thought of the stars on the American flag and wanted to echo the shape of the flag blowing in the wind,” says Simkin.

To prep for their shared vision, Simkin layered Estée Lauder Revitalizing Supreme+ Bright Moisturizer and Estée Lauder The Illuminator Radiant Perfecting Primer + Finisher on Gorman’s skin before evening out her tone with Double Wear Stay in Place complexion products and defining brows. “To create a shimmery base before applying the gemstones, I applied the metallic shadows from two Estée Lauder Pure Color Envy Sculpting EyeShadow 5-Color Palettes—Dark Ego and Pink Mink,” Simkin shares, and also “gave her a subtle winged eye using Estée Lauder Little Black Liner.” The lip stayed intentionally neutral (so as not to transfer onto the night’s required face covering), and the skin was given a reflective finish. A braided ponytail designed by hairstylist LaRae Burress represented her physical torch as well. “The tail of her pony is a rhinestone Bantu knot with wispy ends that mimic the fire of the torch,” says Burress.

Here, a window into Gorman’s moments before the red carpet:

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