Rosalía Brought the Gilded Age Into the Future for the Met Gala

Rosalía’s custom Met Gala outfit hit all the hallmarks of a Gilded Age gown: heavily structured corset, cascade of ruffles and embellishment, and off-the-shoulder sleeves with plenty of volume. All elements ripped from a John Singer Sargent painting. However, if you didn’t know where the singer was headed, you probably wouldn’t have known that it was attire for a costume ball. Matthew Williams at Givenchy created such a modern interpretation of the era that it would have looked at home on any red carpet. 

“Together we explored a way to fuse the tradition of the Gilded Age with Givenchy Haute Couture codes, modernity, and feminine strength to suit her taste and personality,” says Williams. It was indeed a study in contrast. The dress itself featured a beaded corset and body, leading into a semi-transparent skirt and wave after wave of ivory-colored ruffles for the train. The diaphanous sleeves that draped so elegantly off her shoulders were attached to the dress with an edgy metal collar. Down the back of the dress was a metal spine—the pleats resembled a corset, but the metal arrows decorating it gave it a futuristic feel. Her gloves continued the beading featured so heavily on her corset, but with some singular feathers poking out like spikes. What better to exemplify the gown’s careful balance between lightness and density?

As for those notes of personality, Rosalia walked down the carpet in black shield sunglasses out of a sci-fi movie. Her hair was slicked back in a center-parted bun by hairstylist Jesus Guerrero, and her glowing skin and glossy lips were courtesy of Ariel Tejada and Givenchy Beauty products. The butterfly-shaped gem on her front two teeth tied in with the look so well, could have been made just for the red carpet as well (it wasn’t; she’s had it for months). Below, see how Rosalía got ready at the Mark hotel to walk to Met steps in her thigh-high white leather boots and carrying all those beads.