Lauren Sanchez Bezos as Madame X at the Met Gala was BRILLIANT

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]Hello, how are you? So, if you clicked on this video, you either watch my videos. Hi, welcome. Love to have you.

[00:00:04]Glad you're back. Or my title really pissed you off and you are currently rage typing in your comments. If that is you, I'm going to call a brief time out.

[00:00:12]I know my title is very emotive. There is a reason for it. And if you hear me out, I think you'll see where I'm coming from when it comes to this cuz calling in Lauren Sanchez's Bezos outfit for the Met brilliant is not a compliment. So, for those of you who don't know me, my name is Abby. I am a dress historian by trade and training which means I am a fashion historian. The way I study history is through dress and through fashion. So this encompasses everything from the physical making of the garment but also the social and political and economic implications and impacts that clothing has on our culture and society.

[00:00:47]Basically instead of looking at wars or government stuff, which is very boring and dull, I like to study history through what we wear because everyone wears clothes and it's really, really cool. The video I just put out a couple weeks ago, a lot about the history of the Met Gala and giving the history a more in-depth discussion because people don't usually actually get it right.

[00:01:08]Also a discussion of our complicated feelings with the MetGala, the ultra wit, rich and billionaires and their role with the arts and funding and philanthropy and cockroets and also the Met exhibition itself. Just the theme of the Met Galler. So, if you haven't seen that video and this title is making you feel kind of weird, go watch that video first and then come back here. Or you can just watch this video and then maybe you'll go back and want to watch my previous video for even further context.

[00:01:38]With that in mind, I I want to make this statement. I do not believe there is such a thing as an ethical billionaire.

[00:01:44]I don't care who you are. If you are a billionaire, something's wrong and you're doing something very wrong. You should not be a billionaire. Get rid of it. You don't need that much money.

[00:01:55]solve some problem, fund more of the arts. Please get rid of it. You don't need it. This is how I'm approaching this video. At the end, I'll kind of give you guys my best dress, worst dress, like a quick rundown, not super in-depth, just like off-the cuff feelings and how much I hate sleep paralysis demons. I do do. I hate the sleep paralysis demons.

[00:02:17]>> That's why they cover their eyes.

[00:02:19]They're not weeping. They can't risk looking at each other.

[00:02:21]>> So, with that, let's get into it. Well, it's Scaparelli and Daniel wanted to pay homage to Madame X. It's a painting that's actually in the Met.

[00:02:32]>> Oh, wow.

[00:02:33]>> Oh, he did, did he? It was >> Daniel Roseberry's idea to dress you as Madame X. Very fascinating. Now, here's the thing. Madame X, if for those of you all who don't know, is the title of of a painting done by John Singer Sergeant.

[00:02:47]It's arguably one of his most famous paintings. And part of that is because of the scandal that surrounded the painting when it was first displayed at the salon in Paris in 1884. When you pull up the Mets web page for the painting, they have the info card there.

[00:03:04]The sergeant hoped to enhance his reputation by painting and exhibiting her portrait. Working without a commission, but with his sitter's complicity, he emphasized her daring personal style, showing the right strap of her gown slipping from her shoulder.

[00:03:18]At the salon of 1884, the portrait received more ridicule than praise.

[00:03:22]Sergeant repainted the s shoulder strap and kept the work for over 30 years.

[00:03:26]When eventually he sold it to the Metropolitan, he commented, "I suppose it is the best thing I have done, but asked that the museum disguise the sitter's name." What an incredible way to not actually tell the story of what happened with the painting of Madame X and what happened between John Singer Sergeant and Amaly Guatro. There's a really fantastic non-fiction book. It's a really easy read by Deborah Davis and it's called Strapless. And it is basically a dual biography of Amal and John Singer Sergeant and the leadup to his painting, him painting her portrait and also what happens to both of these people after the salon exhibition of 1884. The woman in the portrait, people act like we don't know who she is, but we do know who she is. And it was a 24year-old American-born Louisan woman named Amale. Her mother, who was Marie Virginier, was very doineering and controlling. And they moved to Paris when Amaly was eight after her father died, like around the time that the Civil War ended. Now, I'm not going to paint Amaly and her family as like good people. They were enslavers in Louisiana. She married an extremely wealthy and much older Parisian businessman. His name was Pierre Guatro.

[00:04:43]She was like 19 when they got married. I cannot make this up. He made his fortune in the creation of fertilizer from guano.

[00:04:53]So literally a fortune made of bat [ __ ] Hey, so we're taking a little bitty break here because I got to tell you about the sponsor of this video, which should probably come as a surprise to well, if you've watched the channel, none of you because you should know who who I'm talking about cuz obviously I'm in my bedroom. And that means we're going to cuddle with dogs and we're going to talk about, wait for it, Birch Mattress. They make fantastic mattresses that are made of organic and natural materials like organic cotton and latex wool. They're Greenguard certified Americanmade steel.

[00:05:30]One of the things I've really appreciate about Birch Mattress is their use of wool. I have always been a big proponent of wool. I'm a huge wool fan because it's so good at helping naturally regulate your body's temperature.

[00:05:41]Whether you get too cold or you get too hot, having the wool layers just really helps keep your body temperature like at a Okay, you kind of knocked the gimbal.

[00:05:52]Hello, uh, Buler. Here we go. Let's try.

[00:05:55]Hello. Hello. There is no fiberglass in these mattresses, so you know, you're not you don't have to worry about that.

[00:06:03]I literally had an appointment with my psychiatrist today and she was asking me about like how YouTube goes and like how I make money and I was like, "Oh, like yeah, you know, I work with brands. They kind of like do these ad reads and essentially it's like a paid commercial inside the video, right?" And she's like, "Okay." I was like, "Yeah, and the one I have this time is like with Birch, you know, I've worked with them for forever." And I immediately went, "And by the way, if you are actually looking for a new mattress, I do highly recommend Birch. They are extremely comfortable on it. Not sponsored, but this was this is sponsored. But that moment this morning with with my doctor was not sponsored. I will literally tell everyone to buy a Birch mattress. So now I'm telling you and if you are looking for a new mattress, if you're in the market for a new mattress, I have to interrupt myself because I said the wrong number. They're having a 27% off sale for Memorial Day. So if you would like to give Birch Mattress a try, you can use the link in my description below. Go to birchliving.com/abycox.

[00:06:59]use the code Abby Cox. Or if you're like watching this on the TV, like my husband's watching YouTube on the TV, like he likes to do, and you have your phone available, you can always scan the QR code that's probably around here somewhere. Hey babe, do you like our mattress?

[00:07:13]>> It's great.

[00:07:15]>> Did I pay you to say that?

[00:07:18]>> No.

[00:07:19]>> So, this is an honest review.

[00:07:22]>> Yeah, it's an awesome mattress. Would buy again.

[00:07:24]>> There you have it, guys. And he is How would I describe you?

[00:07:29]Presnikity.

[00:07:30]>> I don't know.

[00:07:31]>> A grumpy old man.

[00:07:34]>> Particular.

[00:07:35]>> A particularly grumpy old man.

[00:07:37]>> Well, I'm particular about the things I like.

[00:07:40]>> Here's the thing. Amaly, when she was there and once she married Pierre in Paris, she was hot [ __ ] She was extremely well-known, basically a celebrity, invited every places, was the fashion ick girl, had incredible social standing, and was considered extremely beautiful and unique looking in her appearance. The best way I can describe Amale in like the tit fortat situation is she was basically the Kylie Jenner of her generation. She was incredibly famous and wellknown within the Parisian social social circle and her social class. John Singer Sergeant while known was not nearly as famous as Omal was at this point in time in history. Okay, this is really important. There is a disparity here of social status but he really wanted to paint Amale because she was so wellknown and considered so beautiful and he was like I am the one I should do this. This will be great for for my career and so he actively pursued her. This is really important. He actually had mutual friends write and speak to her to vouch for him. And in fact, in one of the letters he wrote to his friend, I have a great desire to paint her portrait and have reason to think she would allow it and is waiting for someone to propose this homage to her beauty. If you are Bienna Veel, like good with her, and will see her in Paris, you might tell her, "I am a man of prodigious talent." His campaign worked. She eventually agreed to let him paint her. And up until this point, like she hadn't really allowed her portrait to be painted because she and her mother were extremely aware of her appearance and her reputation and they were really controlling of how it was going to be perceived.

[00:09:29]>> I'm like, should I have looked like this at the Golden Globes with my tits out?

[00:09:33]>> Yes. You have to wear your best dress to every function you go to, no matter what. So between Sergeant's growing notoriety and popularity as a portrait artist, but also because she had mutual friends vouched for him, she agreed. So she was around 23 at the time and it was the summer of 1883. He went and stayed with her and her husband in their estate in Britney began stud like doing the sketches and the portrait study. Now here's the thing about Sergeant. He's not just a painter. One of the things that makes Sergeant such an interesting artist today and even then is that it's better to think of him more as a creative director. He's the painter.

[00:10:16]He's the stylist. He's the background.

[00:10:19]He's like the storyteller. Like he is the creative director of it all. And and that's always been his thing. It's not just something he did only for Amal, but that's just how he does his portraits.

[00:10:30]And that's one of the reasons why they're so interesting compared to other portrait artists at the time. that creative direction, that control that he has, that eye that he has, it does do a really good job communicating whatever story he's trying to tell. He was the one who picked that black gown. People say it's risky. I don't think is it's a black velvet uh bodice with thin it's an evening gown and then you have the satin skirt. It's the all of it looks very in keeping with what was fashionable at 1883 and 1884 for that time. The only thing that we'd be arguing is kind of risky is just like, you know, the jeweled shoulder straps and kind of how open it is. But even then, it's like it's still an evening gown. That's, you know, that's what they did. But he picked it in part because he wanted to kind of acknowledge her sort of bold fashion choices, but also to contrast her skin. The thing about Amaloy is was heavily rumored and believed and honestly probably true that she wore a lot of makeup, a lot more makeup than the average Parisian woman would have.

[00:11:31]And she did it in intentionally. It wasn't to hide flaws. So, she would wear like rice powder and really like make herself appear paler than what she already was. But then she would add rouge in very particular places. Uh, one of it being like the tip of her ears, her lips, the bit of her nose, her hand and like hands. And Sergeant really wanted to amplify that and play that up.

[00:11:55]And so by picking the blackown, there was a part of that too. When he started working with Amaly, he actually wrote a letter to his friend their name. I'm going to say they Violet Padet, but Violet went under the pen name Vernon Lee. Do you object to people who are fa fa um it it basically this point it translates to people who wear a lot of makeup to the extent of being a uniform lavender or blotting paper color all over. If so you would not care for my sitter but she has the most beautiful lines and if the lavender or chlorate of potass color be pretty in itself I should be more than pleased. It's just really important here because of how much control he has over the creative direction of these portraits. It's clear she trusted him because this wasn't her idea. Because she socially was much higher than him. She was young, immature. She was popular. Like she was busy and important. Like he wanted to paint her. She didn't ask him to do this. Like she was like, "Okay." Like that's fine. Like sure, whatever. She wasn't as engaged in the project as he was hoping she would be cuz in his mind, she was going to be like his next muse, right? and they were going to create this amazing piece of art together and they were going to buy it from him and it was just going to be this whole thing and incredible and and continue to make incredible art together and build their fame and notoriety, but she was not a good sitter. She cuz she just didn't care. And so in early sketches, you see her in the black gown, but she's like sitting on a sofa or a couch. But by the time we get to the final portrait, he it's really obvious he got frustrated with her cuz now she's standing, her arm is twisted in this really uncomfortable way and then she's turned away like this. If you've ever sat for like art school or drawings or anything like that before, you have to stay extremely still for a really long time, you cannot tell me that that was not passive aggressive of him because he was frustrated with her lack of care and like she wasn't as into it as he was. So, it was just really frankly passive aggressive way for him to get back at her to force her to stand in such an uncomfortable and awkward position. All this to say is that the grace of intentions, the actual process of painting this portrait for Sergeant did not go the way he wanted it to. When the portrait was done, she loved it. Apparently, her mother loved it and so it went off to the salon.

[00:14:11]Every year in Paris, they have the salon and this is where all the artists, you know, come in the exhibit, one painting or two paintings, and it's kind of like the big show. The salon of 1884, uh, all in all, uh, was not good. It was considered uh bad and a big part of that was actually because of the portrait of Amal on May 1st. So can't make this up again like early May. They kind of essentially had like a a press function like you know the critiques critics go and like people can go and see everything before it like fully opens up to the public. And the salon is huge.

[00:14:44]The room number that this portrait was in was room 31. And if you've never seen Madame X, she is fully life-siz if not a bit larger than life. Like it is massive. You cannot miss it. It is not small. So, it dominated this room. But when the critics started looking at it, they absolutely hated it. And they didn't hate it simply because of her shoulder strap. That is a really basic, no nuance understanding of what actually set everybody off because there were multiple types of critiques over her about this portrait. One critic wrote, "This portrait is simply offensive in its insolent ugliness and defiance of every rule of art." And another wrote that they were shocked by the spineless expression and the vulgar character of the figure. these awful descriptions that not only critiqued Sergeant's work, but also opened up the doors for people, both critics and the public, to absolutely begin to terrorize Amal based on her appearance. There's an account that actually at the salon because she was there that she was in open tears crying because she was hearing all of the negative feedback about her portrait. And it was just awful. Um, Sergeant was upset because obviously he's not used to being critiqued as being like bad at art. Like he's used to being praised for being so good. So for for people to for these French art critics to be like sex is like that really wounded his ego. But what made it worse was that like later that afternoon or evening after the salon had closed, Amal and her mother, who I think the best way to describe her mother is honestly like a Chris Jenner, went to Sergeant's studio to demand that he removed the portrait from the salon to mitigate any further damage to Amal's reputation.

[00:16:39]>> When I first heard about Kim's tape, as her mother, I wanted to kill her. But as her manager, I knew that I had a job to do and I really just wanted her to move past it.

[00:16:49]>> First time they went, Sergeant apparently wasn't there, but a friend was. So he noted, you know, you could tell Amal had been crying and was really upset. And then later that night, her mother returned when Sergeant was there and demanded that Sergeant remove the painting from the salon. And he refused.

[00:17:07]Not because he was proud of the work.

[00:17:09]No, because as he told someone later, she wounded his artistic pride. He also just didn't like her. This is ego-based behavior. When it comes to the shoulder strap, that is a really nuanced conversation. It's not necessarily just that the strap was down. It is the implication of nakedness versus nudity.

[00:17:29]And there is a difference between the two. Nakedness implies sexuality, rawness, univilized, animalistic. Where nudity is meant to be tasteful. It's meant to be artistic. So, there's a good NI and a bad N. With her position, her social position, this falling off the shoulder has a strong implication of sexuality and nakedness, which is what made people uncomfortable.

[00:17:55]But it it wasn't just that. Now, in Sergeant's mind, he was like, "Well, that's the one thing I can't easily fix." So, it was like two weeks after the salon opened and he asked someone if he could take the portrait down, fix it by putting the shoulder strap back up to calm it all down. And he was told, "Don't do that. Don't you just leave it up." But what's interesting is the critics who were kind of defending and praising this portrait were not defending and praising it because of its artistic quality, but because they viewed it as a commentary of the vanity and narcissism and morally questionable behavior of the upper classes of Parisian society. There are quotes about how a hundred years from then their great-grandchildren will be able to discuss this painting and how it is a reflection of the bgeoisi of the Bellipac era of late 19th century France which was the guilded age here in America. So it wasn't a great time socially um with you know extreme uh wealth disparity. It's fascinating isn't it? It's crazy how like all these things just sort of line up. What happened?

[00:19:07]This portrait and the scandal it brought, the shock, the press buzz it brought with it absolutely destroyed Amaly. The salon opened May 1st. She spent basically the rest of the year in hiding at her home in Britany. She left Paris. After basically spending a year in hiding, she slowly started to try and come back out into society, being very selective with what events she went to and trying to rebuild her reputation.

[00:19:36]But it was too late. Not only was she basically ruined socially for the scandal of it all, but she was gone so long that she was then forgotten about.

[00:19:47]And she never recovered from this. I I I cannot stress this enough. That portrait destroyed her life because not only could she not reclaim her reputation after it had come out. Shockingly, the woman received a lot of the blame and carried a lot of the moral burden, but now it also just followed her everywhere because it became such a thing. She couldn't escape it. Couple that with her own vanity. She's not, again, she's not a perfect person. She was extremely vain. She was and then as a result like insecure. By the time she was in her mid4s, early 50s, she had overheard enough people talk about her appearance in a derogatory way about how ugly she was and how her body was no longer as hot as it used to be. Cuz that was the other thing. She was really famous for having a beautiful body that she she exited society. She became a recluse and her husband and her they were it was never a love match. Um it was just a marriage of convenience. They became fully aranged. She moved out. She lived on her own in a less fashionable location. Her daughter did get married, but sadly her daughter Louise died when Louise was like 32. Her mother stayed with her up until her mother's death, and she died in 1915 at the age of 56.

[00:21:04]Meanwhile, Sergeant was fine. Sergeant left Paris after the salon. He went to London for quite a bit of time and he was fine. He continued working. He continued painting. His celebrity just continued to grow and grow and grow. He completely surpassed Amale when it came to his fame and notoriety. He kept the painting of her, the portrait of her obviously because they didn't agree to buy it. Like the Met mentions, he took a business risk in doing this portrait. In his mind, he was like, "It's going to be so great. Of course, they'll pay for it.

[00:21:33]It's a guarantee win. Like, I can't lose." But they they did not pay for it.

[00:21:37]So, that also pissed him off. So, he didn't get paid for the portrait. He didn't have a good experience. It was critically p panned like just bad bad bad. However, he survived. So he kept the painting for years. So it became this sort of cult following. People who were able to go and see it because they were in a studio whether they were like friends or or or peers or customers like they would talk about they would talk about the portrait of in 1905 he decides to exhibit it in London and it was a smashing success. Critics loved it and because of all of the mystery around this painting, like people were just really excited to see it. And it was so successful in fact that Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was friends with Amal, reached out to her and asked if she could write to John Singer Sergeant if he would be willing to send the portrait of her to Berlin to be put on exhibit cuz it was Kaiser Wilhelm II's favorite. Sergeant blew her off. He basically said, "I'm abroad and I can't do it." He's like, "No, I'm fine. I don't need you." But a few years later in 1909, Kaiser Wilhelm reached back out to Sergeant himself and was like, "Hey, can you send it to Berlin?" He was more than willing to do it. He was like, "Of course, I'll send it to Berlin. Sounds great. Awesome." Amaly dies July of 1915. At the same time, the portrait of her is on display in San Francisco.

[00:22:56]Exhibition closes December of 1915. At that same time, Sergeant decides to write to a friend of his, Edward Robinson, who was the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, asking if he would be willing to buy this portrait, this painting for £1,000. And in the letter, he wrote this, cuz there was one stipulation, and that was on account of the row I had with the lady years ago. So, the fight, the picture should not be called by her name. There was no reason for this.

[00:23:26]Allay was dead. her mother dead, her daughter dead. Her husband Pierre was still alive, but obviously they had been estranged for decades at that point. And not like he was ever super duper interested in her life anyways. Like they were just kind of friends and friendly and then barely like he didn't care. He was busy playing with this bat [ __ ] empire.

[00:23:45]>> Guano, that sounds so familiar. Bat droppings.

[00:23:51]>> Like there was no logical reason to not include her name. Sergeant completely removed Amale from the narrative. And by doing that, he took on then all of the credit and banished her further into obscurity.

[00:24:11]He didn't need to do that. There was no reason not to include her name, but he didn't want to. And that's because he was a petty [ __ ] You can't tell me otherwise. That's like that. Like everything he did like epic petty [ __ ] behavior. Like epic petty [ __ ] behavior. Purely out of spite. I had a fight with the woman. I've never forgiven her. She's dead. Don't include her name. Call her Madamex. [ __ ] wild. But but this this story is why putting Lauren Sanchez Bezos in homage to Madame X is so [ __ ] brilliant. Now, according to Lauren Sanchez Basos, it was Daniel Roseberry's idea to put her in a homage to Madame X, right?

[00:24:58]>> One shoulder off. And so him and his team did an incredible job and she obviously went with it as did like three other people at the exhibition cuz God forbid we have any originality. In my mind, a few things happened. One, Daniel Roseberry knew exactly what he was doing and not just from a oh the shoulder falling off the story. He he knew the story like I just told you. He knew he knows that story where Sergeant removed Amale from the world. He he scratched her out and and that that portrait ruined her life. either he's manifesting that Lauren Santes Bezos who you know by all accounts is actively trying to buy her way into the social circle through the wealth of her husband >> wives drink their blood come >> not through who her own purely artistic or creative merits but through the name and status of the man she married who is an evil billionaire obsessed with cockroets and doesn't pay people a living wage like horrific guy, right? And so Daniel Roseberry was making that commentary essentially manifesting maybe this will make her disappear or it was a commentary on the mirroring of the two scenarios that Bezos is thinking she's hot [ __ ] She's thinking she's a part of this world, but in reality, she is vapid and incipid and vain and arrogant and narcissistic and self-absorbed and clueless. If Roseberry knew the whole story, on the other hand, if it wasn't intentional and Daniel Roseberry, for some reason, doesn't really know the whole story other than the very superficial, oh, her shoulder strap fell off and it caused a scandal.

[00:26:49]She's like a woman who's just had [ __ ] talked about her. D what you know you can you can think is the narrative of what's happening with Bezos. Then the extra level of irony here is is what isn't known. The brilliancancy is in the accidental allegory of her in the Madame X homage because Amal was not hated at the time that her portrait was taken.

[00:27:11]She was beloved. She was popular. She was hot [ __ ] The portrait ruined her life, not the other way around. So either way, I find the use of Madame X here fascinating and I I am inclined and others are too to believe that it was done intentionally of the John Singer Sergeant intentionality.

[00:27:34]>> Gag is that in that Vogue interview she is so proud about how it just naturally came out in a conversation.

[00:27:40][ __ ] I have seen how sharp L Roach's tongue is. The way I know he was in that showroom being like, "See all these beautiful gowns? The ones that are like embellished, big, iconic, big. That's not you. This little basic Macy's ass gown. That's you."

[00:27:55]>> That gown was bad.

[00:27:58]Like, it was bad. I didn't like the fit.

[00:28:01]It was too simple. Other than like the shape of the neckline, it didn't do justice to the actual gown itself in the portrait, which is beautiful and a mix of textures and complex. Stunning. It's just stunning. It's beautiful. There's too many stress wrinkles. Like even for it being corseted, you see this like really strong wrinkle around her waist which is just bunching. It should not be there. There was some intentional wrinkling around her butt, but I don't really like it. And then finally, I [ __ ] hate those grommets. They are tacky as [ __ ] They looked cheap as [ __ ] Nothing about that gown spoke to Scaparelli. Whether it was Daniel's actual ability to design and construct incredible pieces of art as clothing or Scaparelli's legacy, she would be rolling over in her [ __ ] grave with how ugly that [ __ ] gown was. And it doesn't even do justice to Sergeant's painting or Amal's wardrobe. Like, not just derivative, insulting, it's bad.

[00:29:00]What is also so fascinating to me, and I I'm speaking to this as someone who is 40, by the way, like I am 40 years old, is that everyone keeps trying to paint Madame paint. Oh my god, what a great pun. The people who are obsessed with Madame X are older women. There were at least three iterations of Madame X's at the Met Gala. One was Bezos, one was Clara Foy, who was 42, who was 42, and the other one was Julianne Moore, who was 65. Why do we have three middle-aged again, I'm 40, and older women dressed like a 24year-old? It It is so weird to me that people associate Madame X with like this shunt, like this older woman when it was literally a a young woman.

[00:29:48]It would be more appropriate for, I don't know, if Alex Earl was there or Sabrina Carpenter, any of the young influencers or pop stars of Gen Z.

[00:29:58]They're the ones who should be paying homage to Madame Max because that was their that's that's how old she was in that moment. It's not about older women.

[00:30:05]What is also like incredibly weird to me, Amal died at the age of 56, the same age that Bezos is. That that's a little that's a little like a little creepy like in a cool way. Was Daniel doing this on purpose? I think so. And one of the reasons why is the only other gown that I know of that Scaparelli that we went to the Met Gala was the one that Kylie Jenner wore. God, it was so beautifully done. The layers of symbolism and meaning and intention behind Kylie's uh gown for this event.

[00:30:35]Impeccable. So on surface level, right, we have the artistry of the exterior of the gown. It's beautiful Dutch as satin.

[00:30:44]It's been embroidered. It's been beaded all by hand. Art. Like that is quite literally fashion as art. Remember? And on top of that, we have the front of the gown folded over so you can see the insides. This is also a nod to fashion as art because it's showing the artistic skill to make a couture gown. The the engineering, the the math and all of that. We have the waistband. We have the corset bon lines. We have the fit and the structure of the bodice itself. We have the lacing opening in the back to show like how it was put on the body.

[00:31:14]That is intentional and it's brilliant.

[00:31:16]Layers upon layers. Then the final layer which is a nod to how the exhibition itself is divided up which is focused on the body. We have Kylie Jenner's body.

[00:31:26]This gorgeous, beautifully fit nude corset that was painted and shadowed to give the illusion of the naked body. And it fits like a glove. It is so beautifully done and beautifully fit that we have this stunning like example of how like [ __ ] theme. My one gripe, I [ __ ] hate those grommets. I would have loved to have seen either just a smaller like brass eye ring or handone eyelids to really give the illusion of it being her skin. Like I find the grommets of that back corset to be distracting and it takes away from the effectiveness of the illusion. Daniel knows his house that he works for. He understands the legacy of Scaparelli. He understands the responsibility he has and he can and did execute it perfectly.

[00:32:14]Lauren Santis Basos look like [ __ ] There is a reason. And if we're lucky, she will pull an omelet and she will disappear and become a recluse and never leave her house. We can only hope. I doubt that will happen, but you know what? I am just here hoping for the best. Best and worst dress. Let's get into it. I'm going to make this really quick because I don't really feel like getting into the weeds with all these cuz literally I could be talking to you guys for hours about all this kind of stuff. So, I just have compiled a quick list of my favorites. This does not mean if someone's not on a list that you liked, that doesn't mean I didn't like their outfit. It's just something that I'm not compelled to talk about. And like I said in the previous video about this theme, you you can't really [ __ ] this theme up. Impressively, people did.

[00:32:50]Not in the way I thought they would, but they did. People who say that people didn't understand the assignment, they themselves don't really understand because they're viewing fashion is art as that fashion is supposed to emulate art as in traditional art as in sculpture and painting and that's not the theme. The theme is that fashion is art. Not art can be on fashion or fashion needs art to be f like no fashion is full stop art. If you're wearing a well- fit gown, even if it's black, beige, white, or gray, technically, you're in theme. Is it exciting? No. Is it boring? Yes. But you're not off a theme. You're just forgettable. This is not a time to play it safe. So, with that, here are my absolute favorites. No particular order.

[00:33:38]Like, we already know Kylie Jenner, one of my favorites. I adored Emma Chamberlain's outfit. I thought it was stunning. I thought it was such an fantastic way to incorporate painting and like traditional art, especially with her family's history of like her dad's a painter. the application of paint onto the gown. I also loved Kendall Jenner. I loved the commentary that Zach Posen made with taking something so mundane as a t-shirt.

[00:34:01]Something so closely related to underwear to workingclass garments to simplicity, uniformity, and the lack of artistry and then turned it into art. I thought the fit was really cool. I liked the little like sculptural bustle. My one beef is that those wings that they made were awesome. And I would have loved to have actually seen that on the carpet, not in the museum. But the photo of her in the museum, it is also stunning. It just would have been a really cool like carpet moment. But I I liked the conversation that was happening there with the white t-shirt, Bad Bunny, and the conversation he was having about the fleetingness of the body and the impermanence of beauty and youth. I thought that was really cool. I I understood what he was trying to say, I guess, in my own way, like I was interpreting it. As with all art, that's that's part of it, right? Um, adored Dre Hemingway's outfit. I loved the rough.

[00:34:54]It was so [ __ ] cool. Everything designed by Robert one wound. Oh god, I'm so sorry. Whether it was Lisa Naomi Osaka, I loved that one. Um, oh god, I'm Nishop Nisha. Nisha, supop. Nisha, soup pop with the hands.

[00:35:11]Incredible. So [ __ ] cool. Love Fenus Williams and the mimicking of the portrait of her and like that it brought to life. Love that. Chase Infinity by Tom Brown. Love that. I mean Tom Brown's never going to mess up a theme. Amy Cherald. I really like this one because uh this is another Tom Brown. She's the artist. The outfit was based off of a self-portrait of her like she did and they brought it to life. This marrying of art, right? I thought that was really beautiful. Anuk Yayai the bronze makeup.

[00:35:39]Oh, so good. adored Sabine Getty in the Ashi studio where they created the uh corset off of her body and then they painted it and aged it to make it look like 18th century oil painting had almost like come to life and it was like her hands and then she had the same jewelry on and so we had this like almost 4D effect of like what's real, what's fake, what's what's living, what's art. The use of the oranza and the frayed silk looked like a statue or a painting coming to life and it was shedding its skin like a snake. I really liked it conceptually and I thought the execution was really cool and beautiful.

[00:36:20]It's one of my favorites. I it just outstanding. Every single South Asian person on that carpet, every single one.

[00:36:26]Can I list them all? No. Was I expecting South Asian people to knock it out of the park? Absolutely I was. I there was that it was like an easy a for you guys.

[00:36:35]With that being said, there's no such thing as an ethical billionaire. I can appreciate what you're wearing, but I can still say you shouldn't be a billionaire. Okay. Okay, cool. Glad we had that talk. Anytime that it was clear like, okay, we took inspiration from a portrait, but then they like revamped it or worked with it into the fashion.

[00:36:49]Like, I liked them. It's just I'm just not going to list them all. I'm just I do want to give a special shout out though to Public School NYC and Wisdom K who went with them. I loved the tailoring that they did. I loved their experimentation with men's men's corsetry. I loved it. I thought it was really cool. Also, uh Wisdom K posted an Instagram, not Instagram, a Tik Tok uh of him after the Met trying to get out of his outfit and him having like a I can't get my corset off fast enough meltdown even though there was no bon in that corset. It was just a leather uh corset. Funniest [ __ ] thing I've seen in a while because it was so relatable.

[00:37:23]If you've ever worn corsetry to an event, that that moment where you're like, "It's time to get you want to get out of your clothes." And then like all of a sudden you have to like figure out how to like unlace yourself and you didn't see what was going on back there and someone did and you're like digging for a string and you're just like, "Please, for the love of God, I just want to get out of this thing and go to bed." There are other references that were on the red carpet that you all most likely would have missed. And one of them is actually Donald who is Mr. Hayward in the other Bennett sister and he's also in uh he's Morotti in the young Sherlock Holmes series on Prime also Irish Orpheus in in Hades Town.

[00:37:56][ __ ] incredible. He looks really plain and simple as it there's a really good reference there. His bow tie is that of uh the style that Charles Renie Macintosh wore who was an extremely prolific and profound and impactful Glaswegian artist. It's a subtle reference but it's there. Also, I want to give a shout out to those who made uh Laa's uh dress. I thought this was stunning. She looked incredible. Those are Glasgow roses. Again, an art an art scene reference. Worst dress. Hamish bowls. What in the [ __ ] Omega verse is this [ __ ] This is a nightmare. I hate everything about this. It looks dumb. The end. Heidi Clume. Also hate this. This is disgusting. You look like a sleep paralysis demon/weeping angel from Doctor Who. It is not Halloween.

[00:38:40]And the theme is not camp. It is fashion is art. Nothing about this is fashion.

[00:38:45]Is it technically impressive? Yes, of course it is. And I want to point out too, the same guy who did uh her makeup and like everything was the guy who also did Bad Bunny. So, this is not a reflection. I can't remember his name.

[00:38:58]It's not a reflection of his skill or talent. Has nothing to do with it. Has everything to do with Heidi Clume's intention or lack thereof. and and it re red is very I'm known for my wacky Halloween costumes and I'm going to go to the Met Gala and I'm going to be the weirdest person on the red carpet not because I'm actually saying something interesting or taking a real risk. It is for the essential like verality of it all, the clickbait of it all. It it's giving Mr. Beast Matt Gala. Frankly, I found it insulting. Ben Platt looks like he's wearing a 4 fair project. Next one is Jen Rubio. And I'm gonna Hold on.

[00:39:34]Hold on. It's not a critique of her. I am just really confused what Ashi Studio is doing because literally Lee did this in 2024. It is the same [ __ ] outfit.

[00:39:43]Is Lee and like Ashi Studio are they having a wooden corset white skirt off?

[00:39:48]What are we doing here? What the [ __ ] happened? And I went through Ashi Studios Instagram to see if maybe Lee wasn't the originator of it and I couldn't find anything. So yeah, there's that weird. Paloma Elcessor's dress um is on this list. It was done by Francisco Risso. It is on this list not because it wasn't on theme. It's because in order to make the dress, they purchased from eBay no less, according to Vogue, than 30 gowns. Paloma on the red carpet said 100 dresses from the 1920s,30s, and 40s. And they cut them up and repurposed them to make that gown. No.

[00:40:24]Bad. Shame on you. Not good. Shockingly, I actually really liked Kim's outfit. I watched the video where she's explained it. She put a lot of thought into it.

[00:40:32]This marrying again of like fashion and art and the body and all of it together that I felt for Kim it was really well done. Those are my like hot takes loved hated. Overall, Carpet was fine. I actually think it was better than what people are saying in part because I you can't [ __ ] up the theme per se unless you're Heidi Clue, but it doesn't mean like you did it well either. You know what I mean? Like I would have loved to have seen more experiments. I would have loved to seen more boldness on the carpet, but it's gotten so safe and so boring. If you enjoyed this video, do the things that YouTube wants you to do in order to make it so other people can see my video. I hate asking for this.

[00:41:10]It's annoying, but literally YouTube is like, "Do people like your video? Then we'll share it more." "Well, if people leave a comment, then we'll share it more. The algorithm, and it's all just a bunch of [ __ ] and it pisses me off.

[00:41:20]It sucks." Do those things if you're inclined. I'd appreciate it. If you haven't subscribed already and you like hanging out with me, please do so. The next video will be coming out in a couple weeks and we will be talking about The Other Bennett Sister because spoiler alert if you have not seen it, it's out on Brickbox and it's [ __ ] amazing. It's so goddamn good and I cannot wait to rant about it in the best sort of way. It's incredible. With that, I'll see you all back here next time with another video. Goodbye.