Excuse me wtf the dress Kim Kardashian used was the actual dress Marilyn Monroe used??? I hadn’t clearly followed it closely and I though it was just replica?? What the fuck that’s so messed up. Like wearing so important historical extant garments is beyond fucked. I do think wearing normal vintage garments is totally fine and actually good (clothes should be worn until they break down imo) but not culture historically important pieces which there’s only one (1) in the whole wide world.
Blake Lively’s dress is an homage to New York City and the Statue of Liberty.
The draping represents the Statue of Liberty and the transition is a reference to the oxidation of the statue. The skirt is embroidered with the signs of the zodiac as an homage to the celestial painted ceiling of Grand Central Station. The bodice of her gown is a nod to the architecture of NYC, in particular, the Empire State Building. Her crown has seven tiers and 25 stones like Statue Liberty’s crown has seven rays and 25 windows.
The theme of this year’s Met Gala and accompanying exhibition is ‘In America: An Anthology of Fashion’ which apparently means they are taking inspiration from the Gilded Age (∼1870-1900) in the United States. According to the invitations, the dress code is 'gilded glamour, white tie.’ We usually see at least a couple of tiaras at the Met Gala but this year I’m hoping for a lot of them!
Tiaras were very popular for wealthy women in the Gilded Age which I love because most people think that tiaras are just for royalty and that is not true at all. The trouble is that non-royal tiaras are so much more difficult to find information about than their royal counterparts and I’m always on a mission for info into American tiaras. Here’s a few Gilded Age tiaras to get us exited!
Mary-Louise Hungerford MacKay’s Trefoil Arabesque Tiara by Boucheron, 1889
Alva Smith Vanderbilt’s Pearl Tiara by Boucheron, 1890
Julia Kemp’s Diamond Tiara by Tiffany & Co., 1894
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s Diamond Tiara by Boucheron, 1896
Cornelia Sherman Martin’s Diamond Flame Tiara, before 1897
JP Morgan’s Diamond Winged Tiara by Cartier, 1901 (I’m assuming he bought this for someone else and wasn’t just wearing it around the house but you never know)
Lila Vanderbilt Sloane Field’s Diamond Tiara by Cartier, 1902
Mary Morgan Burn’s Ruby Tiara by Boucheron, 1903
Harry Payne Whitney’s Wreath Tiara by Cartier (I assume he bought this for his wife, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, but his sister-in-law, Gladys Vanderbilt Széchenyi, was photographed wearing a very similar tiara in all diamonds)
Mary Scott Townsend’s Diamond Tiara by Cartier, 1905
