Like her fashion tether Carrie Bradshaw, Sarah Jessica Parker will always dress to impress. And when it comes to the Met, she goes all out. For the 2024 Met Gala, Parker pushed the “Garden of Time” dress code to its sartorial limits in an extravagant Richard Quinn birdcage-esque number.
Parker got the idea to approach Quinn about the Met when And Just Like That… costume designer Molly Rogers floated the idea of the British designer contributing to the season three costumes. “Molly was kind enough to connect us with his team, we started a conversation, and here we are,” Parker tells Vogue.
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The piece shares similarities with looks from Quinn’s spring 2024 collection. “His most recent collection coincidentally had pieces that, in many ways, communicated or inferred the Met theme as we understood it,” Parker says. “I had gone to the Sargent and Fashion exhibit at the Tate Britain and been inspired by a few works of art I saw there, but it was his collection that really seemed to instinctively interpret the theme.”
The foundational wire frame is essential to the look, and underscores the theme of ephemerality. “Hand-cut lace is appliquéd over the frame, appearing to grow around it and adding a subtle floral element to the design,” Quinn tells Vogue of the skeletal dress. “The crystals incorporate a level of hardness and unbreakability, glistening across the fragile lace below.” Quinn, for his part, was particularly inspired by the idea of preservation. “I have always been fascinated by the enduring beauty of archival clothing from times gone by,” he says. “With this dress, we wanted to play on the idea of preservation; the dress appears so fragile as to be almost ephemeral, but with care and consideration it has been built to last.”
Tonight’s Met marks SJP’s 12th time attending since her first year in 1995, when she wore a thrifted black velvet dress. Over the years, she’s developed a reputation for being one to watch on the carpet, from her matching tartan with Lee McQueen to her ornate gold headpiece from 2018’s “Heavenly Bodies.”