Jeans at the Met Gala?! Yes, They Belong
When stars hit the Met steps in casual jeans, it doesn’t take long for the internet to raise an eyebrow. But what if we told you: They can be effective—and downright cool.
Reported by Vogue.
Every May, the Met Gala steps become fashion's most theatrical stage — a place for couture so elaborate it borders on architecture, jewels that cost more than most mortgages, and looks so referential they require a Wikipedia search to fully unpack. So when this year's carpet produced a visible number of jeans, the internet did what the internet does: it melted down. "Met Gala in jeans? Really?" wrote one commenter. Another suggested an "automatic blacklist." Predictably dramatic. Also, predictably wrong.
According to Vogue, two of the most-discussed denim moments came from Troye Sivan and model Bhavitha Mandava. Sivan arrived head-to-toe in Prada — black coat, white poplin shirt, devoré-effect jeans, cowboy boots — the entire look a deliberate nod to photographer Robert Mapplethorpe's personal aesthetic. Mandava wore Mathieu Blazy's Chanel: a beige muslin half-zip over trousers that read as blue jeans but were, technically, muslin printed with a denim effect. A trompe l'oeil that made you look twice. The theme this year was "fashion is art." Mission accomplished.
Denim Has Always Been Doing the Work
Mandava's look carried particular weight — it was nearly identical to the outfit she wore the day she became the first Indian model to ever open a Chanel show. Wearing it again at the Met wasn't laziness; it was biography. Meanwhile, the archive on denim at this event is stronger than critics remember: In 2012, Jenna Lyons paired a hot-pink satin skirt with a blue jean jacket at a Schiaparelli and Prada-themed Gala — two houses built on dismantling conventional beauty. In 2022, Kodi Smit-McPhee showed up in stonewashed Bottega Veneta jeans as a pointed homage to the very American ritual of Casual Friday, at a Gala literally themed around American fashion history. And Blazy, then Bottega's creative director, had already established his credentials by constructing jeans and flannels entirely out of leather — denim as a concept, elevated through fabrication.
On runways every season, denim is anything but a default. Designers like Glenn Martens at Diesel continuously rework the fabric — slashing, deconstructing, reconstructing — proving it is as creatively alive as any silk or organza. A well-deployed jean on a red carpet doesn't signal that someone gave up; it signals that someone understood the assignment well enough to subvert it. The Met is not the Oscars. It was never about Old Hollywood reverence or playing it safe in a column gown. It has always been about igniting a conversation — and if jeans are what get people talking, they are doing exactly what the evening asks of them.
The laziest take at the Met Gala isn't wearing denim — it's dismissing it without thinking about why it's there.
Read the original at Vogue.
