“Welcome to my party,” remarked singer and actress Jennifer Lopez at the Met Gala on Monday evening, donning a sheer, jewel-encrusted Schiaparelli gown with a sculptural neckline extending beyond her collarbones.
It marked her inaugural stint as a co-chair of the event, yet it was her 14th ascent up the Met steps. “I think I retire tonight,” she quipped during Vogue’s livestream.
Ms. Lopez, renowned for her triple-threat talents, famously held both a No. 1 album (“J.Lo”) and a No. 1 movie (“The Wedding Planner”) concurrently in 2001. Her enduring career was chronicled in a film released in February titled “This Is Me … Now: A Love Story” (although critics found it puzzling).
An early attendee of the gala, a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, Ms. Lopez donned a gown by Daniel Roseberry adorned with silver pearls and over two million silver foil beads, requiring 800 hours of hand embroidery, according to Schiaparelli. Inspired by a butterfly, it adhered to the evening’s theme, “The Garden of Time.”
Her attire was part of a trend towards sheer dresses on the red carpet, echoed by Doja Cat, Rita Ora, and Emily Ratajkowski. Ms. Lopez’s ensemble featured strands of sparkling beading converging around her legs and torso.
Ms. Lopez made her debut appearance at the event in 1999. Over the years, her Met Gala ensembles have been nothing short of dramatic: from a black velvet and ballet pink halter dress by Ralph Lauren with evening gloves and a netted fascinator (2023) to a sweeping, baby blue Valentino cape (2017), and a red Versace number adorned with a beaded dragon strategically revealing glimpses of skin (2015).
However, none have surpassed the plunging, jungle-green gown she wore to the 2000 Grammy Awards, which became her most iconic red-carpet moment, even prompting Google executives to introduce an image search function due to public demand.
