Hollywood’s newest It girl has officially made her grand debut at the Met Gala.
Taylor Russell arrived on the steps of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art tonight, and the Bones and All star interpreted the “Garden of Time” dress code by way of a wooden turtleneck bodice shaped to literally sculpt to her torso. The piece, which sank into a draped white skirt with an ethereal train, featured a glossy stain and hand-painted illustrations of birds and plants.
Tonight marks Russell’s first-ever appearance at the Met Gala, though her style has long been revered by the fashion set, whether she’s dressing up for the red carpet or to sit front row at a runway show. She described her love of fashion in an interview for Harper’s Bazaar’s February 2023 cover story.
“I feel like a little kid being able to do all this stuff that I’m doing right now,” she said. “ ‘Why not just run around that playground?’ is how I feel. Let’s see how it shifts and evolves.”
This year’s dress code for the gala is “The Garden of Time,” a concept inspired by J.G. Ballard’s 1962 short story of the same name. In essence, the theme examines the intrinsic connection between time and natural beauty—leaving the door wide open for attendees to interpret the dress code as they please.
“The Garden of Time” also complements the Costume Institute’s spring exhibition, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion,” which will include about “250 objects spanning four centuries” from the institute’s vast collection, all of them “visually united by iconography related to nature, which will serve as a metaphor for the fragility and ephemerality of fashion,” according to a press release. The exhibition will feature a number of modern technologies in its display, too, “from cutting-edge tools, artificial intelligence, and computer-generated imagery to traditional formats of x-rays, video animation, light projection, and soundscapes.”
As an associate editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com, Chelsey keeps a finger on the pulse on all things celeb news. She also writes on social movements, connecting with activists leading the fight on workers' rights, climate justice, and more. Offline, she’s probably spending too much time on TikTok, rewatching Emma (the 2020 version, of course), or buying yet another corset.
