How British Fashion Designers Dominated The Met Gala

On the first Sunday of May Sienna Miller attended a pre-Met Gala dinner in a mini dress with a flower sprouting from the left shoulder designed by Freddy Coomes and Matt Empringham, two current students at Central Saint Martins. It was quite the endorsement for the young designers, given the dress was plucked from their upcoming MA Central Saint Martins collection. On the Met Gala red carpet, styling decisions are largely dictated by existing commercial partnerships and it is typically far too costly for small brands to have a moment on the steps, however this dress was a prelude to a red carpet that celebrated several generations of London talent.

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The exhibition titled 'Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion' and the 'The Garden of Time' dress code (which comes from the short story by the novelist J.G Ballard) both have an innately British sensibility, evoking folklore, sprawling country gardens and a bygone era, that London designers continually explore with eccentricity and grit. The theme was a celebration of both the beauty and darkness of nature, a tension which always underpinned the late Alexander McQueen’s work, making the red carpet rife for some archive Lee. It's no surprise then that two of the headline looks teasing the exhibit are McQueen – a SS01 dress constructed from razor shells Lee collected in Norfolk, and a butterfly winged mini dress Sarah Burton designed in spring 2011.

While the overall number of archive looks on the night was disappointing, considering the exhibition’s focus on rare archive pieces, Lee’s influence on this year’s carpet was undeniable. Zendaya wore a theatrical headpiece designed by Philip Treacy for Alexander McQueen in 2007 with her head nestled in a bunch of roses, while Lana Del Rey’s thorny creation by Seán McGirr for Alexander McQueen referenced one of Lee’s more memorable, tortured looks from his AW06 collection. On the night, Kendall Jenner notedL 'I made a dream list of who I would ideally want to go with, and I would have died to wear something by Alexander McQueen.' What the Kardashian-Jenners want, they get – she walked the red carpet in a gown from the late designer’s AW99 Givenchy Haute Couture collection. Kendall’s McQueen moment didn’t stop there as she then changed into an angelic dress with feathered wings from Lee’s SS97 collection for Givenchy for the after parties.

The 40th year of London Fashion Week also made this year’s Met a poignant moment to celebrate the new wave of design talent that is currently being nurtured in the capital. Stylist Harry Lambert, who often introduces next-gen names to a global stage, was the brains behind Miller’s graduate look and also dressed Eddie Redmayne and Hannah Bagshaw in matching Steve O Smith for the Gala. The London-based emerging designer, who only graduated from CSM in 2022, created poetic looks inspired by the artist Cy Twombly, with playful, whimsical outfits crafted from tulle and black silk crepe appliqué that gives the effect of charcoal drawings. SS Daley, one of the most talked about designers on the London schedule, meanwhile dressed comedian Alex Edelman in a wool suit inspired by vintage British book covers, with delicate ferns made from secondhand pearl beads dotted all over the blazer. Chloë Sevigny went down a more classical route, with Victorian 'mourning hair' and a corseted dress made from repurposed 19th century fabrics, by London-based Turkish designer Dilara Findikoglu who is known for bringing a haunting, gothic edge to historical references.

It wasn’t just the Central Saint Martins alum being enrolled into their first Met Gala, as Victoria Beckham’s London-based atelier dressed Bridgerton star Phoebe Dynevor as a classic English rose in a delicate blush gown crafted from archival lace with over 300 appliqué flowers. The Burberry table also resembled an English country garden – Lewis Hamilton’s look was inspired by John Ystumllyn, one of Britain’s first Black gardeners, Jodie Turner-Smith’s gown was embroidered with silk organza faux leather wildflowers and Little Simz’s white trench coat was adorned with delicate English garden florals. Barry Keoghan, meanwhile, dressed like he was auditioning for a part in Bridgerton.

This year’s Met Gala was sponsored in part by Loewe, with the Spanish house dressing 17 high profile guests, from Greta Lee to Ayo Edebiri, and creative director Jonathan Anderson acting as an honorary co-chair. The Northern Irish designer’s first Met Gala moment, however, came back in 2015, when Sevigny wore a tapestry gown from his label J.W. Anderson – it’s quite the blueprint for how to go from London wunderkind to power player. Something tells us Freddy Coomes and Matt Empringham, who did their placement years interning at JW Anderson and Loewe, will be having their Met step debut in no time. Watch this space.

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