The 84 Best Met Gala Dress-Code Rejectors of All Time

The Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art has played host to a number of red-carpet rebels over the years. Katy Perry famously lit up the night with her dress of 3,000 LEDs in 2010, and who could forget Marc Jacobs’s outrageously chic Comme des Garçons lace look in 2012? And yet there is a sub-section of stylish dressers who subvert the rules in more subtle ways: Enter the theme rejectors.

Over the years, a number of stars have ignored the Met Gala’s dress code and marched to the beat of their own drum—like when Jennifer Love Hewitt wore a marabou-feathered ball skirt to the 1999 rock and roll-themed gala. In honor, Vogue is rounding up the 84 best moments where individuality ruled.

Kicking off from the 2010s, the American Woman exhibit in 2010 saw British star Emma Watson chose to fly her own flag, outfitted in an anglo-appropriate Burberry dress. A few years later, the theme rejectors came out in droves for 2013’s punk theme. Jennifer Lawrence made the case for subdued elegance over anarchy, gracing the museum stairs in Raf Simons’s modern reinterpretation of Christian Dior’s New Look. Kate Upton’s emerald green Diane von Furstenberg dress was anything but chaotic, and Katy Perry’s byzantine ensemble by Dolce & Gabbana seemed to predate the punk movement by several hundred years.

Ashley Olsen in vintage Dior
The year: 2013
The theme: PUNK: Chaos to Couture

Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

There were plenty who also sidestepped 2014’s Charles James-themed gala, countering the couturier’s signature ball gowns with ultra-modern takes on evening wear. Lupita Nyong’o, for instance, sparkled in a Josephine Baker–style Prada look, and she was followed by a parade of chic minidress wearers, like Michelle Williams who wore Louis Vuitton. And few could top Erykah Badu’s sartorial act of rebellion as she entered the Great Hall in a Givenchy couture jumpsuit and oversize hat.

The 2019 camp theme—which encouraged attendees to go bold in feathers, sequins, and maximalist looks—saw select attendees take a shockingly-simple approach to red carpet dressing. Gwyneth Paltrow, for one, wore a yellow chiffon number by Chloé. It was elegant and whispered in a crowd of gowns that screamed.