Best Met Gala Looks of All Time
Photography by Getty
Celebrity Style / Style

Met Gala 2017: A Look Back at the Best Outfits of All Time

By Nicole Livey

Date April 28, 2017

For those who think the red carpet has become a drag, rejoice in the fact that the annual crown jewel of high-concept, high fashion events is once again upon us—that’s right (in Oprah voice), it’s Met Gala timeeeee!

The unveiling of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s latest exhibition, Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons, is sure to pack a punch with an avant-garde and sculptural archive guests will be clamoring to wear.

A look back to 1999 at Liv Tyler and Stella McCartney’s flimsy, one-shouldered “Rock Royalty” tees shows a major turning point in the dinner’s dress code that began with the influx of celebrity invites (brought on by Anna Wintour when she overtook chairmanship in the mid-nineties). Or how about that remarkable plaid and lace confection sported by Sarah Jessica Parker to 2006’s AngloMania exhibit opening? There will always be Rihanna‘s epic Guo Pei golden train at 2015’s party. Yes, the power to make a provocative statement on the red carpet is still alive and well, if nowhere else than at least on the Met Gala floor. They don’t call them the East Coast Oscars for nothing, after all.

With that, let’s take a trip down memory lane and re-live some of the splashiest outfits to appear at the ball throughout the years and achieve that most coveted of statuses—an honest-to-goodness, over-the-top, out-of-control red carpet MOMENT.