Alexandra Shulman says she was not impressed by some of the red carpet looks at this month’s 2022 Met Gala.
“I thought the theme was a brilliant one — the idea of ‘gilded glamour,'” she tells Page Six Style. “So I was a little disappointed how few people really went for the authentic Gilded Age outfit, which I’d hoped they would.”
Continues Shulman of the dress code, “I felt that it was a very appropriate theme for the exhibition, which is [about] American fashion. And, you know, the Gilded Age was all about the heady days of New York. So it all made sense. I just would have liked to have seen some more really beautiful — rather than eccentric — looks.”
Speaking with Amy Odell for her book “Anna: The Biography,” Ford continued, “That used to just be very chic people wearing very beautiful clothes going to an exhibition about the 18th century … You didn’t have to dress like a hamburger.”
Alexandra Shulman does think a few select celebs nailed the prompt this year.
“I liked Blake Lively’s outfit; that was beautiful.” “The model Adwoa Aboah looked lovely in pink Tory Burch. I really liked Kendall Jenner, who was in this enormous black Prada. And I kind of liked David Lauren, who was in white tie and tails with torn jeans; I thought that was a very good, Lauren-esque take on American fashion.”
“I think that there’s been a real shift … to costume dressing and the emphasis being on how much you stand out. And I think that’s very much to do with the social media age that we live in,” Shulman says.
“You know, you’re trying to capture people’s attention, and then people are trying to get the clicks. So if you wear just a really lovely pink dress, it doesn’t have the standout quality of some of those, say, near-naked Burberry outfits Riccardo [Tisci] did.”
“With online shopping, there is a danger that you go crazy,” she says. “But I’m a great believer in instinctive buying, and that when you see something and you love it, you should buy it.”
Right now, Alexandra Shulman’s gravitating toward pieces that are bright and bold.
“I’m sort of loving all those balloon sleeves that are around at the moment,” she says. “And the color, the richness of color and pattern, which is so joyful after two years of a pandemic.”
