Inside the Mark Hotel Lobby Ahead of the Met Gala 2023
“For me, this is just a New Yorker moment,” declared Alexandra Daddario ahead of her first Met Gala.
“I grew up in New York close to the Met, I used to go when I was a little girl and one of my first dates was at the Temple of Dendur,” she continued. “That’s just really special.”
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Though it was Daddario’s first rodeo, she was among seasoned gala veterans, including the fellow gala goers, journalists, photographers, stylists and respective glam teams that packed the Mark Hotel’s lobby to the brim.
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Just before the arrivals started, Donatella Versace and Luar’s Raul Lopez both dashed into the hotel before respectively returning downstairs; the former with Anne Hathaway and the latter on the arm of Paloma Elsesser. “We grew up together downtown, so it was the perfect pair,” Lopez said.
Versace exchanged an embrace and quick “ciao” with Daniel Lee, who stagnated in the swelling lobby before retreating upstairs to wait. Gigi Hadid and Givenchy’s Matthew Williams, Bad Bunny and Simon Porte Jacquemus, and Lizzo were among the speediest exits from the lobby. Karlie Kloss and husband Jared Kushner also shuffled through quickly — Kloss donning her baby bump ahead of a red carpet reveal on the Met steps.
Among the partygoers, Anna Wintour, who runs the event and co-chaired this year’s alongside Penelope Cruz, Michaela Coel, Roger Federer and Dua Lipa, snuck out of the freshly opened Caviar Kaspia onto Madison Avenue to avoid the fray. Later on in the eve, Doja Cat hid her homage to Lagerfeld’s cat, Choupette, behind an orb of umbrellas.
Vittoria Ceretti, a longtime model during Lagerfeld’s tenure at Chanel, was the first to depart through the front door, quick to be followed by a slew of other models. Imaan Hammam pranced out of the elevator to pose for press in a Standing Ground frock — ”My stylist Alex White and I did research — when you think of Karl, you think of archival pieces, but we wanted to support a new designer,” she said of the joint effort. Cara Delevingne wore Lagerfeld’s namesake brand, alongside Manu Rios and Amber Valletta.
Among Lagerfeld’s O.G.s, Carla Bruni whispered the designer’s name when asked what she was wearing, alongside husband and former French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
There were plenty of first-time goers, too. Ke Huy Quan, of “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once” fame and recent Oscar winner, said it was his first time attending, wearing Dior, alongside Daddario, a freshly minted ambassador for the brand.
Grace Elizabeth, who wore Christopher John Rogers, said that he took inspiration from Fendi couture. “I added a little more theater with my beauty today — just to try to embody it a bit more,” she said, a nod to her crystalline eyelids.
Others decided to think pink, too. Ashley Graham donned Harris Reed, who said the dress was also a pivot for his business. “It was all handmade in our little, small atelier in London. I want to push my namesake brand to be much more demi-couture, and the Met is the perfect exercise of craftsmanship and what a bunch of kids can make in a small room,” he said.
Gabriela Hearst, creative director at Chloé, which Lagerfeld helmed from 1974 to 1983, and then again in the ’90s, reimagined his violin dress for Olivia Wilde and reinterpreted another side-cutout gown for Maude Apatow. For her third guest, Vanessa Kirby, she lent a Lagerfeld original.
“We are celebrating Karl’s genius and his love of female intelligence. He surrounded himself with very intelligent women,” Hearst said, herself wearing a reincarnation of Lagerfeld’s guitar dress, on display in the exhibition. “I’m the luckiest man in town.”
Irina Shayk wore a 1998 Yohji Yamamoto look, paired with an unlikely shoe choice for the affair. “I’m wearing flats,” she said. “This is how we go to the Met — and have fun.”
Launch Gallery: Getting Ready for the 2023 Met Gala at the Mark Hotel
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