Stray Kids become first K-pop band to walk Met Gala red carpet

The South Korean boy group Stray Kids attended the Met Gala in New York City on Monday in custom Tommy Hilfiger suits, becoming the first K-pop group to attend.

The eight-member group, composed of Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Han, Hyunjin, Felix, Seungmin and IN, wore suits in Hilfiger’s signature red, white and blue finished with gold floral detailing, a nod to “The Garden of Time” dress code of the gala.

Group frontman Bang Chan thanked Tommy Hilfiger for their looks, saying: “We’re stoked to be here, and if it wasn’t for Tommy, we would not be here.”

“Thank you to Tommy for inviting us, all eight of us.”

“We had a lot of fitting sessions and they all went really smoothly. I personally really, really like everyone’s ‘fits.”

“They are as modern as you can get,” Hilfiger responded.

“They are modern prep, and they’re global superstars.”

Stray Kids are not the first K-pop artist to walk the “green” carpet at the Met Gala — popular artists like Psy, Blackpink’s Rosé and Jennie, CL, and Got7’s Jackson Wang have attended — but this is the first time that an entire group was invited to attend.

Jennie, who walked the red carpet for the second time, wore a custom Alaïa blue mini-dress.

While social media was excited to see Stray Kids members and Jennie meeting at the event, many were aghast at the alleged racist treatment that the band was meted out by some photographers at the venue.

The dress code this year is inspired by a 1962 short story of the same name by JG Ballard and coincides with the opening of the Costume Institute’s annual exhibit which will be centred around 50 historically significant pieces of fashion – some too fragile ever to be worn again.

Nearly 250 items will be drawn from the Costume Institute’s permanent collection, featuring designs from Elsa Schiaparelli, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, and Givenchy and spanning 400 years of fashion history.