Met Gala 2018: top 15 best dressed

Your one-stop shop for the best dressed celebrities from the 2018 Met Gala on Monday, May 7. Featuring extravagant dresses and headpieces from the best “Fashion Patrons,” celebrities went all out with this year’s theme: “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.”

Sophie Stephens, Online Managing Editor

The annual Met Gala is a gathering of celebrities to raise money for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute and is easily the single biggest night for fashion. Essentially mixing prom and haute couture fashion, the Met Gala is an extravagant night to celebrate fashion and art. With this year’s theme being related to Catholicism and fashion’s “Patron Saints,” there were plenty of red, gold, silver and white ball gowns, crowns, headpieces and cross designs on the red carpet.

1. Priyanka Chopra
Priyanka Chopra tops my list of best-dressed at this year’s Met Gala in a dark red velvet Ralph Lauren dress with a cape and train. Her outfit was complete with a golden headpiece that covers her hair and extends to her shoulders. The headdress took nearly 250 hours of hand-sewing to attach the Indian-inspired embroidery and Swarovski crystals.

2. Blake Lively
Blake Lively’s Versace gown had a beaded fitted top and red skirt with silver-jeweled filigree patterns down the side panels, mixing red and silver panels with sheer ones down the sides. The dress took over 600 hours to make, and is rumored to have such a long train that Lively had to use a party bus just to have enough room to fit her dress in.

3. Rihanna
It is impossible to be talking about the 2018 Met Gala and not include Rihanna’s outfit. It’s extravagant interpretation of the theme made headlines in all of the biggest fashion magazines. The artistic interpretation of the theme “Heavenly Bodies” led to a silver bejeweled custom dress by John Galliano that stops just above the knee, paired with a matching trench coat. Her papal-inspired headpiece by Stephen Jones puts Rihanna in third place. Talk about dedication to the theme!

4. Jasmine Sanders
Jasmine Sanders, better known as Golden Barbie, a famous Instagram model, rocked a golden off-the-shoulder H&M dress, making her look like a real-life Barbie at her first Met Gala red carpet. The daring structure of the bust and the beautiful draping of the skirt make this dress look like liquid gold, but what really made the outfit one-of-a-kind was Sanders’ blond braid adorned with red roses, which made it look straight out of “Beauty and the Beast.”

5. Emilia Clarke
Emilia Clarke’s Dolce and Gabbana Alta Moda gown made her look just like royalty. Her black and gold strapless A-line dress had beautiful detailing, including paintings of cherubim across the skirt. Her outfit was topped off with a golden jeweled crown adorned with flowers.

6. Ariana Grande
Ariana Grande’s Vera Wang ball gown got plenty of attention on the red carpet. With tan tulle and fabric printed with Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel paintings and finished with a large tan bow, this outfit was definitely a work of art.

7. Gigi Hadid
Supermodel Gigi Hadid wore a Versace gown that mixed stained-glass paneling techniques and pastel colors to create a one-of-a-kind dress. The pale blue and light tan fabric on the bodice and dark, shimmery blue, purple and green tones in the skirt made this mermaid-style dress look like a mixture of butterfly wings and stained glass windows. The artistry and design of the dress in addition to the structure and stain glass inspiration puts Hadid in seventh place for the 2018 Met Gala.

8. Chadwick Boseman
Black Panther actor Chadwick Boseman wore an all white Versace suit with gold and red accents. While most of the men on the red carpet chose to stick with dark suits like black, navy or maroon, Boseman stood out with his all white outfit clad with multiple golden crosses on the chest and arms and gold patterns across his legs.

9. Zendaya
This Covergirl rocked a Versace outfit inspired by armor. Channeling Joan of Arc, the silver-plated gown with structured shoulders, a high neck and chain mail made her look like a medieval knight. Her new red crimped bob also added to the artistry, proving Zendaya is the only person who can rock a new hairstyle every day and make chain mail look fashion forward and comfortable.

10. Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway’s gorgeous, bright red ball gown by Pierpaolo Piccioli Valentino Couture made her number ten on my best dressed list because of its simple design and extravagant structure. The light fabric allows the large princess skirt to flow behind her with an open back adding balance to the added volume in the front and shoulders of the bust. Hathaway’s look was complete with an Asian-inspired chopstick headpiece.

11. Shawn Mendes
The musician’s Tommy Hilfiger wine colored suit stood out for its simplicity and elegance on the 2018 Met Gala red carpet. With buttons similar to those of a more casual coat and a black-lined collar, Mendes’ outfit went beyond the average black tuxedo without going too extreme into this year’s theme. Although his suit stood out among others, it is safe to say that Hailey Baldwin’s shimmery pastel blue dress with loose off the shoulder straps and pink hair really helped the duo stand out.

12. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley
Model and actress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s pale gold fitted dress and cape that goes from her shoulders to the floor by Ralph Lauren puts her at number 12 on my best-dressed list. The gold dress adorned with shimmering jewels was elegant and effortless, but what really stood out was the Byzantine era-inspired halo headpiece she paired with the gold dress.

13. Sasha Lane
Actress Sasha Lane wore a Tory Burch white dress that was simplistic, paired with a high messy bun wrapped in silver-jeweled string. The gauzy fabric made the dress look light, soft and angelic, and the sheer long-sleeves and ruffled neckline stood out from the sea of off-the-shoulder and strapless dresses.

14. Evan Rachel Wood
This incredible kimono-inspired gold-feathered outfit paired with black pants was eye catching. Taking nearly a month to hand sew the thousands of gold feathers onto the cape, this Altuzarra look was a fresh sight in a sea of mermaid dresses and large princess dresses with full skirts. The pants and coat looked artistic and structural on the red carpet, and the trained cape fit in with the new red carpet trend.

15. Bella Hadid
Supermodel Bella Hadid finishes my list of best dressed celebrities at the Met Gala in her Chrome Hearts Official black dress with stiff latex corset and neck that one Teen Vogue reporter called “Maleficent inspired.” The dress was decorated with crosses and a ten pound head veil.