Kendall Jenner has become an impressive vintage collector, with a closet full of impeccably preserved Alaïa and Mugler, but the 2024 Met Gala might just mark her most impressive archive pull yet.
“I made a dream list of who I would ideally want to go with, and I would have died to wear something by Alexander McQueen,” Jenner tells Vogue. The model dove into his Givenchy archive to find her perfect Met look. (The late designer served as creative director of Givenchy from 1996 until 2001.) “The House of Givenchy is in a unique transition of creative directors, and the House is opening its privately protected archives for Kendall at the Met,” says Jenner’s stylist, Dani Michelle. “We did a ton of research, specifically on the work of the talented and remembered Alexander McQueen, and Kendall and I both fell in love with this dress. Shockingly, they had it.”
Tonight, Jenner becomes the first person to ever wear one of McQueen’s fall 1999 looks for Givenchy haute couture. The collection was presented on mannequins and never shown on the runway. Since its presentation, Jenner’s look was preserved in the Givenchy archives, where it will return after the model wears it tonight. “It’s been sleeping for the last 25 years. It’s literally a ‘sleeping beauty,’” Jenner says. “It’s such a special moment. I feel extremely honored that they’re allowing me to wear it.”
Since the dress has been kept in pristine condition, tailoring was forbidden. “So the big moment of truth was, Does it fit me? and it literally fits me like a glove,” Jenner says. “The rest is history, and it really feels meant to be in a way.”
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