It’s official: After consciously uncoupling from the Met Gala for a few years, Gwyneth Paltrow made her triumphant return to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s famous stairs, dressed in a pale pink sequin, one-shoulder Calvin Klein by Appointment dress (which she paired with $2.5 million Harry Winston diamond earrings).
Her stylist Elizabeth Saltzman says the design was inspired by Basic Instinct, and that Paltrow knew she would wear Calvin Klein around the time of the label’s fashion show in February (designer Raf Simons’ first collection for the label), but they only began working on it four weeks ago — and had the final fitting just this morning. “She wants to go and have fun. And black just doesn’t do that. Pink just felt right,” says Saltzman, who acknowledges that the dress “doesn’t relate to the theme at all. But it relates to her first Met, which is pretty cool.”
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Earlier on Monday, Paltrow posted a throwback Instagram photo from her first-ever Met Gala in 1995 with the hashtags #CalvinKlein and #fullcirclemomentcomingup, indicating that she may be wearing the brand once again, more than 20 years later. When asked in Vogue‘s Instagram Live about re-wearing the label, Paltrow said the “full-circle moment” made her “feel like an old b—-.”
The last time Paltrow attended the Met Gala was in 2013, when she wore a hot pink long-sleeve Valentino Haute Couture gown. Although the evening is arguably the most exciting night of the year for the fashion crowd, Paltrow decidedly did not enjoy her time at the much-hyped event that year — even going as far as to say she’d never return. “I’m never going again. It was so un-fun. It was boiling. It was too crowded. I did not enjoy it at all,” she said at the time.
In 2015, Paltrow posted a photo to Instagram the day following the gala which showed her daughter Apple in a pair of monster-feet slippers, along with the caption “This was the red carpet at my house last night.”
In addition to 1995 and 2013, Paltrow also attended the event in 1999, 2001, 2011 and 2012.
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The GOOP founder is not the only star to speak out about disliking the Met Gala. Amy Schumer, who went for her first time in 2016 famously said the event “felt like a punishment.” Lena Dunham, who attended in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016, echoed Schumer’s sentiment in a Lenny Letter essay, saying “I attempted to grind my ass on Michael B. Jordan for an additional twenty minutes and then left right after [Amy].” That said, the experience couldn’t have been too scarring, as Dunham also returned this year.
But thanks to Paltrow’s latest GOOP-related endeavor — a print publication produced with an assist from Met Gala doyenne Anna Wintour — it seems she’s overcome her distaste for the event (and gotten herself off Wintour’s blacklist for publicly dissing it).
Do you love Gwyneth’s Met Gala look?