Emma Chamberlain is certainly no stranger to the Met Gala: When she hit the Met Gala red carpet on Monday, it was her fifth consecutive year both attending and acting as a host for Vogue’s livestream. It means she knows the ins and outs of fashion’s biggest night, and talks to pretty much every A-lister who makes the event’s ultra-exclusive invite list. Met Monday begins at 6:30 a.m. and ends well past midnight for Chamberlain, and that’s after weeks of beauty prep and two days of intensive final interview research once the official guest list is shared with her. Chamberlain’s Met Gala 2025 look needed to both fit the high-fashion bill and be practical enough to work in.
“It’s definitely my longest day of the whole year, that’s for sure,” she told Vanity Fair from her hotel room ahead of her whirlwind Met Gala.
This year, she reached for two bespoke ensembles by French brand Courrèges, the house’s first time dressing a Met attendee under artistic director Nicolas Di Felice. The looks are related, and both referenced the night’s Tailored for You dress code celebrating the exhibit “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” For her red-carpet moment early in the night, Chamberlain opted for a hand-embroidered navy pinstripe crepe dress, with a suiting-inspired deconstructed silhouette, open back, and matching tulle tights and gloves, with hand-stitched pinstripe detailing. Then, working with stylist Jared Ellner and Courrèges, she changed into a look that was designed to appear as if she could have been wearing it under her longer red-carpet look, a navy crepe miniskirt, also hand-embroidered, and an asymmetrical white cady shirt, paired with low heels, a must for the long hours Chamberlain spends standing through the night.
Chamberlain explained that what started as a “why choose” moment a few years ago—she had the choice of the same Miu Miu look in blue and black and decided to wear both—has since turned into a (very practical) tradition that she cherishes.
“There’s no risk of fashion disaster, like a boob coming out or something,” she said of her second look. “Whereas, on the carpet, there is usually a risk of that. These looks are so finicky, so the carpet look is definitely not something I could wear all night. There’s a long train, there’s this and there’s that. Changing into another look has ended up being really special, so that, you know, Jared and I, and whoever we’re working with, can actually have a full moment on the carpet and not cut it short because I’m going and doing the interviews. This is, like, our sport, you know? Like, we love this shit, right? We want to do it to the fullest.”
Translating the carpet look to the interview ’fit is, she said, “mainly just about [finding] something that I can move in that’s reminiscent of the carpet look, worn with some sort of comfortable shoe.”
Collaborating with Courrèges, she said, was a dream come true after she and Ellner attended the brand’s show for the first time in Paris last year. She called it “our absolute favorite of the season, the one that we were just raving about for, like, weeks and weeks after.”
Di Felice, in an email, mirrored the sentiment. “For our very first appearance at the Met Gala, I really enjoyed collaborating with Emma on these looks,” he said. “We have a lot of common values: She is forward-thinking, free-spirited, with a strong fashion sense.”
“We were floored, like, it was so my style on a personal level,” Chamberlain continued. “A lot of times, we go to shows and it might not necessarily be our personal style, but we’re watching art happen, that sort of thing. But this was, like, so me.”
Vintage jewelry, watches, and eyeglasses sourced from eBay completed the suite of looks, which she said “could not be more tailored for me.”
As a bonus, those vintage bits and bobs are hers now. “The fact that I get to keep it, like, that’s never happened. I’m always giving everything back, which is like, fine, but it’s, like, a million-dollar necklace? That’s not mine. I’m giving that back.”
Returning borrowed jewels, she said, is “such a relief. I get so stressed out. There’s security, it’s a crazy thing. So this is a chill year with accessories in a way that’s very fun.”
Asked if she has a sartorial security blanket for red carpets, like a certain lipstick, or a color she finds herself gravitating to over and over, Chamberlain paused for a moment to think. “I have no security blankets when it comes to fashion,” she answered. “To be honest, I think my security blanket is my brain, it’s who I am. It’s my soul and my spirit that’s always with me, and my taste and my fashion philosophies, thoughts that are constantly changing.” She said that she tries not to go obsessively deep into the people she’ll be interviewing, because she wants to maintain a level of curiosity that keeps things fresh and exciting for the viewers.
Fashion-wise, “Clothes in general are a security blanket for me, and the choices that I make specifically for that event are, you know, what sort of makes me feel safe and like me?”
Another Met Gala essential: “My boring-ass cream Stanley cup.” (Chamberlain admits she is aggressively anti-rhinestone and won’t zhuzh her water bottle.)
“I’m usually so dehydrated during the Met, because I don’t drink water when I travel,” she explained. “But this year, no excuses. I got the Stanley cup.”
She called her Met Gala experiences “chaotic,” this year’s beginning a few weeks ago with a facial that “popped all my zits” after an unexpected breakout, and in more recent days fresh color and a trim for her platinum pixie cut, a self-administered gel manicure (“They’re actually in really good shape, and they match the outfit. And I’m wearing gloves. So I was like, ‘perfect,’” she said), more facials, and a day-of lymphatic massage. This, amidst the flash cards and research, Chamberlain at the center of a swirl of people.
“It’s amazing how many people are involved in this process,” she said. “It’s always very humbling for me, it’s a bit challenging for me at times, because I feel almost a level of guilt—there are so many people who are putting so much love and time and effort into this look. I’m a canvas for so many different people. It’s not just about me.”
“It’s, like, insane. There’s so many people loving on me, and every year, it feels like my birthday. It feels more like my birthday than my birthday does.”
Of course, due to her red-carpet duties, Chamberlain has a different experience of the evening than all the other attendees who also get the glam treatment, though “it’s all I’ve ever known this event to be.”
“I actually can’t even imagine what it’d be like to go to The Met and not get yanked back and change, and to have it be this sort of hectic thing. And to be honest, I bet that would be delightful,” she said, laughing. “Usually I get in so late and I’m exhausted by that point and hungry. So I’m like, This is awesome! But I’m also eating. Everyone’s dancing, and I’m eating because I literally just had the longest day.”
“My experience is very different than everyone else’s, yeah, but I also think that my experience is so rich,” she said. “It’s very hectic, it’s very chaotic, but also, that’s what I love about it. And it’s all I know.”
Accessories: Vintage sourced from eBayLymphatic: Josie RushingBeauty Sandwich: Ivan PolHair: Sami KnightMakeup: Lilly KeysStylist: Jared EllnerFacialist: Shani DardenHaircut: FrankColor: Anthony Vincent
For more from the Met Gala 2025, revisit Vanity Fair’s Met Gala 2025 liveblog for the evening’s highlights including every look, the best-dressed of the night, our experts’ picks for who best embodied the theme, a video replay of the red carpet, and more.
More Great Stories From Vanity Fair
-
See All the Fashion, Outfits, and Looks From the2025 Met Gala Red Carpet
-
Hawk Tuah Opens Up About Her Crypto Scandal
-
Plus, Who Made VF’s Met Gala Best-Dressed List?
-
The Dystopian Coming-of-Age Story Stephen King Considered Too “Merciless” to Film
-
Alan Alda on Life With Parkinson’s, M*A*S*H, and Carol Burnett
-
Why Are Americans So Obsessed With Protein? Blame MAGA.
-
The UK Has Found Another Reason to Be Mad at Meghan Markle
-
All of Quentin Tarantino’s Movies Ranked
-
Elon Musk’s 14 Children and Their Mothers (That We Know Of)
-
From the Archive: The Re-Happening of Diana Ross
The post Emma Chamberlain Wore Two Courrèges Looks for One Very Long Day at the Met Gala 2025 appeared first on Vanity Fair.
