Please leave it to Jennifer Lopez to interpret a theme without going overboard. As one of the evening’s most anticipated guests, the 54-year-old multihyphenate did not fail to serve with her breathtaking appearance at the 2024 Met Gala.
Having been named co-chair of the event this year and attending the renowned gala for the 14th time, J.Lo clearly understood the assignment. Adorned with millions of glimmering embellishments, her see-through Schiaparelli gown left the crowd in awe. But although she looked stunning, I was a little let down because I felt like I had seen this before.
Considering she was a co-chair of the event, her look felt somewhat underwhelming. Although it reflected her signature style, the familiarity of her choice in see-through dresses didn’t deliver the wow factor expected at such a gala. I hoped for something more innovative that would truly captivate us.
Jennifer Lopez shines in a heavily embellished see-through butterfly-inspired gown by her go-to fashion house, Schiaparelli, at the 2024 Met Gala, celebrating Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (Credit: Jennifer Graylock / INSTARimages)
A Closer Look at J.Lo’s Schiaparelli Met Gala Gown
One may wonder how JLo’s outfit ties in with the evening’s theme. Apparently, her gown was designed to imitate butterfly wings. Sure, I see that, but initially, I thought it was meant to resemble branches and vines.
Schiaparelli’s Creative Director Daniel Roseberry designed Lopez’s illusion tulle sheath gown, which featured a sculptural bodice with a daring plunging V-neckline and wings protruding to the sides. It was modeled after four enlarged butterfly wings, honoring “Elsa Schiaparelli’s obsession with the butterfly, the surrealist embodiment of metamorphosis.”
More than its nature theme, the butterfly motif represents transformation. I love how Mariel Haenn, her stylist, perfectly described it as “something that was asleep that wakes up beautiful, powerful, and new.”
She added, “The butterfly is a perfect articulation of a sleeping beauty. Something that goes to sleep and wakes up beautiful also still lives in a garden without being a flower. The butterfly and idea of metamorphosis has been part of Schiaparelli’s DNA since the beginning.”
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Hugging every inch of her hourglass figure, the stunning gown had see-through panels, leaving little to the imagination. It even gave a glimpse of her $27 million insured bum.
The see-through tulle dress was meticulously embroidered with over 2.5 million silver foil bugle beads, warm silver pearls, and rhinestone crystals over the course of over 800 hours, all carefully placed to conceal J.Lo’s modesty.
Jennifer Lopez embraces The Garden of Time dress code with a custom-made Daniel Roseberry butterfly theme gown, emulating the butterfly’s transformation (Credit: Michael Stewart / INSTARimages)
I love the dramatic sweep train that followed every movement she took and the front slit that gave us a clear look at her nude Andrea Wazen Loulou platform heels.
These $825 party-ready sandals are crafted from luxurious nude satin, matching her Tyler Ellis Eloise clutch. They have a sleek design, with adjustable buckled ankle straps, pointed peep toes, and towering 5.9-inch thin stiletto heels.
As I said, J.Lo looked stunning. I just thought it would have been so much nicer to see her in anything other than sheer, maybe like a design that alluded to a previous era or one that evoked a more melancholic atmosphere.
Jennifer Lopez teams her bedazzled tulle gown with nude satin Andrea Wazen Loulou peep-toe sandals (Credit: Jennifer Graylock / INSTARimages)
Glistening in Tiffany & Co. Blue Book Jewelry
Though the Schiaparelli ensemble isn’t as avant-garde as I had hoped, I still think styling duo Mariel Haenn and Rob Zangardi should be commended for putting together the Maid in Manhattan star‘s Met Gala look.
Her gown already has plenty of glitter, but adding ostentatious jewelry sealed the deal. It’s the Met Gala, after all, and it’s known for its exceptionally elaborate, over-the-top outfits that often defy conventional ideas of what constitutes fashion.
Jennifer Lopez gives her glittering gown some extra sparkles with exquisite jewelry from Tiffany & Co.’s newly launched Blue Book Tiffany Celeste collection (Credit: Jennifer Graylock / INSTARimages)
The Selena actress accessorized her ensemble with more sparkles from the newly launched Tiffany & Co. 2024 Blue Book “Tiffany Céleste” collection. She wore a set from the “Wings” chapter, which included an exquisite platinum and 18k yellow gold diamond necklace with a 20-carat diamond at the center and a matching diamond bracelet with a 3-carat center diamond.
She also wore 18k yellow gold diamond drop earrings and a Jean Schlumberger Bird on a Rock ring with a yellow 4-carat diamond and a white 4-carat diamond.
I love how her jewelry echoed her ensemble’s “wings” motif!
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J.Lo’s Butterfly Glam
J.Lo’s glamour lives up to expectations, and I applaud Scott Barnes and Lorenzo Martin for incorporating the butterfly theme into her glam.
Martin pulled the Shotgun Wedding actress‘s honey tresses into a textured top knot bun using Shark FlexStyle Sparkle Air Styling & Drying System in Black Diamond. He kept the bun in place with the Tresemme Extra Hold Hair Spray and created the “angelic pieces” with The Tangle Teezer Ultimate Styler.
“Just like a butterfly, we wanted the hair to be angelic, fresh, and beautiful,” Martin told Vogue.
Barnes, meanwhile, gave her a neutral glam, applying bronze eyeshadow on her lids to complement her gown’s brilliance. He added a swipe of neutral lip gloss and sculpted her cheekbones with bronzer for a radiant finish.
Jennifer Lopez completes her butterfly-themed look with butterfly-inspired glam, wearing a textured top knot and bronzed makeup (Credit: Jennifer Graylock / INSTARimages)
Why Did Jennifer Lopez Walk the Met Gala Steps Solo?
Noticeably missing from the glamorous event was Lopez’s husband, Ben Affleck, who’s currently busy filming The Accountant 2, the sequel to his 2016 action thriller directed by Gavin O’Connor, in Los Angeles.
The Met Gala 2024 Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion Theme
The 2024 Costume Institute exhibition, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion,” celebrates the delicacy of vintage fashion spanning four centuries. This year’s theme, inspired not by Disney princesses but by these garments displayed as “sleeping beauties” in glass cases at the Metropolitan Museum’s archives, honors their historical significance.
The exhibit serves as a “vehicle to examine the cyclical themes of rebirth and renewal.” It “[breathes] new life into these storied objects through creative and immersive activations designed to convey the smells, sounds, textures, and motions of garments that can no longer directly interact with the body.”
The Met Gala 2024 Dress Code
In line with the exhibition’s theme, the 2024 Met Gala dress code takes inspiration from J.G. Ballard’s 1962 short story, The Garden of Time, which centers on Count Axel and his wife living in a villa surrounded by a garden of crystal time flowers. When an army comes at them one day, Axel tries to stop them in their tracks by picking a flower from their enclosed garden. However, as the flower can only slow down time, this just postpones their progress. He repeats it every night until there is just one flower remaining. The army eventually arrives at their villa, destroying it.
The narrative is an allegory about ephemeral beauty and the never-ending cycle of fashion’s creativity and inevitable decomposition.
In true Met Gala fashion, several celebs dressed in flowers to embrace the theme’s more literal garden element. Others, meanwhile, stirred up controversy with their wardrobe selections—just another typical Met Gala day.