There was some understandable hand-wringing before the Met Gala about whether guests would overdo the “China: Through the Looking Glass” theme to the point of cultural appropriation. Kaiser pointed out that many of the guests, like Katy Perry and Lady Gaga, have had issues with inadvertent racism and cultural appropriation in the past. For the most part, the guests who bothered with the theme did so in ways that were appreciative rather than running roughshod over tradition. Sarah Jessica Parker’s look was over the top, for instance, but it didn’t rely on stereotypes and was generally well received. Enter Kris Jenner. She was in Balmain, who also designed Justin Bieber’s sparkly jacket, which Bedhead will cover later.
Kris’s dress is a decent enough tribute to the theme. She could have done fine with the dress and some subtle styling, but instead she overdid it with obnoxious dangling earrings, a giant gold belt, gold tipped shoes, and cat eye makeup that emphasizes her already pinched face. This is a bad interpretation of the theme, I’ll just leave it at that.
In contrast we have the venerable Carolina Herrera and Zang Ziyi in an incredible white cap sleeve gown with a mandarin collar and some jeweled poppies along the neckline. This is how you do the theme. I’ve always loved Herrera’s gowns, which I came to know through Rene Zellweger’s loyalty to the designer. I’m into very classic, borderline preppy styles and Herrera almost always brings it.
Also in Herrera is Lily Aldridge whose nod to the theme was a silver koi clutch. Koi fish are Japanese, not Chinese, which isn’t that big of a deal but she did keep kissing the accessory and holding it up. Great gown and impressive styling.
Seth Myers’s wife, Alexi Ashe Meyers, was also in Hererra, in a kind of abstract water print dress. These two are so sweet together.
I’m throwing in Chloe Moretz at the end. She also got it wrong but it looks like Coach’s Stuart Vevers didn’t even try to design for the theme. Chloe represents Coach and is wearing a custom gown by Vevers. I can’t seem to quit their bags no matter how hard I try, but this gown helps. It looks like a nice napkin folded out on the table and it’s not formal enough for the event.
Photo credit: WENN.com and Getty Images
I was literally just thinking ‘where is the PMK post?!’ when I saw this. So much horrible! I can’t even. Ugly dress, tacky belt, WTF earrings, crazy expression, horrible makeup…. Like the red and that’s it. Beyond fug.
Why is she invited??
I think I read somewhere that you can buy your way into the Met Gala now for a cool $25,000!
Why on earth was she there? Totally DOWNgrades the whole event–if all those Kartrashians may go why not just open it to the general public.
She looks hideous to boot!
PMK is hideous in every way. And this proves it yet again…..
I bet she’s had those earrings since the Eighties and has been looking for an occasion to wear them ever since. Yuck!
Red is Kris’ color. I love that she departed from her trademark black and white. Would love to see Kris add red to her wardrobe a lot more.
I want those padded shoulders to swoop up a little at the arm, like the shape of a traditional Chinese palace roof.
Kris’ earrings are cool. The belt and the shoes are gorgeous but meant for a different outfit.
Lily Aldridge’s dress would have been amazing in peony pink. She would have reminded people of a gorgeous peony in bloom, a flower you see in Chinese art.
Kris looks like she was rolled in 2-sided tape and drug through Chinatown, picking up every red curtain, brass wind-chime, and take-out menu along the way.
Yes, awful.
LMAO
You forgot the part where she was dragged through the Kmart dollar bins, the Ross shoe section and Spencer’s earring rack. Cheap, as in dictionary definition of.
Don’t like the look either. Too much, too over the top for me.
The earrings though, the way they drag down her lobes. Ouch.
Ouch is right!
I don’t think her neck is long enough for those earrings. The should hang, but instead they just rest on her shoulder pads.
PMK? Jenner’s look is head to toe awful. Classic more money than taste.
And the shoes are horrible too.She just look’s bad.
Kris Jenner’s “ensemble” reminds me of a tacky mother of the bride back in the 80’s, including the hair and shoulder pads. A museum piece fit for a museum gala. She doesn’t know that she is a parody.
Chloe looks cute but SO NOT fancy enough for the Met Ball! Her dress isn’t even a glamorous fabric.
At least her dress isn’t covered in a bunch of C’s 😉
LOL! Totally. The oldschool leather coach bags are awesome; the logos not so much. That dress says “outdoor picnic wedding guest” not “Met Gala.”
I collect the old thick black leather Coach bags. Fun hobby – you can wear them, and they are relatively affordable. I am being pushed out of my meager storage space by bags, however. I fancy a bit of Kate Spade as well.
Agree. And LOL about the C’s. Ha! Something nice – I like her shoes. I can’t even say a word about PMK.
Ok I’m about to get bitchy but I just can’t believe she showed up (or her stylist let her) at the Met Ball wearing this dress! And that ribbon choker, those necklaces, the ear cuffs, and… and..HER HAIR?!?!? She looks like a 15 yr. old going to her brother’s high school graduation or something.
I assumed that she had interpreted the “China” theme as a china/plate pattern
Actually, I sent a couple of photos to a friend who is an absolute fabric savant freak (ah, the classifications and descriptions you acquire in your Rolodex once you work as a costumer and event worker…. lol) and Chloe seems to possibly have actually gone sorta right with the theme…. if country over though. the blue cotton appearing fabric in indigo is pretty on the mark for a lot of the ‘lower caste’ kimonos and jackets worn at various periods of time (both within the last century and also really big in the whole. It’s Kyoto indigo dying. Popular with everyone from rice paddy workers to lounging Samurais relaxing. And while it’s casual, I don’t know.. she is still in enough of the kid/teen camp that a full blown gown (she is also so dang tiny!) would have swallowed her enough that she would just look like a little girl playing dressup in her mom’s clothes if she had tried to go the ballroom look. It’s kinda cute on her….
And having revealed myself as a total and complete nerd, will quietly fade away while trying to shake the horrible image of Kris in that monstrosity. The dress would have been fine, but why in the name of all that’s holy did she belt it in such a way as to look like she in just a massive saggy pair of tits from neck to waistline? Just.. no. Maybe I can make Zang Ziyi my mental happy place? Cause, damn. Stunning.
except she totally missed the fact that Japan and China are two different countries and cultures that have a bad history with each other
Goofpuff – hence ‘country over’. Honestly? At this point, the fact 90% of the women weren’t in full blown dragon lady yellow face monstrosities of racist proportions makes the fact Chlow and several others seemed vague on the whole ‘it’s all Asia-ish, right” almost a win. And better the Japan (because the indigo dying, while first done in Japan is also pooular – and has been – in large swaths of China for almost as long) confusion then the poppy nonsense. The poppy is something NOT most traditional Chinese would be thrilled to have worn – Cameron from the UK was asked to keep his staff from wearing their war memorial poppies OFF when they went to China to avoid bad feelings.
God. I’m such a freaking dork. WHY do I carry this crap in my head?
There are no words, no good words, for Kris. Wow, just horrific.
Twitter told me it was Adam Lambert… seem right to me
Ha, nailed it!
Yes! That was one of my favorite tweets of the night!
Poor Adam Lambert though.
LOL.
Sam Khalidi’s tweet…he is the best!
lmao!
Well she is keeping with the theme in that all the new parts for her face were made in China.
Winner!!
Well I actually like her shoes, but the rest? Uck. And that over-surgeried nose …
Carolina Herrera and Zang Ziyi , WOW. Lily Aldridge’s look is thrown off by that lipstick, throw it away at once!
Kris Jenner is covered in an explosion of Chico’s dress up, at the mall.
Lily’s dress is impeccable in back. It would make a beautiful wedding dress, even in that color. So beautiful.
Yes, Zang Ziyi is breathtaking.
She is so damn beautiful!
Kiddo – that Chico joke is one for the ages. Perfect.
On to MUCH better things – these Herrera dresses* are EVERYTHING.
Lily Aldridge dress is so lovely, the shade of blue, the clean lines, even with the ruffles. Sigh…
But Zang Ziyi is utter perfection. It just doesn’t get better than this.
*When I got engaged, my dream was to wear a Herrera wedding gown (loved Carolyn Kennedy’s wedding dress). I saved up all my pennies. When I went to try the dresses on, I came to find that my 5’2″ height and body frame were all wrong for the way Herrera cuts her ready to wear wedding dresses. I was CRUSHED. Maybe one day she can make a custom dress just for me (you can say I’m a dreamer).
So now you have all those pennies to spend on something else…YAY!
I blew it all on the honeymoon.
I’m obsessed with Lily Aldridge’s dress and the koi clutch, but yeah the Lorde shade of lipstick is just a NO.
Yeah, it’s incredibly understated, and lovely. I understand needing a stronger lip color with all the paleness, but total lipstick fail.
In a sea of fugly, exhibitionist and downright boring dresses, Zang Ziyi and Fan Bing Bing looked amazing.
Something nice – love the amount of actual fabric used in Kris’ dress.
Something nice: Kris looks really, really, really happy to be there.
Say something nice: From neck up kris actually looks pretty young here. I also like how you can uniquely see her resemblance to all three Kourtney, Kim, and Khloe.
@Livealot – I assume she was only looking somewhat young because of all the brightness from the flashes of all of the cameras going off. This is a picture I saw this morning where Kris’ face looks absolutely horrifying:
http://cache1.asset-cache.net/gc/472170302-kris-jenner-arrives-at-the-costume-institute-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=GkZZ8bf5zL1ZiijUmxa7QXhdBxnpfBsvhajt4uhoCPRJ0I9TECXJud14IGyXpu4KES4CROAOisPgVTfN7Y78cg%3D%3D
THIS is why it is a horrible idea to begin having plastic surgery at a young age when it is completely unnecessary. You would figure her daughters, primarily Kim and Kylie, would look at their mom and realize that having plastic surgery at a young age is a terrible idea because you age like shit. Kris looks horrific, especially for a woman who had a facelift only 2 or 3 years ago!
@ Michelle – i literally jumped back in terror. Lol. Thanks for the reality check!
@Michelle
Yes! Those are the bags I was talking about in my comment (way below). I wish I had seen yours before I posted. They are evident in the pics from the DM I saw but here not so much. She looks better in these pics. Well ‘better’ is an exageration lol
Kris Jenner looks like she belongs to the 80s.
…or another planet maybe. Just UGH.
Shagavole 5, Planet of Shame
I was a teenager in the 80s and even in my Goth punk days you couldn’t have paid me enough to wear what Kris is wearing.
she is like norma desmond, she can’t move past her best year
since really ANYONE can come, why is this still a thing?
I love Lily’s gown.
Ditto. It’s beautiful especially the colour. Gorgeous.
Anna Wintour must have lost her mind, seems they will let anybody in these days.
Isn’t the Met Ball a benefit for the Met’s Costume Institute? So Kris J’s 25K will go to humanitarian costume restoring. A worthy cause in my estimation. That Kris just cannot give enough for humanity!
Zang looks amazing, and that gown really honors the theme of the ball. Stunning design by Carolina Hererra
Love all of the Herrera gowns.
Carolina Hererra can do no wrong in my book.
Kris Jenner looks like a hostess in an off-strip Vegas restaurant.
You can tell that Kris was a fan of “Dynasty”. She looks terrible.
She is morphing into a monkey with all the plastic surgeries.
Lily looks the best here.
Oh no, Danny Zuko. The pompadour is not the look.
Lily Aldridge looked amazing.
For the first time ever, I felt sorry for Kris when I saw her like that. Her face looks destroyed from the work she has had done, and the whole look was the worst of the night. But she clearly shouldn’t be there anyway – hate to disagree with Gwyneth Paltrow, but the Met Ball doesn’t attract very many A-listers anymore, with the obvious exception of a few of the women there.
Times have changed. The Met Gala isn’t as high class picky as it used to be. $25,000 a ticket, and you’re in!
And maybe that’s not even a bad thing since she is raising money. But I do miss the days when people would dress to the theme and I would actually know who many of the attendees were. Now it’s young and useless models, singers who all look alike to me, and reality losers. Ack, I think I’m getting old!!
@Josephine I laughed at her last night when I first saw her, but this morning I saw this picture of Kris Jenner and I cringed and felt terrible sadness for her:
http://cache1.asset-cache.net/gc/472170302-kris-jenner-arrives-at-the-costume-institute-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=GkZZ8bf5zL1ZiijUmxa7QXhdBxnpfBsvhajt4uhoCPRJ0I9TECXJud14IGyXpu4KES4CROAOisPgVTfN7Y78cg%3D%3D
I was especially amazed because she just had a facelift 2 or 3 years ago! It isn’t only sad that she looks so bad, it’s sad that she is so desperate to be young. Women who can’t age gracefully are sad. Kim and Kylie would be wise to take notes that their faces could look as bad as their mom’s does if they don’t stop with the plastic surgery.
Wow!Those are some wrinkles.I don’t mean to put down other woman but I never thought she was a attractive woman.Even when she was was young and I wish she would do something different with her hair.
It is sad, isn’t it? I know so many women of that age who are having the times of their lives and kicking butt and doing great things. She seems like such a sad sack, so stuck on all the wrong things, like plastic surgery and money.
I don’t think we need to be too nitpicky about what is Chinese and what isn’t. China is an empire. Japan was a vassal state and Vietnam was part of China until relatively recently. By contrast, the provinces in the west have no cultural comparisons with Han Chinese. They don’t speak the same language, share the same culture or religious practices.
So let’s not take chopsticks to every last detail. Dakota Johnson’s eyes were dumb and rude. Chopsticks in the hair are cliched, but not inherently insulting. Poppies, by contrast, do carry some political offense and I don’t think Zhang Ziyi’s flowers look like poppies. There are many other flowers that are popular in China.
Love the gowns by Carolina Herrera
those flowers on Zhang Ziyi’s dress seem more like orchids than poppies, since they all have 3 petals.
“a symbol of perfection, abundance, and higher growth”
Which seems fitting with the artistic Chinese theme
Yes, they definitely look like orchids. Herrera did so well with both of her gowns but ZZ’s was my fave.
I want to like Ziyi’s dress but it reminds me of a wedding cake.
Lilys beautiful.
Koi aren’t purely a Japanese thing at all. Thousands of years of Chinese symbolism. It’s perfectly appropriate for the theme.
I was going to say the same thing. Chinese people have a long tradition of carp imagery too.
All I see when I look at PMK here is EYELASHES. Looks like she stole some falsies from Kylie’s kollection. Can we stop with the 45 million pounds of eyelash thing?
That white gown is impeccable…beautiful beyond words. And Lily’s gown is amazing. These two shouldn’t even be in the same post as PMK…yuk.
I too have always loved Herrera gowns – there was a brief period where a lot of her stuff was odd and unflattering, but she has clearly returned to her strengths. Zang’s gown is STUNNING.
Kris’ s earrings look like the weigh a ton. So long and dangly they could get caught in that awful gold belt. Her poofy har looks like Justin Bieber
re: Lily Aldridge’s clutch…
I don’t think it would be “fine” at all to confuse the two cultures… but luckily, Japanese koi fish descended from Chinese goldfish, and this might even be a goldfish rather than a koi . Confucius had one, and ancient Chinese farmers used them in rice fields and ate them.
Hey, Demon Mother is covered and wearing a nice color for her and actually has a happy expression on her face …. That sets her well above some others in her Krew. She usually dresses well, maybe she’s just having fun here going over the top.
Of course, that red does have a very relevant meaning for Lucifer’s Home Girl in Western culture. Check for horns under her hair.
I just have a reaction of “Ew, no” every time I see Kris Jenner’s face. Like it’s immediate. I can’t control it.
She’s younger than Helen Mirren, who was in red also, and looked stunning at the Met Ball. There’s no reason with Kris’ money that she looks so dated and then add the hair and such heavy makeup.
Physically cringed when I saw PMK. She’s about this-close to being a caricature.
I love Lily Aldridge and Seth Meyers’ wife’s looks.
More like the 80s did. Haha Atrocious of KJ.
But either this set or the ones on the DM have been photoshopped. If they were, in your pictures it was to make her look better, or if in the DM’s it was done to make her look worse. Because you could in the same pic on the Daily Mail’s website, see huge bags underneath her eyes which are less visible here.
Zang Ziyi, wow, it’s my favorite look so far. Beautiful and sensible dress and she is beautiful as well.
No Kris-the dress looks sloppy, the shoes are ugly militant space cadet! Just NO!
I don’t know if anyone else noticed or mentioned this, but doesn’t PMK look like she’s had something done to her cheeks? Actually, both her cheeks and her chin look augmented and its frickin scary. I know shes’s had a face lift, but it’s ruined her face. The cheeks look like Madonna’s fake cheeks. Her ears are also HUGE and those earrings are just dragging them down.
Long story short: Kris is having work done, just like her daughters (esp. Kim). The face shows it.
Well, clearly I hallucinated seeing those carp in ornamental ponds in China when I lived there. Or is Shanghai in Japan now?