Let’s face it, celebrities at this year’s Met Gala had a lot to live up to in the fashion stakes.
Following on from last year’s bold outfit statements couldn’t have been an easy task, what with Rihanna’s pope head piece and Zendaya’s Joan of Arc homage.
This year though, the men have stepped up to (and surpassed!) the plate – in particular Jared Leto who accessorised not with a bag or a hat of some sort, but with his own decapitated head.
Yep, you heard me right. Jared Leto – actor, singer, songwriter, director (basically everything) – upped the ante yesterday at the star-studded event in New York, proving the more outrageous your outfit, the more stories you get written about you (hi).
Themed ‘Camp: Notes on Fashion’, the event saw most of its attendees wearing the biggest, boldest outfit choices possible in order to win the event and the hearts of those watching. Hence, Leto’s severed head accessory.
As per GQ, Leto collaborated with Gucci for the look, who just last year had its fall/winter 2018 models walking the runway carrying their own heads. Well, not their actual heads but you know what I mean.
Embracing the ‘camp’ theme fully – which curator in charge of the Costume Institute, Andrew Bolton, says can be interpreted in a number of ways – Leto paired his severed head with a long red turtleneck dress with strings of diamonds falling over his shoulder.
As reported by Vogue, Bolton framed this year’s exhibition around Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay, Notes on ‘Camp’, which put forward different ways in which the concept could be interpreted.
Bolton explained:
[Camp] has become increasingly more mainstream in its pluralities — political camp, queer camp, pop camp, the conflation of high and low, the idea that there is no such thing as originality.
To be honest I’m just impressed at how much the head looks like Leto’s, while at the same time wondering how long it took to make. I’m guessing at least a few months.
I wonder if it doubled up as a bag? Even if it didn’t (because let’s face it, fashion just isn’t really all that practical), I’m still giving Leto full props for the 10/10 effort he put into his outfit.
Now if I could just find out where to get a severed head of my own, we’re good to go.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).