Another year, another Met Gala. This year’s pays tribute to Comme des Garçons designer Rei Kawakubo with an all-encompassing exhibition titled “Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between”. It is only the second time the Met Gala has given its Costume Institute over to a single designer, after Yves Saint Laurent’s solo show in 1983.

To mark the show’s opening (as well as crowdsource some funding for the Costume Institute), celebrities came to the Met Museum in New York dressed in their finest. 

THERE WAS A THEME

While there have been tricky themes set in the past (case in point: last year’s superfuturist Manus x Machina), it seems as though something as simple as Comme des Garçons’ oeuvre was too difficult to navigate for most. Kawakubo’s back catalogue of designs should’ve provided a wealth of options for anyone looking to pay homage to the ineffable designer. Here were some freebies:

Still, that didn’t stop a running tally of celebrities from turning up in safe choices – chiffon gowns and unadventurous bodycon dresses. A whopping four people, according to RuPaul’s Drag Race judge Michelle Visage, turned up dressed in something related to the theme.

COURTNEY LOVE AND MARC JACOBS TOOK A SMOKE BREAK

Most iconic image from the 2017 Met Gala goes to…

P DIDDY GOT TIRED

In an effort to self-meme, rapper-turned-mogul P Diddy got too tired of standing and taking pictures with girlfriend Cassie, so he decided to lounge on the carpeted stairs in his cape, because why not?

JADEN SMITH TURNED UP WITH A STRANGE ACCESSORY

Maybe he’s shedding his former self in order to reach a higher plane, but Jaden Smith showed up holding his shorn dreadlocks in hand, like a thicket of burning sage. “Since I couldn’t bring my sister as a date I brought my old hair,” Smith told André Leon Talley before pocketing his former do. His look was inspired by both dracula and The Matrix, and we’re hair for it.

RIHANNA STUDIED UP

At least one person did their homework. Rihanna came dressed in Comme’s AW16 collection. “The shoes took me an hour to get into,” she told André Leon Talley.

AND WHERE THE HELL WAS REI? 

After telling Vogue Runway that she would not be attending you may have noticed that the notoriously mysterious designer was absent from the red carpet. She stayed true to her promise of wearing what she always does (her uniform of pleated skirt, leather jacket and white shirt) complete with trainers. You can’t get any more avant-garde than wearing your everyday trainers among all the ballgowns. 

It’s Comme week! From red carpet write ups to picks from the archive, head here for pieces celebrating the opening of The Met’s Art of the Inbetween exhibition.