Lana Del Rey doesn’t come to the Met Gala often, but when she does, she likes to make a statement. For her debut in 2012, the US singer wore a glitterball Altuzarra gown with a floor-sweeping black cape; in 2018, for the Heavenly Bodies theme, she came as a modern day Virgin Mary, with seven swords piercing the heart of her Alessandro Michele Gucci gown. And now, for her third Met Gala, Del Rey has arrived arm in arm with new McQueen creative director Seán McGirr, dressed as an enchanted tree.

The custom gown is a direct reference to one of Lee McQueen’s original creations from his AW06 show, The Widows of Culloden. Originally worn by Raquel Zimmerman on the runway, the look featured a silk and tulle tiered skirt with a headdress that looked like a pair of deer antlers. Today, McGirr reinterpreted the gown to fit the Garden of Time theme, keeping the shape of the antler headdress but instead making it from some thorny twigs. Judging by the look, it seems that McGirr and Del Rey took inspiration from the end of JG Ballard’s short story, where the Count and his wife are discovered in their garden turned to stone and covered in lots of overgrown brambles.

Talking about the look on the Met Gala red carpet, Del Rey told Vogue magazine: “We wanted it to look like McQueen… the shape was the most important thing.” McGirr, who was alongside Del Rey during the interview, also added that the pair were inspired by “the idea of mother nature, but the slightly more sinister aspect of it.”

This year marks McGirr’s first Met Gala as McQueen creative director, and bagging Del Rey as his headline star is quite the coup. As mentioned, the star very rarely makes interventions into the fashion arena, and prefers to keep it lowkey style wise. Recently, however, the singer has been dipping her toe back into the fashion world – for her headline set at this year’s Coachella, the singer tapped Dolce & Gabbana for a set of custom looks that run the gamut from glitzy showgirl to leather-clad biker chick and back again.