Celebrities and designers reunited for a spectacular parade of style and creativity for fashion’s biggest annual stage—the Met Gala.
The Met Gala isn’t just a fancy fundraiser for the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It’s a pivotal event in fashion held every year on the first Monday in May that sees the steps of the Met turn into a runway of wild and whimsical looks worn by a select group of A-listers who are specially invited to the exclusive event.
This year’s theme was Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, and the gala itself had a dress code of The Garden of Time, but despite the enchanting premise, a number of stars were criticized for not sticking to the theme. Other looks were blasted and labeled as disastrous fashion statements.
Here’s a lineup of some of the 2024 Met Gala’s worst looks and fashion flops that made the internet gasp, giggle, and gossip.
#1 Sydney Sweeney
Sydney Sweeney wore a baby blue Miu Miu ball gown with embroidered flowers for her third appearance at the annual Met Gala. The Euphoria star also traded her blonde tresses for a black bob, which was revealed after she took off a custom Jennifer Behrsheer veil embellished with pearls.
“Why Sydney Sweeney looks like she’s attended the Queen’s funeral LMFAOOO,” one Twitter user asked about her look.
“I feel like she said, ‘I want to be Billie Eilish for one night’ and this is what we got.”
“Edward scissor hands cut ur hair or what,” another asked about the actress’s look.
Image credits: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
#2 Doja Cat
Is it even a high fashion event if someone isn’t wearing an outfit that’s dangerously tinkering on the borders of a wardrobe malfunction?
Doja Cat fulfilled that bill by wearing a wet white gown and having black teardrops falling from her smokey eyes. Many online felt the Paint The Town Red rapper just jumped out of the shower and came straight to the Met Gala red carpet.
“Doja came to MET Gala in the middle of [a] shower,” one comment said, while another asked, “Why’d she say bedsheet like that lol.”
“When you get out [of] the shower and can’t find a towel but a bed sheet will do,” said another comment.
“I feel she didn’t know what to wear. Like a simple Zara dress won’t be bad,” wrote another.
Image credits: Gilbert Flores/Variety
#3 Kylie Jenner
When Kylie Jenner emerged on the steps of the Met, the Kardashians star was wearing an ivory Oscar de la Renta column gown with a dramatic train following her around. But social media users were left yawning at the simplicity of her look, which seemed to have nothing to do with this year’s Met Gala theme.
“How BORING,” one said, while another wrote, “That’s literally a wedding dress.”
Comments like “kylie give us nothing bruh” and “she didn’t understand the assignment” also followed suit.
“Boring and she didn’t even try to deliver on the theme,” wrote another.
Image credits: Gilbert Flores/Variety
#4 Ariana Grande
Ariana Grande made a long-awaited comeback to the Met Gala with her appearance on May 6. However, many were underwhelmed by her “fairy princess” type look.
“Looks like she is getting married,” one said, while another wrote, “Ariana grande you look like someone who belongs in pixie hollow.”
“Fairy princess but nothing special for the Met,” read another comment.
Nevertheless, fans loved seeing the Side to Side singer give a surprise performance with her Wicked co-star, Cynthia Erivo, during the event.
Image credits: John Shearer/WireImage
#5 Rita Ora
For her 10th appearance at the Met Gala, Rita Ora made sure fans were talking about her outfit, but we’re not sure if it’s in the way she intended.
The Let You Love Me singer wore a nude-colored mesh bodysuit with hanging strands of beads “from the 1st and 2nd century BC,” the 33-year-old artist told Extra.
“These [beads] actually have been handpicked all over sort of North Africa and Europe, and it just embodies this kind of timeless beauty from centuries and centuries,” she told the outlet.
Walking up the steps might not have been a difficult task, but she admitted that “going to the toilet [was] another thing.”
“Cool story, but this looks like a mess,” one commenter said after reading the details she shared about the beads. “It looks like what I used to hang up in college in over the doorway of my room in my college apartment.”
“Why does rita ora look like she just climbed out of a swamp,” one said.
“All that money between them yet they can’t afford a mirror,” another said.
Image credits: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images
#6 Kim Kardashian
Kim Kardashian’s Met Gala outfit this year was the talk of the town for all the wrong reasons.
The 43-year-old reality star donned an off-the-shoulder metallic creation by John Galliano for Maison Margiela, topped off with a cashmere cardigan draped delicately over her astonishingly tiny waist.
Although the floral-themed metallic dress was stunning, many questioned her on why she continues “to promote a[n] unhealthy waist at this gala?”
“Her waist oh my?!!?!?!!” one social media user said, while another questioned with concern, “WHERE IS HER WAIST?!!”
“What surgery did she have done to her waist to get it that small,” read a fourth comment.
Image credits: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images
#7 Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran was roasted for donning a blue suit that reminded the internet of the prom outfit Zac Efron’s character, Troy Bolton, wore in High School Musical 3.
“Ed Sheeran is giving Troy Bolton when his tux was too tight,” one wrote on Twitter, while another savage comment said, “Wtf is even this he looks so out of place ksksksks.”
“I love Ed Sheeran cosplaying as Troy Bolton at the #MetGala,” another said.
One commenter scored his outfit a 4/10 and said, “Ed sheeran definitely has no good fashion taste. Black would have killed it for him.”
During this Met Gala red carpet debut, the Shape of You singer also awkwardly got his foot stuck in FKA twigs’ dress.
Image credits: John Shearer/WireImage
#8 Rauw Alejandro
Acclaimed Latin artist Rauw Alejandro made his Met Gala debut this year in a shiny disco ball-like top and a custom Ludovic de Saint Sernin suit. The silver top worn by the 31-year-old reggaeton artist also featured a Swarovski crystal-encrusted ‘Flor de Maga,’ the national flower of Puerto Rico.
Without the top half of his white suit, Rauw’s look was described as “a silver tank top from amazon.”
“This is just from Shein. I saw like 10 guys wearing this at the club #MetGala,” one person said.
“He looks upset to be wearing that,” said a third comment while a fourth said, “He looks like he hates his look.”
“The theme was garden of time mind you not coachella,” said another.
Image credits: 23metgala
#9 Lily Gladstone
Killers of the Flower Moon star Lily Gladstone was another Met Gala first-timer making her debut appearance on May 6. Her black gown and cape, designed by Gabriela Hearst and Kiowa jeweler Keri Ataumbi, featured around 493 silver stars that were arranged into the shape of nine different constellations.
The artist, who is the first Native American woman to be nominated for an Oscar, brought Indigenous fashion to the spotlight with the look and said it meant everything to her to carry the spirit of Indigenous design with her on the red carpet.
“I love the combination of the sleeping beauty and garden of time [themes], articulating itself through a blanket of stars,” the actress told Vogue. “Since time immemorial, Kiowa, Blackfeet, and other Plains people have always said we come from the stars, and it is where we return to join our ancestors. It is a tapestry of time, under the veil of night.”
Despite her dress having a poignant backstory, some netizens were brutal with their criticism and thought her team could have done better with her look.
“Her makeup artist failed her. What are those eyebrows. This is Oscar nominated Lily Gladstone and you did this to her? You sent her to the Met Gala like this? You should be ashamed,” one wrote.
But plenty on Facebook said the actress looked “gorgeous” and “iconic.”
“She is so beautiful,” one said.
Image credits: Kevin Mazur/MG24/Getty Images
#10 Emma Chamberlain
Emma Chamberlain‘s 2024 Met Gala look was a more gothic take on the Garden of Time theme. The 22-year-old wore a custom laced, thorn-wrapped brown-colored dress that was genius-ed by Jean Paul Gaultier.
The online superstar and entrepreneur herself admitted that the dress, which took 640 hours to create, “has a bit of weirdness to it.”
“[It’s] a little weird. It’s a little extreme, but it’s all neutral colors,” she told Vogue. “It’s still smoked out, but it looks reflective and dynamic.”
Some online critics weren’t too impressed by her look with one asking, “Why are people loving this one? Love me some JPG but I don’t see it…”
“What a boring look,” one said while another quipped, “cool but it doesn’t feel fresh”
“Even the hair and makeup is ugly, she’s mostly on theme,” one said and rated the outfit a “7/10.”
Image credits: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
#11 Jessica Michel Serfaty
Jessica Serfaty may have taken the “Garden of Time” theme a little too literally with her debut Met Gala look.
The 33-year-old wore a custom Dolce & Gabbana look as she stepped on the red carpet with her fiancé Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio.
“Me thinks a garden threw up on her,” one X user said about her outfit.
“Jessica Serfaty, that coat looks like it was made with a 1950’s grandma couch fabric. It’s giving craft project,” read a second comment.
Another thought the outfit “literally looks like someone glued a bunch of shower loofahs on her.”
Image credits: Aliah Anderson/Getty Images
#12 Cara Delevingne
Always posing in memorable looks on the Met Gala red carpet, Cara Delevingne chose a Stella McCartney design for this year’s event. The 31-year-old model and actress paired a long white skirt with an armor-inspired, crystal-covered top that included a hood.
Some fans were left confused by the look as one said, “I still don’t know how to feel about Cara Delevingne’s #MetGala look.”
“Cara Delevingne looks like sperm,” one said while another quipped, “Does she think she’s in Dune 3?”
“Yikes! I wouldn’t want to be wearing that all night,” wrote another.
Image credits: John Shearer/WireImage
#13 Fka Twigs
Also wearing a Stella McCartney design at the 2024 Met Gala was FKA twigs. The British singer-songwriter had sparkles on her from head to turn as she donned an overcoat that reminded the internet of a floor mop.
“She stole big birds feathers!” a Facebook user wrote about her outfit while another chimed in, “I thought it was a bath mat she is wearing.”
“My mom had an unfinished hook-rug in the 70s that looked just like this,” another said.
“Which reminds me, my floor needs mopping today,” one joked.
“Looks like a floor mop,” insisted another.
Image credits: Kevin Mazur/MG24/Getty Images