Cynthia Erivo looked sensational when she walked the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s red carpet at the 2025 Met Gala on Monday night wearing her high-low Givenchy look. The Wicked actress showed off a perfect interpretation of the night’s “Tailored for You” dress code, which accompanies the Costume Exhibit’s spring exhibition “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.”
Erivo’s sculpted Givenchy look took a staggering 2,250 hours to create and featured an elaborately beaded corset top and a voluminous high-low black tulle skirt with a long train. She finished off the look with knee-high lace-up boots and her trademark nails.
“What I love about this piece is that it isn’t obvious in the immediate how it fits with the theme,” Erivo told Vogue about working with Givenchy’s creative director Sarah Burton. “However, the top half of this piece is Sarah‘s incredible way of subverting the narrative around suiting… it is completely tailored and the spark that brings me joy.”
Erivo points to how her 2025 Met Gala look references both dandies of the Rococo period—with their frills, pantaloons, and ornate adornments—as well as more modern visions.
“If you take a look at Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint George, and fast forward to Prince, you will notice the similarities: frock coats, bloomers, frills. We have essentially deconstructed the Rococo style of dandyism.”
The biggest challenge for the Givenchy team was apparently the construction of the jacket that Erivo wore so that it held the sharp, sculpted shape without collapsing—despite being open at the front and back. The corset is traditionally built and fully boned, and Givenchy’s couture atelier used age-old couture techniques that evolved into something powerful and modern. It took 950 hours to make the look, from the toile to the final result. The embroidery required over 43,400 Swarovski crystals, and demanded approximately 1,300 hours of work by 40 artisans.
This is the seventh time that Erivo has walked the red carpet on the Met steps. Most recently Erivo attended 2024’s “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” event. There, she wore a pink petal-covered dress from Thom Browne, and walked hand in hand with her Wicked costar, Ariana Grande, who wore a structural ivory look from Loewe. This year, Erivo walked the steps all on her own.
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