From Billie Eilish’s upcycled Gucci gown to Janelle Monáe’s tequila diamond brooch, we take a look at some of the most iconic Met Gala looks that made sustainability the most interesting conversation on fashion’s biggest night.
Every May, the Met Gala produces its share of commissioned extravagance — gowns made for a single night, jewels borrowed from vaults, silhouettes no one will see again. But some of the most compelling looks to land on those steps have gotten there another way: the dress reworn from a wedding, the corseted gown sewn entirely from pre-existing fabric, the ballgown that hadn’t been on a red carpet in over 30 years. A growing number of the A-list guests have used fashion’s biggest night to make an argument for what luxury looks like when it works with what already exists — and that argument has only gotten sharper.
The 2024 Gala, themed “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion,” proved a particularly strong chapter in that story. Charli XCX wore a Marni look designed by creative director Francesco Risso from patchworked vintage T-shirts dating to the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s — 15 seamstresses spent 200 hours hand-stitching and embellishing it with rhinestones and glass beads. “Francesco and I both liked the idea of taking the most simple item — the white T-shirt — and building something extravagant from it,” Charli told Vogue on the red carpet. “It’s classic, punk, comfortable, sexy, casual all at once.”
Amanda Seyfried, who asked her stylist Elizabeth Stewart for a sustainable option, arrived in 2024 wearing a metallic satin Prada gown constructed from deadstock fabric originally produced for the brand’s Spring 2009 collection. “If I’m going to go to the Met ball there has to be solar panels on my head, or I’m not going,” she joked to the New York Times.
Cara Delevingne wore a custom Stella McCartney look featuring VRAI lab-grown diamonds crystalized from greenhouse gases in the world’s first carbon-neutral certified foundry. Zendaya made a second appearance later that night in an archival piece from John Galliano’s first haute couture collection for Givenchy, from January 1996.
Vintage and the art of the rewear
Emma Stone set a precedent at the 2022 Gala when she arrived in a Louis Vuitton dress Nicolas Ghesquière had originally designed for her wedding reception — pulling directly from her own closet rather than commissioning anything new. She was in good company: all 14 of Louis Vuitton’s guests that night wore archival pieces, in keeping with what the house described as “Louis Vuitton’s anchored commitment towards circular creativity.” The following year, Dua Lipa — a co-chair of the 2023 Gala — wore a corseted tweed ballgown that had last appeared on a runway as the closing look of Chanel’s fall/winter 1992 haute couture collection, originally worn by Claudia Schiffer. More than 30 years had passed since anyone had worn it publicly.
Upcycled by design
Billie Eilish made the case for upcycled dressing most directly at the 2022 Gala, arriving in a custom Gucci gown Alessandro Michele built entirely from pre-existing materials — a form-fitting corset, lace sleeves, and ruched skirt in duchesse satin, paired with vegan platform shoes. “We didn’t have to waste a bunch of stuff, and I wanted to be as eco-friendly as possible,” Eilish said on the Vogue red carpet livestream. The gown was architectural and genuinely glamorous — a strong demonstration that the sustainable option doesn’t have to sacrifice spectacle to make its point.
At the 2025 Gala, Janelle Monáe took that logic a step further by wearing a piece that had never existed before: a tequila diamond brooch commissioned by 1800 Tequila’s Cristalino expression and designed by Jonathan Raksha of Maison Raksha. The brooch — a 5.5-carat emerald-cut diamond framed by 70 carats of white sapphire — was synthesized from carbon extracted from tequila rather than mined from the earth, with its inverted setting mirroring the silhouette of the blue Weber agave plant from which 1800 Tequila is distilled. Lab-grown diamonds now account for nearly ten percent of the global diamond market, a share that’s growing as younger consumers demand traceability in luxury goods.
“Every detail of the 1800 Tequila diamond brooch was crafted to embody the spirit of liquid in solid form,” Raksha said. “On a night when all eyes are on the red carpet, it was exciting to translate my design language into something more than just a jewel, but a bold statement that introduced the brand’s first tequila diamond.” Monáe put it another way: “To shine, and to create something truly iconic, you have to think differently. It’s all poetic when you think about it — just like diamonds form under pressure, reimagining how diamonds are made takes a future-focused vision and dedication. And to wear an ethical diamond from 1800 Tequila on the red carpet, with this year’s theme, felt like a fitting tribute to that.”
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