At the 2024 Met Gala, everyone was giving head.
The Super Bowl of fashion is no stranger to show-stopping beauty looks (see: Doja Cat's prosthetics and Lil Nas X's sparkly body paint, viral moments at last year's extravaganza), but this year's extravaganza was surprisingly devoid of heavy-lift hair and makeup. Instead, the overarching sentiment seemed to be: Who needs hair and makeup when you have a huge headpiece?
It was a fitting trend to emerge, considering that this year's Met Gala invitation was illustrated with a headpiece by legendary milliner Philip Treacy.
Treacy's work appears throughout The Met's Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion exhibit, and had its own major moment atop Zendaya's noggin. A bouquet-shaped headdress, which Treacy crafted for Alexander McQueen's Spring/Summer 2007 collection, was the centerpiece of Z's second red carpet look of the night.
The star's first look also featured a statement-making headpiece, a feathered fascinator designed by Stephen Jones. Throughout the night, Zendaya kept her hair up in a simple bun so as not to distract from Jones' and Treacy's creations.
Lana Del Rey also let her headpiece do the talking. The singer donned a custom Seán McGirr for Alexander McQueen creation, designed as an homage to the 47th look from the late Lee McQueen's Fall/Winter 2006 collection,"The Widows of Culloden."
McGirr put his own spin on the look's original headpiece, a pair of antlers draped with gauzy lace. Instead, Del Rey wore a tangle of thorny branches veiled in tulle that obscured Del Rey's minimally made-up face and tousled, laid-back waves. (Coincidentally, the look also seemed to soften public opinion on McGirr — while onlookers widely derided the Irish designer's McQueen debut, they applauded his work with Del Rey.)
Lizzo's headpiece was just as attention-grabbing. The "Good As Hell" singer hit the red carpet (sans flute, sadly) in a custom Weinsanto gown designed to resemble a vase, its fluted neck enveloping Lizzo's head and hiding her curls.
In some cases, a celebrity's hair wasn't just obscured by a headpiece — it was the headpiece. Willow Smith's locks were wrapped into a cylindrical structure, and Amanda Seyfried's updo was painted silver to match her gem-encrusted tiara.
Even more traditional, smaller-scale headpieces became talking points: Barry Keoghan's topper elicited comparisons to Willy Wonka, Sarah Jessica Parker's sculptural cloche was pulled right out of the Carrie Bradshaw playbook, and Rosalía's waxed poetic on the red carpet about her Stephen Jones fascinator.
