Blake Lively's Met Gala Dress Was Inspired by New York City's Architecture

Tonight is The First Monday in May which, for the uninitiated, means fashion's biggest night: The Met Gala. With this year's theme, "gilded glamour" nodding to an era of immense progress in architecture and design, it should come as little surprise, then, that one superstar saw New York's skyline as her inspiration. "Instead of looking to fashion to influence the dress, I looked to New York City architecture," Met Gala co-chair Blake Lively told The Cut in a red carpet interview on Monday night.

Lively's color-changing (more on that later) dress, made by Versace, incorporates elements of several iconic New York buildings completed during the Gilded Age: "This is the constellation from Grand Central Terminal; this is the Empire State Building; this is the Statue of Liberty," Lively explained while gesturing to her intricate outfit.

The architectural nods even extended to Lively's Lorraine Schwartz jewelry: "The crown has seven tiers—the Statue of Liberty has seven rays representing the sun's rays—and the seven continents," the actress noted. "It also has 25 windows, so Lorraine put in 25 stones."

When Lively and her fellow co-chair, husband Ryan Reynolds, arrived on the red carpet, Lively's gown appeared to be an intricately draped dress in a reddish hue (matching the center of the evening's carpet, as she has done in years past); however, when she ascended the steps, the draping opened to reveal a mint blue color reminiscent of the patinated copper on the Statue of Liberty.

Lively clearly had a lot of input in her dress's design: While many other A-listers look to fashion stylists for high-profile events like the Met Gala, Lively puts together her own looks. “I love design and I love fashion and it’s a way to be creative,” she told Women's Wear Daily in 2018.

Her excitement over this year's symbolic sartorial choice is proof of that—as is the roster of facts she had at the ready during her red carpet interviews. "I sound like a Wikipedia article," she quipped. Sounds to us like she's just a design enthusiast!

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