This Young Designer Transformed My Look for the Met Gala

Chioma Nnadi

May 5, 2023 at 1:07 PM·16 min read

The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum is home to over 33,000 objects dating all the way back to the 15th century, and that makes the collections department there a veritable Aladdin’s Cave of fashion history. The space itself looks like a laboratory—all gleaming white surfaces and gigantic vaults—about as far removed from the fusty museum office cliche as you can get. “Well, I’m in heaven,” says designer Claire Sullivan, as we pore over a table that’s dripping with vintage Chanel: the most perfect ribbed tank top embroidered with interlocking CCs, a delicate ankle-length tulle skirt, chunky black and gold jewelry, and spiffy black and white brogues.

As you can imagine, the policy here is look, but please don’t touch. Our Costume Institute guide, Tracy Yoshimura, is wearing pristine white gloves and here to help Sullivan get a closer look at the exquisite construction of this and several other items of clothing designed by the late Karl Lagerfeld. A ball skirt and crop top from Chanel’s 1999 spring couture collection will ultimately inspire the Sullivan-designed outfit I will wear to the Met Gala in just a couple weeks as the editor of Vogue.com. This year is in celebration of “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,” the institute’s latest exhibition, and the dress code—in honor of Karl—speaks for itself. “Going through the collections online, it was a difficult selection to make because there are so many incredible pieces,” says Sullivan who, in addition to the archive Chanel, has picked out a gently padded black Chloe dress from Lagerfeld’s 1970s era at the house for inspiration. “I wanted to nail a few different Karl signatures.”

Though her eponymous label, Miss Claire Sullivan, is still relatively new, she’s already developed some alluring signatures of her own. Personally, I’m drawn to the exuberant exaggerated proportions of her one-of-a-kind designs, the waist-whittling corsetry, the irreverent hyper feminine flourishes, like giant bows and ribbon trimmings for example. There’s also a deliciously subversive attitude to her work that you rarely find in the world of occasion dressing, one that feels reminiscent of the early work of Vivienne Westwood.

Her roster of stylish clients reflects that fresh and spirited approach; since she started designing for custom clients in August 2021 she’s worked with the likes of model Paloma Elsesser, artist Tourmaline, and musician Zsela. So of course I was thrilled when she responded almost immediately to my DMs about designing a dress. “I’m a fashion lover through and through,” says Sullivan, who was a member of the New York fashion collective Vaquera before recently striking out on her own. “I love retail, but I think there’s something liberating about working in collaboration with someone to make something feel special to them, tailoring it to their personality as much as to their body.”

Less than a week later, I find myself at her light-filled studio in Williamsburg stripped down to stockings and undies and ready for my first fitting. There are fewer than 10 days left until the gala but Sullivan radiates a sense of calm that soothes my slightly frazzled nerves. The sketches she has sent me manage to filter all the things I admire about her work through a Lagerfeld-inflected lens. “I have been working a lot with ball skirts—or poof skirts as I call them—and something about that felt like it was the right moment, because it feels so opulent but has this casual element to it as well. And then I was doing my research, looking back on my references and that late 1990s Chanel couture, and it was like, Oh, that’s such a perfect pairing,” she says, pulling up the runway image of model Devon Aoki in the ethereal salmon pink look on her phone. “I wanted to reference the suiting elements that were so prominent with Karl at Chanel too, and lean into that pinstripe.”

It’s the first time I’ve ever been fitted for a corset and I’m instantly made to stand taller and straighter. After years of slumping over my laptop, it feels pretty good. Sullivan has cut the asymmetric sleeve with a glove in homage to Lagerfeld’s instantly recognizable personal uniform, a silhouette that is surprisingly flattering on me. After some adjustments are made along the bodice, I step into the skirt as Sullivan and her assistant Maris pin it to sit neatly on my hips. Even in the simple dressmaker toile, the overall effect is grand, almost regal. Looking in the mirror and the transformation is actually slightly intimidating, especially given that I arrived wearing track pants and sneakers. I FaceTime my best friend Stella, who also happens to be an excellent stylist. “Is it too much?” I ask gingerly. “Are you kidding me? It’s so good!” she says beaming.

A few days later and I’m back in the studio for the final fitting. This time I bring some accessories with me, including a pair of satin kitten heel Manolo Blahnik mules that are trimmed with bows and a heavy gold Chanel belt with a pearly cross that my colleague Mark Holgate has generously loaned to me. “What if we added some strands of pearls around your waist along with the belt?” says Sullivan, emerging with my look in her arms. I waste no time in trying it on. Against the eggshell taffeta skirt and the pin stripe bodice, the draped pearls and the belt really make the look sing in a way that Lagerfed would have appreciated. “A little bit Claire, a little bit Karl,” says my friend Stella after I send her a picture of the (almost) final look.

<cite class="credit">Photo: Phil Oh</cite> — Photo: Phil Oh

When the big day finally arrives, there is the usual flutter of red carpet butterflies in my tummy, only this time the feeling is only temporary. With the silk blue and cream sash across my chest, my hair coiffed in finger waves, my makeup and nails touched with flashes of blue, I feel all together princess-like as I approach the steps of the Met. Lil Nas X is right ahead of me on the carpet and his silver body paint and pearl encrusted face jewelry ignite a firestorm of activity in the photographer’s pit. In that moment, it feels surreal that just two weeks prior I was here in the vaults of the costume institute with Sullivan and this gorgeous outfit I’m wearing didn’t exist. Inside the gala, and I’m lucky enough to catch the eye of Erykah Badu, a personal style icon of mine. When she compliments my look, I’m grateful that the lights are too low for her to see me blushing.

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