I caught up with the 2023 Met Gala’s “Karl Lagerfeld,” commemoration, a few days ago. Starting with a “Youtube Short '' of Jared Leto’s Cat costume and then the spandex-seeming pearly white dress worn by Doja Cat. The rigid feline prosthetics along with the furry mascot to Lagerfield’s political hilarity, received more of my taps and sustained scrolls, before a Vogue, Get Ready With Me Before The Met,” video and its redundant thumbnail. A blank grey or a matte white wall peeks from a corner of the picture, and is mostly filled by a zoomed-out zoom-in shot of a celebrity. The other structural strategy is a hazy shot, of a robed celebrity prodded, pulled, dusted, and combed all by a pair of hands unified in their ambiguity yet diverse by what they held. From a foundation blender pinching at the skin beneath the eyes, hair curlers sticking up and concealing “the look,” and rectangular compact mirrors blending into the shot from the back, despite an inferable giant mirror up front.

 So, my initial thought on receiving such videos in my feed was to dismiss it as a regeneration of the previous Met’s video collection. 

Within the internet’s social uproar over the ingenuine simplicity and convenience of the designs displayed on the carpet or a certain roster of celebrities that refused or didn’t receive invitations, a certain celebrity’s outfit had caught my eye— the heavily Victorian-inspired gown worn by Jenna Ortega. Which was intricately baffling in its overall merit and credibility, like a shabby painting. 

Jenna Ortega’s Met Gala 2023 Outfit

The outfit devised by Thom Browne reigned the theme by citing significant features of Lagerfeld’s work at Chanel. Parameters include a black and white monochrome, tweed, decadent pearls, and chains, which was a striking color pattern and overall structure to Jenna’s outfit.

Within the visual metallic however, was the frivolousness of the “18th Century pannier influence. Most accurately, from a borrowed sense of previous experiments with the message and the structure of the pannier that made it into the dress, Browne states it as his“play on proportions and shapes.” Its addition, though admittedly vibrant in its rejuvenation of the dress (transformed by its illusion of a whimsical layering), is a locus for questioning. In my opinion, this segment of the dress’s infrastructure and vision contains largely thematic blemishes in execution. Its allegorical representation is inferred from the actress displaying it herself; cathartic in the imperativeness and reasoning of this conversation. Hence, this particular exploration will be targeting firstly, the origins of the dress. 

The sketch

What blazed me with curiosity, would be the extensive process of the dress, ie. its documented phases of change. The initial sketch represents a penciled, long-neck tall silhouette jutting out her hip within a strapping leather jacket-looking contraption, making up the top of the outfit.

The overall aesthetic of this look is a perception of an urbanized femme fatale; the overlapping of the fabric is metaphorically identical to the body of a beetle. The tweed is noticeable in comparison to the resulting outfit, a visible black, grey, and white alternation, illustrating a glint and richness that comes with a leather jacket. The sleeves of the “coat,” are elongated; baggy even, mirroring a period piece aristocrat. The top overall is stoic, pointed, and cubist, like a reference to what would’ve been known back then as “cross-dressing” or the absurdity of female dominion.

 Moreover, infused at the neckline, is a peppery translucent slip concealing a tie underneath, which contrasts the stylistic elongation of the sleeves, curling at the fingers. Highly reminiscent of "The Addams Family's" (1960) very own Morticia’s gown, the structuring of the fabric at the hands look like the fanciful tips of delicate fountain pens. 

This, in conclusion, would be stated to be generic miles away from a poofy dress. 

The monochrome, in this case, is emphasized deeply by the revealed matte white lined into the overcoat, that’s made to glaze onto the floor and compete with its black tail, like a contrasting criss-cross. 

The side-positioned color contrast fabric approach, in the most generic of ideals, culturally took me back to the traditional baggy Kimonos, which often seem to play with invented monochromes, whether they be from the entirety of the dress to the belt, or the often revealed lining within the outfit by the skinny women. And similar to the kimono, this structure of the sketched outfit elongates the height and the silhouette of the model and justifies the contrast of the peppery slip. 

This affects the pannier as well, which appears more striking and pertinent within the ensemble above. In comparison to the blended soft layering it’s assigned, within the actual dress, it initiates an interplay. The tie and the continuous contrasts of the fabrics cause a figurative elongation, which is authoritarian; almost academic if not aristocratic sans overcoat. The “beetle structure,” within the framework above, is an insinuation in my opinion, of an alternate universe Mrs. Trunchbull outfit from the character notes of “Matilda The Musical” (Broadway). 

The most sophisticated, femme boss dominatrix (brought by this design) so to speak, sensually induces a riveting personality. 

I smelt and almost faltered at my fantasized addition of a black cane dangling between the sleeve-engulfed fingers, revealing little by little the white lining under the overcoat from the intensity of its swishes.

The periodically resonating pannier and tweed aristocracy, with the juxtaposing imagery above, provides a dismembered contrast of these stylistic symbolisms. Through this, the white lining overcoat is insinuated as a consensual upturning of one’s skirt to bring out the petticoat almost, (an ostentatiously sexual and outward punk rebellion similar to Britain’s 1970s women’s fashion), and the vocation brought about by the tie all the more, create a spectacular moment to moment imagery. 

The thematic potential of this design moreover, highlights the virtue ie. bravery, the obstinacy of history’s suffragettes displayed within patriarchal themes. More important, is the unexplored cross-dressing experimentations within a much older generation’s comparatively narrow gender culture. 

These factualities overall, present themselves as a debunking of the general new generation account of the exaggerated oppressiveness within history, by thereby calling out the dramatics often maintained (however historically inaccurate) for the sake of myth. 

If such a narrative were to be infused within the dress, (with its sharply expressive fragments of these styles, messages, and representations) a complex refraction takes place. The result is a kaleidoscope of tiny units of narratives that parallel or challenge each other, like tiny mirrors.

It’s socially profound and additionally contributing, as it brings about a conversation on women’s mental health in the Victorian or early decades (for instance the “straitjacket,” stylistics), which all in all is a straightforward and grounded depiction, as opposed to a decoratively sexual/misogynistic representation, with hearty rosy bosomed women strapped in lace. 

Sketch to Dress

Within the actual sewing of the dress, the tweed’s gradient and its glint are sublimated to a light shade of black; the “tweed,” is texturally emphasized instead. The coat is halved to the chest, and the top is a tiny and undetectable black corset, below which a wave current of husky black fabric forms the “conjunction,” of the outfit. A curved segway of gold chains stuffed with pearls is strewn around the visible and frayed poofy hems. Taking such a structural framework into context, which would be far from sharp or containing “suave,” the pannier in the middle of it all merely adds to the poofy layering, giving the dress an inferred dimension of a princess outfit.

 Moreover, the tie is altered into a brooch with a muddle sewed-in structure that can only be made out as a cape knot to a war princess’s horseback outfit. The corset, therefore, comes off as a jab at inclusive feminine war fashion/female armory. 

The Met Gala display of this dress by Ortega found itself within another undocumented rewrite. The translucent slip neckline was now a white collar shirt underneath the flowery brooch, and the overcoat, although still lined with white didn’t showcase the contrast or the mismatch with its tail. Instead, as it was swept back, hiding the “undercoat” contrast, it came off as a tail extension of the poofy dress in itself. This brought out a confusion of the messy blend of structures which in my opinion, was mostly catalyzed by the sublimated shock value of the proportion that could’ve been brought by the pannier. 

Another behind-the-scenes rewrite related to the sleeves and their hems sewed by extra frills, similar to the skirt of the dress. 

The overall consequence is a heavily aesthetically drawn persona attached to the dress, as opposed to the agenda-decked configurations of the sketch mentioned above. 

The “forest core,” look, derived from the indulgent blacks and the grunge shabbiness of the frills, almost presents a certain visual charm. The poofy huskiness seems like a result of being chewed/bitten off by the sharp branches of the ghastly trees– cue Ortega emerging from a Snow White forest sequence or forest fire. 

Noting once again, the mundane edginess of the swept-back overcoat (now seeming like an extended part of the dress), the overall aesthetic of the skirt of the dress feels like a steampunk prom outfit. The halved tweed coat with the gold embroidery and the white shirt underneath are very in reference to a princess pirate outfit as well, within this edgy poofy look. 

Another interpretation is the dark academia aesthetic, with the ensemble formed by the brooch and the white collared shirt, which is reminiscent of Ortega’s wardrobe from the still thriving buzz of “Wednesday” (the configuration of the fishnet socks and the monochrome clown shoes playing into the kooky yet trendy visual landscape).  

The overall scope of this aesthetic to me, is conclusively underwhelming in comparison to the origins of the dress. The feathery black layers are a muted tone to the pannier, and the overcoat placement seems hasty rather than comfortable enough to go along with the stance of movement of Jenna. Finally, (on the tangent of the outfit) the accessories only ever go along with the dress’s color scheme if anything, broiling the dress in blandness and bleakness. 

This is primarily due to the lack of thematic imperativeness, which dulls excitement. There is an idleness presented by this version of the dress, caused by the lackluster treatment of the conceptual grit surrounding the integration of Victorian themes into an edgy modernness. What would be a breeding ground for fashion-infused social commentary is excluded by this “visual charm.” 

This essence hence occurs on a mainstream repetitiveness, engulfing most sought-after creative work; shadowing a trajectory that in my opinion is due to an uninspired and rather unevaluated linkage. As the recent commerciality of the booming art industry heavily depends on the aforementioned methodology. 

This personalized breakdown of the design and choices made along the way. pertaining to Jenna’s dress is my attempt at revealing the similarity within the inner fabrics of thought that support various instances of popular media and develop in the running, stagnant reactions and responses from their standings within an actively receptive society.