Kendall Jenner Cements Her Status as a Fashion Legend in a Lost Alexander McQueen Masterpiece
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual Met Gala is the Olympics of red carpet fashion – where daring sartorial statements reign supreme. At this year’s event, Kendall Jenner pulled off a feat of museum-caliber magnificence by becoming the first person to wear a 25-year-old Alexander McQueen haute couture treasure from the Givenchy archives.
The supermodel and undisputed style icon arrived at the Met steps in a museum-worthy stunner – a corseted lace slip dress from McQueen’s lauded fall 1999 haute couture collection for Givenchy. An ornate tapestry of sheer botanical lace encased Jenner’s lithe frame, while structured conical breasts pushed the avant-garde boundaries that defined McQueen’s provocative work in the late 90s.
This garment had been collecting archival dust for over two decades, preserved but never presented to the public eye until Jenner’s history-making appearance. In an unprecedented move, Givenchy’s privately vaulted archives opened exclusively for the supermodel, granting her the honor of reviving this McQueen relic from fashion purgatory.
“When I was going through the archives, I had my dream list of designers and eras that I wanted to wear. Alexander McQueen for Givenchy was at the top,” Jenner revealed. “To find this 25-year-old piece that had never been seen or worn was incredible. It felt meant to be.”
Stylist Dani Michelle described the Herculean efforts to make this archival reverie a reality. “The dress could not be tailored or altered at all to preserve its integrity. So the race was on to have the perfected sample size dress fit Kendall’s measurements exactly.”
The delicate altering came down to strenuous diet and exercise to whittle Jenner’s physique into the precise proportions to do the precious garment justice. A dedicated lingerie regimen was also required to cultivate Jenner’s curves into the anatomical silhouette for which the avant-garde dress was originally designed.
McQueen fanatics took to social media in a furor, alleging the dress had been previously worn by actress Winona Ryder in 1999. However, the museum’s couture experts quickly debunked these claims, confirming this garment was indeed fresh from its archival slumber.
In reviving a lost radical visionary’s artistic resurrection from over two decades ago, Jenner solidified her status as a champion preservationist of fashion history. By bringing this abandoned McQueen valentine back into the spotlight, she ensured its legacy will be forever seared into the pantheon of enduring style relics.
