X
  • Culture

Met Gala 'Heavenly Bodies' theme inspires spacey celeb looks

The annual benefit for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute brings some otherworldly fashion to the red carpet.

Headshot of Leslie Katz
Headshot of Leslie Katz
Leslie Katz Former Culture Editor
Leslie Katz led a team that explored the intersection of tech and culture, plus all manner of awe-inspiring science, from space to AI and archaeology. When she's not smithing words, she's probably playing online word games, tending to her garden or referring to herself in the third person.
Credentials
  • Third place film critic, 2021 LA Press Club National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards
Leslie Katz
Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & The Catholic Imagination Costume Institute Gala - Arrivals

Anne Hathaway attends the Met Gala wearing the kind of space-princess headwear you might see in Star Wars. 

 John Shearer/Getty Images for The Hollywood Reporter

The theme of this year's annual Met Gala fundraiser, "Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination," will, says the Met, "feature a dialogue between fashion and medieval art from the Met collection to examine fashion's ongoing engagement with the devotional practices and traditions of Catholicism."

Some celebrities, like Rihanna in her stunningly bejeweled pope hat and Chadwick Boseman in his cross-bedecked robe, adhered closely to the theme with Christian iconography. Others, like Lana Del Rey, went back to the Middle Ages with some variation of Renaissance or Game of Thrones chic. 

Still others walking the New York red carpet before the star-studded Monday night event brought a certain futuristic celestial glam to their own heavenly bodies. They donned ethereal shimmery fabrics and elaborate headwear that could be at home in a sci-fi franchise. Here are some of the more cosmic looks.