An investigation on green, ethical & sustainable fashion at Met Gala 2019

House of Gharats has set itself on a mission to be a fully ethical and sustainable design house by 2021. The love for learning, sharing and growing will be at the heart of this journey. We were interested in investigating, who wore green, ethical and sustainable at the Costume Institute Gala 2019, also known as the Met Ball.

It’s that wonderful time of the year again. The Met Gala has never failed to make us gaze in awe, this year was no exception. However, we believe this year’s Met Gala showed a special connection with House of Gharats, this is because we saw some amazing green, ethical and sustainable fashion on the red carpet from likes of Gisele Bündchen, Livia Firth and Big Freedia. We would love to share details about their outfits, including what materials they are made of and who designed them. We wish to inspire you to take an interest in sustainable fashion because the reality is sustainability in fashion can be as beautifully complex as any other fashion. Also, we will highlight our favourite styles of scarves, neckerchiefs and pocket squares.

This year’s Met Gala theme was “Camp: Notes on Fashion”. Camp covers fashion that can be simple, humorous or simply extreme in nature. This is an event for celebrities and designers to truly express their wildest imaginations in fashion. We’ve seen Jared Leto hold a replica of his own head, Billy Porter be carried on a litter by six shirtless men, and last but not least, Lady Gaga wore a Russian nesting doll-like dress with four distinct layers.

Who were the ethical & sustainable advocates of fashion at the 2019 Met Gala?

Livia Firth

Livia Firth’s dress for the Met Gala was a symphony of vibrant colours, beautiful florals prints and a rainbow of Swarovski crystals. It was designed by Richard Quinn. Livia Firth is a long-time advocate of sustainable fashion. In fact, she is the founder and creative director of Eco-Age which is “a brand consultancy that enables businesses to achieve growth by adding value through sustainability”. In addition, she also started the ‘Green Carpet Challenge’ which seeks to encourage celebrities to wear sustainable fashion on red carpet events. She saw the Met Gala as a perfect opportunity to showcase her dress which is indeed sustainable. Livia Firth says that she collaborated with Quinn to create the dress. They purchased recycled polyester georgette which is made from 100% recycled water bottles that are processed and spun into yarns using a mechanical process, not a chemical one.

The result, one breathtaking dress. Quinn added “the Swarovski crystals along the cuffs and neckline were leftover stock from the company’s lab” he also added that his printer is digital, so there’s never a surplus of fabric that goes to waste.

Gisele Bündchen

The world-class Victoria Secret model, Gisele Bündchen, showcased a stunning satin pleated gown made by Dior and is indeed made from sustainable materials. In her interview with Vogue on the red carpet, she couldn’t stress enough the importance of sustainability and how much it means to her. She further expressed on her Instagram picture of her red carpet dress, saying “Yes, fashion can be beautiful and sustainable.”

Big Freedia

The hip hop extraordinaire and veteran, Big Freedia, showcased an outfit designed by Rio Uribe of the brand, Gypsy Sport. The outfit is a black tuxedo embellished with white bottle caps which was premiered on the Fall 2019 runway at New York Fashion Week. Uribe added “The concept was to do something that was extravagant but also sustainable,” Uribe is a strong advocate for sustainable fashion, in fact, he always incorporates up-cycled materials. For this suit, Uribe sourced 1,000 bottle caps from an intern that also works in a restaurant, this includes caps from Coca-Cola and Budweiser. All in all, the outfit is 90% sustainable which is an impressive accomplishment. In addition, the suit was made in a matter of days, he and his team worked hard, but he added that it was all worth it to see Freedia showcase the sustainable creation on the red carpet.

How could we miss our most favourite fashion accessories at the 2019 Met Gala? Celebrities styles at the 2019 Met Gala had some knotty style tips of how you can style a scarf, neckerchief and pocket square or any piece of fabric you would like to get knotty with. Be sure to also view our 50 knotty ways to tie a scarf and pocket square page for inspirations!

Who got knotty with scarves, neckerchiefs and pocket squares?

James Charles

James Charles, personality, model and make-up artist, wore an outfit designed by Alexander Wang, and beautifully accompanying it is a scarf styled as a neckerchief. We think this use of the neckerchief acts as a tool to highlight the strong and bright colour of the metallic top as it is sandwiched between the black neckerchief and black trousers.

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton, a British racing driver in Formula One, extravagantly wore a scarf that is styled into a cravat and embellished with two gem brooches. We love how the men are playing with their brooches! The scarf is neatly wrapped around his neck and tucked into his suit.

Lisa Love

Lisa Love, west coast director of Vogue and Teen Vogue, wore a bright fuchsia trouser suit paired with black mesh lace-like twilly. Oh, twilly!

Benedict Cumberbatch

Benedict Cumberbatch, an actor, made a surprising outfit choice for the 2019 Met Gala. He wore a three-piece white suit, with a white fedora and a cravat that is embellished with an emerald green brooch. Green with envy!

Lena Dunham and Jemima Kirke

Bows and Bow ties not as we know them!!! Big was bang on and better at the Met Gala 2019. Lena Dunham, director, and producer, is accompanied by Jemima Kirke, artist and actress. They’ve been friends for 20 years — three of which happened to overlap with them attending the Met Gala at the same time. Both decided to wear matching outfits in different colours. Most significantly, they wore huge bow ties facing their back, this is a very playful and camp look. We also absolutely loved the big bow/neck scarf style with a suit worn by Christopher Kane.

Darren Criss

Darren Criss, an actor, singer and songwriter. Not only did he show a genuine appreciation for getting dressed, but he also proved to us that he can dress camp. Most significantly, his huge bow tie-like cravat is a cherry on top of a glamorous outfit.

Dapper Dan

Dapper Dan, fashion designer and haberdasher, is a suit and tie veteran. However, for the Met Gala, he decided to take a different approach to align closely with the ‘camp theme’. He decided to wear a scarf styled into a cravat and he indeed looks dapper and camp.

Max Hollein

The artful knotty tie got shorter, hmmm! Max Hollein, art historian and the new director of the Met, is celebrating his first gala. What did he wear? A sleek black tuxedo with a colourful cravat to contrast the formality and to embrace the camp theme.

Omari Hardwick

Omari Hardwick, an actor, beautifully incorporates the classic pocket square to his suit. Although the 2019 Met Gala’s theme is ‘camp’. Hardwick saw an opportunity to wear a suit with a pocket square that is traditional and classic and bring a colourful and playful twist to it.

A powerful message behind the glitz & glamour

Giving a message through our work at House Of Gharats is the design itself, for example, a simple white cloth with a message will impact a person a lot more than an identical cloth with no message. Moreover, amidst the camp outfits of the Met Gala, there was one display of a powerful message. Lena Waithe sought to send a message with her outfit which is a text on the back of her blazer that says “Black drag queens invented camp” this is indeed a bold move. This is in response to her displeased view on the lack of credit that the LGBTQIA community and people of colour receive for their contribution to the camp culture.

A standing ovation from team House of Gharats

We at House of Gharats think that all these outfits are equally beautiful. It is a joy to see that sustainable fashion is continuously hitting red carpet events. More importantly, we are excited to see the demand for sustainable fashion go up as more and more celebrities and influencers embrace it. In addition, as demand and awareness increases, more designers will incorporate sustainable elements into their designs. Moreover, we will see more complex and creative ways that sustainability can be fashionable.

To reiterate, sustainable fashion can be as fashionable as any other fashion, this perfectly aligns with House of Gharats commitment of using traditional craftsmanship, such as working with craftspeople, supporting their work and keeping traditions alive. Equally, we push boundaries with ways we can use technology to create beautiful designs. A great way to describe us is, forward-thinking yet traditional. This is a perfect time to announce our collaboration with the Commonwealth Fashion Council in creating a first of its kind sustainable scarf made of SeaCell silk which is made from seaweed.

Wordsmith: Zakaria Abdullahi