How Iman and Harris Reed Collaborated on the Met Gala’s Most Dazzling Look

[applause]

[classical piano music]

Hi, Vogue!

It's Harris Reed,

and today I'll be walking you through

my making of my Met Gala dress.

[pen scratching on paper]

Really, how it all started is with a phone call

from Anna Wintour and her amazing team

inviting me to my first ever Met Gala

Sure! with the support

of Dolce & Gabbana's atelier

to create my biggest, most fluid vision.

[classical piano music]

I went straight into researching Pinterest books--

everything that could bring the inspiration

before we started the sketching process.

The images that really stood out to me

were a lot of these images of 18th-century cages .

A lot of costume that was really about grandeur

and taking up a space in the way of

'I deserve to be here and I own it'

that kind of trickled in from one intern

passing these amazing, like, 1920s showgirl references...

Bellini films....

We had someone pass me something that was from

[indistinct] dress from the runway.

Someone passed me something that was literally a cage

that was built for a chicken coop

that some art student put together.

So it was was kind of a running theme of grandeur,

and this kind of larger-than-life idea,

and all those things, I think,

were inspired by, you know, queer and, like,

kind of...individuals from different backgrounds

and, like, how they kind of brought their individuality

to the forefront.

When Anna invited me to the Met,

I was like, Oh, my goodness!

My biggest dream is literally

to be able to dress the one and only Iman.

[Harris Reed] Hello.

[Iman] Hi, darl--oh, my God!

Look at you! You're looking gorgeous!

[laughter]

It honestly clicked late for me that,

'Great, I have this, the date of my dreams,

but she also has to love what I just did.'

Really, it was just jumping on a call with her,

sketch in hand,

and just kind of nothing more

than a little dream

and a little piece of paper. [giggles]

Yeah, the idea was, it would be more of like a jump--

like, a jacquard jumpsuit

that could either have flared trousers,

or maybe more A-line trousers.

It's actually quite chic and quite simple.

So I was thinking it would be--

Like a bustier? Like a bustier.

and then the thing on top of it,

which is the drama,

would basically be

a, like, really lightweight...

it's kind of like a crinoline cage that would have

the exact same effect.

It's almost like this.

It would just be lined in the same feathers

with gold leaf on top and could get compacted down

and then you step into it.

And it just ribbon-ties on the waist.

So, is that how I get out of it

to sit down at dinner?

It was really when I kind of closed the laptop,

that I realized, 'Okay, we have 25 days

to make three feathered headpieces,

a full cage, fully feathered, fully gold-leaved,

a pair of flares,

a corset and a bustier.'

Awesome!

I think it's going to need almost six rings of, like--

I mean, that's a Met look.

[Rebecca] Yeah.

Like, that's a Met look.

[laughter]

[ambient music]

[Harris] To be able to have the support

of Dolce & Gabbana's atelier is kind of incredible.

I was able to have access to fabric

that I would dream of using.

So that was the next stage,

which was a lot of us staring,

figuring it out,

and seeing what actually was going to look the best.

And it's a make-or-break situation.

If it's the wrong fabric, the outfit is destroyed.

It came down to what is going to create

these 'rays,' if you will,

that you'll see on the sketch.

And for me, it was feathers.

And I had this vision of it being these really intense rays.

I wanted her to look like a beam of light.

We had to try so many different kinds of feathers, you know,

to really get the right texture.

And we found kind of a local supplier in London

who had the exact amount of stock already existing

that could do a treatment to them

that would then allow us to do

the gold-leafing, the gold appliqué

and the gold fan-brushing technique that we did.

[classical piano music]

The first thing we started with were the trousers,

and I wanted to get the flare just right for Iman.

[Harris] I think we can go even bigger

with the kick of the flare

and take out, at least, what's that--one seam from the knee?

[Rebecca] Yeah.

She needs to look grand....

Gorgeous.

We are really focusing on doing

trousers, bustier, cage and hat;

that's the order we are going in completion.

[Robert] We're just attaching the gold-leaf

to, like, the [indistinct] and what we're doing is,

we're doing it quite densely at the top

so it's, like, as it goes down and, like, comes out,

the feathers, like, become less dense.

So it, like, matches the drape of the feather.

But as you can see,

we've got some stored under the table, as well.

Ready to go.

[Woman Sewing] You have to hand-sew each of the layers

of the feathers onto the crinoline.

There's five hoops in total.

The bottom hoop is the biggest one.

It's five-and-a-half meters.

So far, it's taken us, I'd say, a day-and-a-bit

to do the first three.

I mean, we're still not done yet.

So I think it could take another few days. [laughs]

[traffic]

Last time you guys saw us,

we were standing here

with the twelve-twelve before this one.

We had to raise the height at the top.

We've had to, like, mess around with the zipper placement,

switch around the seams in the crotch,

and then really add a fabulous kick.

So actually we did quite a lot to get now,

to basically the final pair.

We're not going to have hem up any further,

as we will wait 'til our first fitting with Iman

in New York City.

And these are now basically my children.

Anytime they're out of my sight, I feel uncomfortable.

I dream of gilded gold brocade at this point.

Right now I'm in Iman's hat, as it is at the moment.

We were gonna do three rings.

So this is two, but you can already see with just two rings,

how massive the headpiece is.

So we basically would be aiming to do

one, two, three more

to really get the volume we're after.

I am a bit worried about how much kind of falls forward

um, and really keeping it back

and much more like rays than feathers.

I just feel like,

if there's any time to go big or go home,

it's right now.

And I think this piece just needs to be triple the size.

[indistinct chatter] [fabric rustles]

Oh, my God.

It's actually gonna work. [laughs disbelievingly]

So obviously imagine this three times as big.

Pretty epic.

Yeah.

We have about three to four days

until the outfit needs to be fully ready

to be shipped to New York City

ahead of our fitting and ahead of the Gala.

So I'm nervous...

but I have faith...

and obviously, we will not be sleeping

for these next three days to get it done.

[Rebecca] And then that's--that is done!

[Harris] Done! Labeled and done!

Labeled and ready to go-o. [sing-song]

[classical piano music]

[Phoebe] Harris is on a plane right now,

but the Met Gala looks are about to be picked up.

So we've all been working on creative solutions to get some

very, very big pieces to New York.

Even when we started talking about the Met,

my big stress was how are we going to get it there?

We're working with really beautiful,

delicate pieces and we've ended up putting them in tape.

So the length from here to over there is 2.5 meters.

I think we're going to struggle with the corridor.

[classical piano music continues]

Bye! Bye, bye!

Travel safe! Please!

[Harris] So we're now in New York City.

We are in the Dolce & Gabbana flagship store

in the private VIP dressing room

and Iman's coming in.

And for the first time ever,

I'm going to show her her Met Gala gown.

If they don't fit her,

we're going to pull a full-blown Project Runway,

and I will be pulling up a sewing machine here

and sewing until the night of the Met.

[Iman] Hello!

[Harris] It's so nice to meet you!

I can't, can't wait. I'm too excited.

Are you ready?

Yup!

One...two...three!

[gasps] Oh, my--!

[laughs gleefully]

Oh, my God. That's great.

It's gonna be gorgeous. Oh, my God.

And what are you wearing?

Um, I'm going to go in sweatpants and a t-shirt.

No, I'm wearing a smaller version of the headpiece,

and then I'm wearing, like, kind of a white tux jacket

that trains down,

but we couldn't fit everything in this room

because of how big the dress was.

Yeah, no, it needs its own.

It needs its own space!

I mean, like, it's divine.

It's beyond what I thought.

I mean, the illustration doesn't do it justice.

[dress-form clatters]

Too tight.

Too tight?

So, update!

We are currently fitting the trousers.

And as we said, this is the first fitting ever

with Iman trying to get on.

So we're just making sure that the trousers work.

We're letting--we're messing around

with some of the seams just to make

that they really have that amazing support.

And we're, like, moments away from trying on the bustier,

but we are still in the private moments...so...get ready.

It's going to look amazing! [squeals]

Also let me know if we're going too tight.

No, never too tight.

[laughs]

I definitely don't want anything on my neck.

No.

It's the only night I'm going

to be taking my David Bowie's necklace off.

This was made for me when David passed away,

Have you seen it?

I made it for him

and I've been wearing it since.

Aw. It's so beautiful, I saw.

Yeah. So this is the only time it's gonna stay home.

Well, there I am.

Here she is. How do I look?

Now, this--this is not a joke!

Okay, this is the dinner one,

which hopefully should be extremely comfortable.

Well, that's, that's the fitting today!

The skirt, the skirt is a surprise.

Yeah, that's a surprise.

Bye. Bye, everyone.

See you on the red carpet.

[traffic]

I am, for the first time in my life,

bleaching my brows,

which is something I've always wanted to do

and I never did it.

And then today I was like, let's just do it.

And then just snatched elegance.

So I look just as statuesque as Iman. [laughs]

Doing an outfit of this magnitude,

a dress like this,

without doing any previous fittings,

I knew we were gonna have to do some tweaking.

I just didn't know maybe how much tweaking we were going to

literally have to end up doing.

I think it's been about 400 hours in total

of making the skirt

from the start in London to the finish here.

You guys are seeing it before I am.

I hope it looks good!

[laughter] [indistinct chatter]

[Iman] The fittings have not really been a challenge.

It's the head piece.

What we always forget is

the Met Gala is not a step-and-repeat.

It's, you're going up the steps

of being on the runway enough time.

You don't want to be looking down when you're walking up.

So, so that's going to be a challenge.

That's going to bring all my 40-something years of career--

the test is tonight! [laughs]

The earrings are designed by Rebecca Selva at Fred Leighton.

And it's specifically, um, for this outfit.

Now I'm ready! [chortles]

[anticipatory music]

[traffic]

[crowd cheers]

[Iman] No, I've never done this before.

[indistinct conversation]

[Passerby] Harris, Iman! Good luck, babies!

[door shuts]

[music continues softly]