For the second year running H&M had the privilege of dressing some celebrity guests includes Ciara, Jennifer Hudson, Hailee Steinfeld, Lucky Blue and Pyper America Smith, and Amber Valletta, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Benefit (Met Gala 2016). Taking the theme of this year’s exhibition “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology” as inspiration, the design team at H&M used hand-crafted traditions and cutting-edge techniques and materials to create each of the individual looks.
The exhibition “Manus x Machina” celebrates both the machine and man-made in fashion, looking at how the traditions have increasingly become blurred. The theme inspired the H&M design team to create looks that reflected the personality of each of its guests, using techniques such as laser-cutting, hand embroidery, feathering, stonework and crystal pleating.
Singer Ciara’s intricate and daring dress has been hand-made as if by a jeweller. Pendants of Swarovski crystals hang from a diamond grid of leaf-like metal chain, with a choker neck and sporty racer back.Singer and actress Jennifer Hudson wore a white bodice silk dress that showed the beauty of hand-embellishment, with 3D bugle beads, French knots and hand-melted sequins. The dress is finished by a glamorous four-foot train.Actress and singer Hailee Steinfeld wore an emerald green gown that had effortless clean-cut glamour; its corseted bodice had a grid made of navette sequins overlaid with silk organza, while the floor-length silk satin skirt had a high central split.Model Amber Valletta wore an elegant look in sustainable materials. The dress is made of deep blue silk taffeta, embellished with over 1,000 hand-cut and sewn organic silk petals and recycled plastic sequins. Laser-cut petals were heat-transferred with reflective vinyl. Her boyfriend Teddy Charles wore a black wool tuxedo with silk satin wide lapels and strong shoulders.Model Lucky Blue Smith looked sharp in an off-white Italian wool slim tuxedo blazer with a strong shoulder worn over a white silk shirt, both fastened with Swarovski buttons. His leather trousers had a blue metallic coating.
