Each year, the Met Gala brings together luminaries from the worlds of art, film, and fashion, with attendees pushing boundaries in larger-than-life creations from major fashion houses. However, the Met Gala is also an opportune moment to spotlight emerging talents, and for this year’s Gilded Glamour and White Tie-themed event, renowned actor Eddie Redmayne and his wife, Hannah Bagshawe, entrusted London-based designer Steve O Smith with creating their looks. “I love line drawings, and particularly charcoal… those great artists who could create something extraordinary with so little–Matisse, Cy Twombly, or the romance of Seurat charcoal drawings. Steve’s clothes merge fashion and art so uniquely and I adore that,” Redmayne told Vogue ahead of the event.
A Rhode Island School of Design graduate, Smith launched his label in 2017 upon returning to London from America to pursue an MA in fashion at Central Saint Martins, where he completed his studies in 2022. It was during his time at CSM that he developed his distinctive approach to garment design. “My work always starts with drawings on paper, which I then translate into garments,” he explains. “I try to preserve the feeling of the works on paper by approaching the construction of the garments with the same sense of gesture and expression, reframing pattern cutting, draping, sewing and appliqué as an extension of the drawing process itself.”
Reflecting on dressing Redmayne and Bagshawe for the Met Gala, Smith enthuses, “They’ve been an absolute dream to work with… The JG Ballard story that inspired the theme this year is [actually] based on a couple, which made the looks much easier to conceptualise.”
What specifically inspired Smith’s designs for the momentous occasion? “When I first read JG Ballard’s story ‘The Overloaded Man,’ I immediately started to make a connection between the flowers in the story and Cy Twombly’s Peony series. As well as being great visual references, the way those works were made, using action painting techniques and abstraction, felt like perfect ideas to relate to the themes of creation and destruction in the story,” the designer continues. “From there, I took a day to make drawings in diluted acrylic paint, graphite stick and pencil, over and over again until they started to feel like they had a sense of movement and emotion, and then went straight into making.”
For Redmayne’s look, Smith crafted a wool coat mounted on sheer silk organza using a technique he calls “relief appliqué,” in which the appliqué is cut away from the garment rather than added on. “The organza essentially acts as a lining which is strategically revealed, and a removable tulle skirt will also be attached inside the coat.” Completing his look is a matching pair of wool tailored trousers and a silk organza dickie underneath the coat with a drawing of a tie on it. “The mixture of classicism and whimsy is what Steve has created, and the clothes are beautiful, playful and easy to wear,” adds Redmayne, who accessorised with Grenson brogues and a black Omega De Ville watch.
As for Bagshawe? Smith opted to create a silk organza gown built over a tulle skirt and corset, with black silk crepe appliqué. “Because the organza is sheer, it allows you to see through to the layers of tulle underneath in a way that hopefully will create depth, that will then be contrasted by the opaque silk crepe on the outer layer,” he notes. “The inner corset of the dress is boned and reinforced for support, but we hand draped the silk crepe onto the bodice to imitate the texture of the overlapping brush strokes in the drawing.”
Stylist Harry Lambert is the mastermind behind Redmayne and Bagshawe’s collaboration with Smith for the Met Gala. “This is the biggest fashion event of the year–these moments can start a brand, transform a designer’s future–so I could not be more thrilled that Steve is getting this opportunity,” says Lambert. “It’s time for everyone to start wearing Steve O Smith!”
Redmayne and Bagshawe’s collaboration with Smith for the Met Gala is a testament to the transformative power of the event for emerging designers. Smith’s unique approach to garment design, inspired by art and line drawings, shone through in the captivating ensembles he created for the couple. The collaboration highlights the importance of supporting emerging talent and the role the Met Gala plays in shaping the future of fashion.
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