So, remember that incredibly detailed, art-history-nerd, spreadsheet-backed master plan I told you about? The one I meticulously built with Carly Zell?
If you didn’t, you can read it here:
Yeah. Throw it out the window.
Because life—and the fashion gods—had other plans for my first ever Met Gala red carpet for E! and Peacock.
As it turns out, the universe loves a plot twist. Just days before the big night, an unexpected option presented itself.
At the time, I was on a trip with my girlfriends(you know who I mean, the “Sisters of Salt”) so naturally, anxiety, arguments, and drama were already at an all-time high. I was exhausted, overstimulated, and deeply pre-anxious about the looming, absolute biggest moment of my career.
Enter the sartorial equivalent of a wild card: Kevin Germanier responded to my DM!
I have loved Kevin’s work for years. I had already tried several official avenues to get ahold of his team regarding a specific, show-stopping dress from his last couture runway show. Beyond looking unbelievable, the piece has an incredible backstory.
Kevin Germanier’s Spring/Summer 2026 collection, Les Chardonneuses, is a radical manifesto for upcycled high fashion. Drawing inspiration from the spiky thistle, it reimagines luxury waste by using deconstructed deadstock fabrics from the LVMH group. The dress heavily features Germanier’s signature embellishments, re-engineering surplus sequins, embroidered bottles, recycled cans, and garbage bags into sculptural, runway-ready silhouettes.
Kevin is an absolute doll and was thrilled to get the dress to me. Now, look, I never borrow or rent dresses. I fully believe in paying designers, supporting their labor, and owning the literal pieces of art and history that define my life. But Kevin generously offered to rent me this specific archive masterpiece for the evening, and I absolutely took him up on it!
It just had one tiny, minuscule problem. The dress was currently sitting at an exhibition in Copenhagen. Kevin was working in Paris. I was around the world in Hawaii. And the dress needed to meet me in New York City in a matter of two short weekend days.
What followed was a mad, global dash between Kevin, his amazing team, my fantastic manager, a very stressed courier service, and a mountain of hotel-reception-printed Powers of Attorney and signatures. Miraculously, the dress arrived just in time for Met Gala Monday.
I was terrified to put it on. What if it didn’t fit? What if I lacked the sheer gravitas required to pull off such an iconic look? Yes, despite my wild sartorial past, I have standard human anxieties!
Fortunately, I had an angel of a tailor in my hotel room as part of my glam squad. She went right to work, meticulously taking the hem up just a fraction of an inch by hand to ensure a picture-perfect fit. The second it was on, all my intellectualized museum theories evaporated. It just felt right.
The most amazing I have ever felt! Truly a dress fit for me, and The Met!
Here is the hilarious reality of dressing for “Fashion is Art” when you’re a red carpet correspondent and not a celebrity guest: you are essentially playing high-fashion Tetris. My outfit had to scream “I respect Anna Wintour” while quietly whispering “I also have three heavy battery packs taped to my thigh, an earpiece shoved into my skull, and a desperate need to not trip over a camera cord on live television.”
Oh, and I also needed to deliver historically accurate, fashionably knowledgeable, and hilarious critiques instantaneously as guests arrived. No pressure at all while wrapped in a custom couture gown worth six figures!
The Breakdown of the Look
The Gown: This. Kevin. Germanier. Dress. It perfectly captured the exhibition’s emphasis on the “dressed body” as art, but featured a silhouette that actually allowed me to expand my lungs and speak in full sentences.
The Craftsmanship: It showcased circular craftsmanship at its finest. Crafted over two months by eight artisans focusing entirely on hand-embroidery, I was literally wrapped in a collaborative artwork.
The Materials: Upcycling is the core soul of this piece. It features unsold materials from LVMH used for the base, alongside beads, crystals, and pearls repurposed from factory leftovers in India. It is couture that successfully reimagines waste as a genuine wonder, utilizing sequins from recycled plastic bottles and raffia from repurposed grocery bags.
The “Art” Nod: While it wasn’t a literal Degas painting, the design highlights a brilliant dialogue between fashion and sculpture. The heavy embroidery and appliqués behave like a living sculpture on the body, shifting dynamically with movement and light to deliver that curated, gallery-worthy edge the dress code demanded.
The Real Hero: My shoes. Shoutout to Louboutin for making heels that looked like a million bucks but secretly felt like supportive clouds. Who am I kidding? No heels are comfortable all night. I’ve just been tolerating them since 2003 and routinely joke that I haven’t properly felt my toes since.
Behind the Scenes of Live TV
Standing on that carpet watching icons like Beyoncé and Sabrina Carpenter ascend the steps was completely surreal. But let’s be real for a second. While the broadcast looks seamless, behind the camera, I was doing a frantic mental dance: checking my camera angles, ensuring my microphone didn’t cause an awkward fabric bulge, and praying I didn’t develop sweat stains under the aggressive, blinding production lights.
Fashion is art, absolutely. But live TV fashion? That’s an extreme sport.
Ultimately, the last-minute switch was exactly what I needed. I didn’t feel like a reporter looking in from the outside; I felt confident, sharp, and entirely myself while honoring a decade-long dream. Next year, I promise I’ll go full avant-garde—but for my first time out, this was my perfect masterpiece.
The After-Party Wardrobe Change
Once the live coverage wrapped, it was time to change into something a little more maneuverable for the after-parties, so I pivoted to a vintage piece I recently purchased.
I changed into a Versace Spring 2018 Pop Art crystal-strass encrusted jumpsuit. It featured literal Andy Warhol art pieces printed across it, keeping me entirely on-theme while being bright, incredibly sparkly, and easy to move in. The piece is a heavy, iconic recreation of a Gianni Versace jumpsuit from the ‘90s. It weighs a ton, but it was absolutely perfect for dancing the night away at all the fabulous after-parties!
Did you have a favorite look between the two?
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