Keke Palmer Felt Like the Belle of the Ball at the Met Gala 2024

For Keke Palmer, the “Sleeping Beauty: Reawakening Fashion” theme of the Met Gala 2024 was easy to interpret because there are parallels to her own life. “I am having my own reawakening and becoming a woman in my own right. I do feel like it’s funny how art imitates life in this way,” Palmer told Vanity Fair before hitting the steps of The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Monday.

By Erick Robinson.

At the Met Gala 2024, Palmer looked radiant in a custom Marc Jacobs gown (“It’s giving goddess, look at me, look at me, but don’t get blinded because I’m shining so brightly!”) made of gold frayed sheer silk and tulle and delicately covered with antique beaded embroidery. “With the theme ’Sleeping Beauty: Reawakening Fashion,’ meshed with what’s actually happening in my life as a new mom and stepping into the year being 30, I do think both of those things in my life and what I’m trying to express, and what Marc is trying to express within the art, all align. And I hope that that’s also why he chose me to even be a part of what he’s doing this year with The Met,” Palmer said.

It was the perfect alignment indeed, as Jacobs said he’s “long been a fan of Keke.”

By Erick Robinson.

“[I] was thrilled when she accepted our invitation to the Met Gala. The exhibit, ‘Sleeping Beauties,’ is going to showcase some of the museum’s most rarely seen items that are no longer suitable to be worn. This idea of fragility was really where we started with Keke’s look,” Jacobs said.

While the actor has attended the Met Gala several times in the past, last year, when she attended with designer Sergio Hudson shortly after the birth of her son, Leo, she realized how fashion could rejuvenate her. “It reignited in me something that I think I really needed, which was just leaning into the fun that we can have with beauty. I think there’s so much seriousness around it. For me, after I became a mom, with years of just being so dolled up, it had a new meaning to me where it was kind of like I found a strength and power in putting on my best looks and putting my best foot forward,” she said. “Especially when it comes to an opportunity. And so, I look forward to that for tonight.”

By Erick Robinson.

As Palmer embraces this new era of her life, she’s leaned into the playful nature of style as a means to relieve stress, and so, working in collaboration with her longtime stylist, Seth Chernoff, Palmer becomes “a character” with every new look. “Whether it’s on Password, or whether it’s something that I’m doing on the carpet, or even if we’re preparing to look for a new character that I’m developing. There’s always the confidence, but there‘s a certain key to who I’m going to be tonight, what I’m going to get, how I’m going to serve, what the attitude is. Clothes have always made me come alive in that way. And I think it’s a big part of me too as an actress. I’m always talking when I work with the director on what’s the look, what does her hair look like, what does her outfit look like? Because all of that really brings that person to life,” Palmer said.

And as for the character that inspired Palmer at the Met Gala 2024? “When I wear this dress, I feel like I’m the belle of the fucking ball,” she said.