A tuxedo and a white shirt. A long sheer chiffon floral dress. The beauty of the classics is anything but ephemeral, for it is eternal. But classics, like beauty, sometimes change and take on different forms. When deconstructed, decontextualized, worn, and frayed, beauty becomes fragile—and for that very reason all the more precious. In the unusual, the unexpected, and the unconventional, lies the more poetic side of romanticism. That is exactly what Damiano David and Dove Cameron brought to the 2024 Met Gala, where the dress code was The Garden of Time, and the night celebrated the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s latest exhibit, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.”
For their Met Gala debut, the pair turned to Glenn Martens, who designed two custom Diesel looks. Together, the Måneskin frontman and the actress and singer perfectly embodied the Diesel aesthetic: young, free, and refelective of the elegance of nonconformity.
Made of a devorè fabric fashioned from wool woven with a polyester thread, David’s tuxedo seems to have been almost disintegrated by time and wear. (The technique has become a signature of Martens’s collections, and was among Diesel’s fall 2024 designs). With a white shirt and plays of transparency, the tattoos of one of the most famous Italian rock stars in the world become an integral part of the look.
Cameron, on the other hand, showed the world that the words “ethereal” and “punk” can work in the same sentence. In a long, floral-print chiffon gown featuring a high neck, sheer tulle detailing, and a cascading effect-inspired by the fall 2024 collection, Cameron embodied an elegance that is both rough and sophisticated. Roses on her dress recall the cut flower from J.G. Ballard’s short story, which inspired the Garden of Time theme. The look was made using 60 yards of tulle and 60 yards of chiffon—hiding a handmade corset laced in the back. And it indeed took time: 20 hours to cut and 40 hours to construct.
