As a true New Yorker (and the queen of Hollywood rom-coms), it may be surprising that Meg Ryan hasn’t attended the Met Gala since 2001. But last night, the star marked her grand return to the star-studded event. “I’ve just tuned into fashion in an intellectual way,” Ryan tells Vogue of hitting the Met steps again. “My daughter is way into the history and anthropology of fashion; I’ve been discovering it a lot through her. I told her I was going to this Met Gala thing and she goes, ‘Met Gala thing?’”
Turns out, Ryan first got the itch to attend the Met Gala again back in 2022, when she attended the Costume Institute’s “In America: An Anthology of Fashion” exhibit with her daughter Daisy. (The exhibit was also the theme for the 2022 Met Gala.) “It was really moving to see Abraham Lincoln’s coat—the one he wore when he was assassinated,” says Ryan. “To see it as an artifact, you could feel the history through this one piece of clothing; clothes tell a story.” Armed with an appreciation for the historical and storytelling aspects of fashion, this year, then, felt like the right moment for Ryan to make her Met Gala comeback.
The actor attended with designer Michael Kors, who dressed her in a custom black gown with floral embroideries. “Meg’s style is the epitome of understated laid-back cool,” Kors tells Vogue. “She knows herself, and has edited her look to perfection throughout her career. As a designer, it’s always fun to work with someone who has a point of view, and our styles definitely complement each other—sleek, cool and effortless with the perfect amount of legendary American glamour.” For Ryan, the feeling was mutual. “He’s all about this streamlined, breezy, American-chic [vibe]. And he’s also really inspired by old school Hollywood glamour, and I love that,” says Ryan. “Also, he’s a blast; If you’re going to spend the night with someone. . . He’s so fun and smart.”
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To tie into the theme, Kors created a romantic gown for Ryan that nodded back to the natural world: a black silk-wool mikado dress with a tulle bodice, featuring shadow floral hand-embroidery. “All the beading was done in Indian by a family-owned business called Adity, where the women run the company and the men do the beading,” says Ryan. “I learned that it took 800 hours to sew it, and over 1,000 sequin flowers were used. Each of the flowers were made with dozens of these recycled sequins, in several different sizes and shapes. They wrapped around the gown like a vine.”
Ryan’s favorite part of the design was the sentiment and emotion behind it. “Ultimately, Michael told me that the natural world is incredibly fragile—flowers are beautiful and incredibly fragile, so this dress with black flowers is his goth take on the fragility of nature,” says Ryan. “When I walked into the fitting, I could just feel how proud and happy he was. It’s very emotional to see an artist interpret an idea, and to engineer it—and have so much fun doing it.” As for how the superstar ended the night? When Vogue asked her her post-Met plans, she quipped, “I’ll probably have to get the shoes off—and maybe [have] some french fries.”
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