The first Monday in May is reserved for one event, and one event only, the Met Gala. However, this year’s glorious affair was postponed by the pandemic. For the first time, May hasn’t begun with floods of tweets drooling over the extravagant fits of Harry Styles or Queen B and yes, we are sad about it.

The Met Gala isn’t the only glam event that has been cancelled or postponed. Graduating students at Lancaster University have had their graduation ceremonies postponed too. This pandemic has no time for glam, we’re all sitting at home waiting for any given opportunity to get dressed up again. 

Everyday in lockdown is spent scrolling through Twitter. When, finally, an excuse to become the beauty icons we were supposed to be at the Grad Ball came to our feeds like a glistening angel in a bleak dark night. 

After seeing some lockdown takes on some of the most iconic looks from the Met Gala over the years, we figured we had the time to recreate some ourselves. For the Grad Ball that never was, for the Met Gala that could have been. Thanks Covid, we hope you’re happy.

Kylie Jenner – 2019

The theme of 2019’s Met Gala was Camp, and while many interpreted this theme in different ways, Kylie Jenner fashioned together purple feathery sleeves with a sheer bodycon netting with a sleek purple wig. While flawless and breathtaking, this look was definitely a challenge. So I started by picking out different purple items to try and recreate this look. In the end I wore a purple bodycon dress with a silver cardigan around my waist which slightly resembled the pattern of Kylie’s look. Then to imitate the sleeves, I wrapped my purple blanket around my arms.

As much as I can hope that I will look somewhat like Kylie at the Grad ball, I have my doubts.

Jared Leto – 2019

I had high hopes for this look in particular. Overcome with excitement, I began to destroy a beauty blender in order to create my dream beard. My particular technique accidently made the beard much more realistic as I had grossly miscalculated the size of the sponge in comparison to the tiny eyeshadows in the palette. The subsequent blend of browns, greens, blacks and oranges was clearly an uncanny resemblance to one Jared Leto.

Being a generic white girl fairy lights are always close to hand. This is an easy substitution for expensive decals on a designer gown. As to not avoid the elephant in the room, there is clearly a much more tragic element to this recreation, namely, my severed Jared Leto head. ‘Plan A’ had wickedly foiled by my mum when she informed me that she had long since thrown away my childhood massive Barbie hairdressing head. The unfortunate paper back-up plan clearly pales in comparison.

Ezra Miller – 2019

“I can do that one!” I exclaimed as we shared our favourite Met Gala looks in the group chat. Using my Rimmel London eyeliner to draw perfect eyes onto my face, I found myself in resentment of the original excitement I had once held.  Simple enough, I had thought, before I tried to recreate the arch of my brows with my Morphe palette. Ezra’s look at the 2019 Met Gala got a lot of attention, as he gracefully removed his mask on the red carpet to reveal his seven eyes.

I rummaged through my old sixth form gear at my mum’s house to find a similar blazer to Ezra’s, but let’s be real, this look is not about the blazer, it’s about those eyes. I realised after that I had drawn too many but to my expectations it was good enough. Despite perhaps revelling in the power move of wearing a blazer in lockdown, I decided this vibe was nowhere near what is acceptable for Grad Ball. Sorry to say.

Michael Urie – 2019

This one was easily the trickiest yet. After careful consideration I came to the conclusion that the only way this look could feasibly be achieved on a shoestring budget was by doing each half of the look separately. After realising that a pink tube top was unfortunately not in my possession I improvised through the use of a tutu as a top.

One skin rash later and I had achieved the feminine half of the look. Although the masculine part was easier, the biggest task of editing the two together was yet to come. Although, it may have seemed a simple task my mum’s amateour photography skills made the two impossible to line up.

Lana Del Rey – 2018

For those who know me, it seemed pretty obvious that I was going to try to recreate Lana Del Rey’s 2018 Gucci piece. Way back in the pre-lockdown 2018, I remember being in awe of the wings perfectly placed on Lana’s head, fitting for an angel, in my opinion. For the dress, which was designed by Alessandro Michele, I briefly borrowed one of my brother’s shirts and used the elegance of duct tape to recreate those daggers with steak knives. Despite the fears of observing family members that a knife may drop and slice open my toe, it felt like I had produced the perfect dupe.

Lana’s look was all about that head piece, a piece that I can only describe as a diamond hoop with blue wings. I truly believed this to be easy as I scrunched together a hoop out of tin foil, and found some angel wings that had been left in my uni house from a pre-lockdown fancy dress party. After many attempts I had to employ my mum to hold the wings up for me, as to my disappointment, they refused to stand. As I look at the comparison from the original to my own attempt, I can hear the critics saying it’s a poor attempt. But as Robbie Williams once asked, does an angel contemplate my fate? I am loving angels, and I will be sure to remake this headpiece for the grad ball, eventually.

Liza Koshy – 2019

This was the look I was most excited about recreating. For the 2019 Met Gala, Liza Koshy wore an abstract pink feathered dress with a detailed silver and white undergarment, paired with a sparkly bag and heels. To recreate this look, I folded my pink fluffy blanket in half and wrapped it around myself to imitate the dress. It was difficult to try and hold the blanket up and to keep its shape. Then I matched the shoes and the bag to complete the look. It’s different, I admit, and I don’t feel fancy enough to make this work at the Grad Ball, but it was a venture worth going on.

Cara Delevingne – 2017

To recreate any model’s outfit is already a big ask, let alone recreating Cara Delevingne’s 2017 Met Gala suit. I was determined to do this one justice. If Cara managed to paint her shaved head I was capable of building my own tin foil helmet in homage. The theme for 2017’s Met Gala was ‘Comme des Garcons: Art of the Inbetween’. Although I would struggle to label my recreation as art, even in the more abstract sense of the word, I did feel as though it was a throwback to my days watching ‘Art Attack’ as a kid. With the addition of my dad’s old blazer the look was complete.

Ariana Grande – 2018

Ariana’s look for the 2018 Met Gala focuses on a large gold bow in her iconic high ponytail. I attempted this look by tying a scarf into a bow around my own hair. I didn’t have anything gold so improvised with the pink. While no one can compare to Ariana, I sure tried.

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