The Costume Institute Gala, or the ‘Met’ Gala, is the one event in the showbiz calendar where fashion is not just the appetiser – it’s the main course.

Held yearly at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Gala celebrates the very best of contemporary fashion and attendees have only one remit when it comes to dress code: make it fabulous.

Considered the fashion world’s equivalent of the Oscars, the stakes are raised when it comes to putting in an appearance on this red carpet.  Some attendees go for what they know; others like to step outside their comfort zone. This red carpet is perhaps the most interesting to watch as it can yield unexpected results.

As with all red-carpets, there were a few trends that could be pinpointed. The predominant trend this year was short vs. long. Wearing shorter lengths for black-tie events is becoming ever more popular, with shorter hems even seen at this year’s Oscars. The trend was copied by many of the younger attendees, including Blake Lively, Carey Mulligan, Kristen Stewart and Chloe Sevigny.

Shorter hemlines work well with dresses that are high on visual impact, and for Blake and Carey this truism paid off: the detail on their dresses would be too much to handle on a longer dress, but done in short bursts, it’s much more palatable.

Carey even pre-empted two trends in one, by choosing a Miu Miu dress that ticked the boxes for lilac and lace. It may not have been the classic show-stopper that the steps of the Met are traditionally used to, but Carey, with her 60’s style crop, couldn’t have looked any cuter if she tried.

Blake Lively also scored a home run with a cerulean Marchesa dress that was big on impact, short on hem inches. Again, this dress in a longer length would have been overwhelming even for someone of Blake’s height – Marchesa (and Blake) did the smart thing by keeping it short and sassy.

The gamble didn’t pay off for everyone, and Chloe Sevigny’s polo-neck mini from Proenza Schouler is a typical example of Met fashion getting lost in translation. Chloe is one of Hollywood’s most daring actresses and isn’t afraid to try on a difficult trend or two. Some result in moments of fashion magic (like Chloe’s Valentino ruffles at the Golden Globes) but the Proenza Schouler dress was too much even for her. A regular on Best Dressed lists; chalk this up as a mere blip in what is already shaping up to be a very stylish career. Sevigny’s fearlessness gives her the potential to become a modern fashion icon, and even the greats get it wrong once in a while. 

Not everyone went with a shorter length – the word ‘Gala’ automatically suggests formality and formal for lots of women means only one thing: a floor-length gown and the epilator gets the night off.

The temptation with an occasion this big, with so many of the world’s press watching, is to match the occasion stitch for stitch and go with something that sits in traditional ball-gown territory. But luckily for us, Diane Kruger is not most people.

Diane’s sleek Calvin Klein gown is a perfect example of ‘less is more’. In recent years, the motto du jour has definitely been ‘more is more’, with actresses vying to out-do each other on the red carpet. First it was ready-to-wear, then haute couture, then one-of-a-kind haute couture, and then Lady Gaga arrived and made everyone feel hopelessly under-dressed. When everything’s been done – where do you go for something original? You go back to the start, and that’s exactly what Diane Kruger has done. When simplicity is done this well, who needs frills?

While Diane enjoyed the quiet satisfaction of knowing that she would be an automatic stand-out, other stars have built careers on the ‘ta-da’ factor, and turning up in minimalist Calvin Klein would be akin to turning up with a paper bag over their head: they would be unrecognisable.

Back on the circuit after a short career break, Jennifer Lopez has hit the ground running with several noted appearances already.

Jennifer clearly learnt lessons from this year’s Oscars ceremony where she turned up in futuristic Armani Prive. It was a brave outing, but a step forward that needed a little refining. She has the personality required to wear couture, but her experiment with sci-fi taught her that she’s best suited to feminine designs that work with her curves, and not crowd them. The Zuhair Murad gown was a triumph: the detail was the focus while the body of the gown was uncluttered, unfettered and allowed Lopez to shine. She looked young, fresh and most importantly of all, relaxed: job done.

Also with projects in the pipeline, red-carpet alum Sarah Jessica Parker was born to attend this type of event, and didn’t disappoint in a slinky pleated gown from Halston that blended the line where Carrie and SJP meet. As a nod to the upcoming SATC sequel, there’s few better ways to press home your point. Complete with trademark corsage in the hair, it was SJP par excellence.

Where its fashion with no holds barred, there’s always controversy, and this year, it was served up by Katy Perry. She tried to light up the red carpet in a LED dress that predictably divided the critics. It was a tough dress to wear even without the LED inserts in the bodice, and the amount of hardware on display would be challenging for Lady Gaga, who’s well-versed in the art of merging high fashion with battery packs.

Where this year’s ceremony worked was in the quieter surprises: many girls choosing to wear shorter lengths, Alexa Chung doing tomboy chic, and Tina Fey rocking a jumpsuit (yes you did read that right).

It goes to prove that grabbing headlines is sometimes best left to the professionals. The biggest successes of the night (Carey Mulligan, Diane Kruger, Jennifer Lopez) were not the flashiest sartorial picks, but they were the best.

The tendency with a dress code that literally has no limits is to end up over-thinking it, and that’s what happened at MOMA. Those who got it right, kept it simple.

This event’s theme may have been ‘Fashioning a New Identity’, but as far as this year’s attendees were concerned, letting your personality shine through your clothes, and not vice versa, was the way to go. A night of mixed fortune, it served as a reminder that sometimes the simplest pleasures can be the greatest.

HELEN TOPE