Kim Kardashian Dripping in Pearls at Met Gala in Schiaparelli Dress

One of the most talked about Met Gala guests has arrived.

Kim Kardashian turned up to Monday’s event wearing custom Schiaparelli Haute Couture by Daniel Roseberry, a design that featured a molded corset in blush satin underneath a draped skirt and top made from more than 50,000 freshwater pearls and 16,000 crystals. According to Schiaparelli, the look took a dozen artisans more than 1,000 hours to create, as each strand of pearls was strung and draped to her body. Kardashian accessorized the look with a choker, pearl drop earrings, ruffled sleeves that flowed into a long train, and ivory heels.

Upon hitting the carpet, Kardashian spoke with Vogue’s special correspondent Derek Blasberg about the inspiration behind the custom look. “I wanted to feel glamorous,” she said, noting that while she normally feels pressure to deliver something major, she didn’t this year. “I just wanted to have a good time. I took a shot before I came with my sisters.”

The Met Gala, held as the annual fundraiser for New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, is timed to coincide with the unveiling of the museum’s annual fashion exhibition and this year’s is focused on Karl Lagerfeld. Titled “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,” the collection honors the life and legendary career of the late designer who passed away on Feb. 19, 2019, and features more than 150 pieces including sketches.

The dress code simply reads “In honor of Karl,” and that’s all Kardashian needed to get going on this year’s look: “I wanted pearls. What is more Karl? The iconic Chanel pearls is what I always thought of. We wanted to be dripping in pearls.”

Kardashian was literally dripping. She revealed that some of the real pearls were falling off the ensemble as she made her way from the Ritz hotel to the car to the carpet. Her daughter, North West, who attended the evening with her famous mother, “was putting them all in her purse,” she said. Blasberg quipped, “I am going to follow you around all night, too.”

Blasberg, a pun-lover who joked that Kardashian was “the most pearl-fect guest” at this year’s Met, also asked her about meeting Lagerfeld’s beloved cat Choupette. “We spent some time together before this,” explained Kardashian, who said that while it was “a little scary at first” she warmed up after a while. “We had a love fest.”

Later, she also stopped for her best friend La La Anthony, who was working the live stream for Vogue, Kardashian said “it’s super emotional” to be there because of the family’s personal history with Lagerfeld. She explained that her first-ever fashion shoot was shot by Lagerfeld and when Kendall Jenner started her modeling career, Lagerfeld cast the supermodel in his runway shows. “It’s very special,” she said.

Kardashian has traditionally been a show stopper at the Met Gala. Last year, she turned heads by wearing the beaded Jean Louis illusion gown that Marilyn Monroe famously wore on May 19, 1962, when she sang “Happy Birthday” to President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden. (It caused a stir because the gown was on loan from Ripley’s Believe it or Not.) In 2021, she wore a black Balenciaga look that covered her entire body. Other highlights include the custom Thierry Mugler dress that she wore in 2019 that marked the famous designer’s first new creation in two decades; a chainmail Versace in 2018; an off-the-shoulder Vivienne Westwood Couture dress in 2017; a sheer Roberto Cavalli gown with feather train in 2015; and a custom Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci gown while she was pregnant in 2013.

The Met Gala program features Penélope Cruz, Michaela Coel, Roger Federer, Dua Lipa, and Vogue’s Wintour as the night’s co-chairs. See all the best looks from the Met Gala here.