You can always expect the best clothes in the universe, every year, on the Met Gala red carpet in New York.
Dazzling, red-hot stuff you never even dreamt of seeing. Garment fantasies, that feel they could have been fuelled by psychodelics, come alive. Gowns high on cocaine. A phantasmagoric kingdom of the most exotic couture.
The 2023 edition was a similar dreamy Wondrous Night of Fashion with international models and celebs dishing out, cameo after cameo, of glorious stylemagic.
The Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty theme, an ode to the six-decade legacy of industry's most decorated designer, charged up the runway.
His school of design, while deeply European, straddled the past as much as it did the future.
IMAGE: Kendall Jenner outshone even Superman in her metallic sleeve cape and body suit. Was she going to any moment utter: 'Krypton bred me, but it was earth that gave me all I am'.
Her Marc Jacobs bodysuit, dripping in sequins, sported a classic Lagerfield silver collar and long, flowing sleeves that doubled up as a train.
The sexy shoes were from another planet too.
There is a superhero in all of us. We just need the courage to put on the cape.
Photograph: Theo Wargo/Getty Images
IMAGE: Gisele Bundchen was a giant happy white swan that flew in from Ugly Duckling for the Met in her long-feathered cape.
In any case the Met becomes Fairytale Central on this red-letter night of the year.
Photograph: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
IMAGE: Little Miss Muffet aka Ashley Graham wore a gown with its own built-in tuffet. Only the curds, whey and spider were missing.
Not sure how locomotion was achieved in this Harris Reed creation in pink and black.
Maybe the model was wearing skates.
Photograph: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
IMAGE: Miranda Kerr's Disney princess Dior dress was a little less over the top given the bizarre gown weather at the museum Monday.
Did she imagine she was Snow White or Princess Bride?
Photograph: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
IMAGE: Karlie Kloss, pregnant with her second child, might have been debuting her baby bump but her non-child-friendly severe skintight Cruella de Vil getup could have scared children for miles around.
Photograph: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
IMAGE: Had Naomi Campbell's wonderfully elegant blush pink dress and silver cholee come with an attached cape or train, it would have resembled a sari.
The archival look was from Chanel's Spring/Summer 2010 couture collection inspired by the sari.
Didn't she look incred?
Photograph: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
IMAGE: Grace Elizabeth brought every shade of pink -- didn't know so many gulab hues even existed -- to the grand do in a Candyland ballroom gown.
Photograph: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
IMAGE: What's this Sora? Sora Choi came heavily encumbered, dragging all her bedding in a suit-inspired gown. As if that was not enough it also featured a long cape.
Muchness or what?
Photograph: Mike Coppola/Getty Images