Billie Eilish Had Her Marilyn Monroe Moment on the Met Gala Carpet
The look was *also* inspired by her favorite Barbie, of course.
There’s no doubt that Billie Eilish‘s Met Gala gown was inspired by American icon Marilyn Monroe. From the top of her perfectly coifed blonde head to the bottoms of her feet, Eilish exuded Old Hollywood glamour on the September 13th carpet on fashion’s biggest day of the year. She wore a voluminous gown—directly inspired by Monroe’s 1951 Oscars gown—to take on her hosting duties at the event, and everything about the ensemble is quite literally flawless.
Taking on this beautifully sexy look felt right for Eilish, she said during Vogue‘s live stream on the carpet. “It was time for this, and I feel like I’ve grown so much in the last few years…I was just scared and didn’t feel comfortable in my skin, and I feel like I finally [do now]. It was time,” she said, adding that she considered her look to *actually* be holiday Barbie—her favorite.
The juxtaposition of Marilyn Monroe and Barbie also makes sense for this year’s event, whose theme is In America: A Lexicon of Fashion. Eilish added her name to this list of American icons by pulling inspiration from both, but her mission with working with Oscar de la Renta actually went beyond just the Met Gala. She revealed in an Instagram post that her stipulation for working with the fashion house came down to her demand that they stop using fur. For good.
“thank you @oscardelarenta for designing this BEAUTIFUL dress and bringing my ideas and vision to life. it was an honor to wear this dress knowing that going forward oscar de la renta will be completely fur-free!!!!” she wrote, adding that she’s “thrilled” that the creatives listened to her plea to stop using fur.
i’m honored to have been a catalyst and to have been heard on this matter. i urge all designers to do the same.
“Billie had planned to go to the Met Gala for the first time before the pandemic happened,” British Vogue‘s style director Dena Giannini, who styled Eilish for the event, told Vogue. “She had always dreamed of wearing a proper ballgown—particularly something corseted, thanks to her love of Barbies growing up—but she thought that it might be in an acid-green colorway or something along those lines.”
Instead, Eilish found herself wanting something more soft and mature, which is how she and her team ended up with this gorgeous Oscar de la Renta number. She surely made a splash on her debut Met Gala carpet, and we hope her attendance becomes an annual thing, because we absolutely want to see what she comes up with year after year.