Tom Ford made an impression on the 2024 Met Gala red carpet, choosing a designer brand that raised some eyebrows among spectators.
The fashion designer walked the Met Gala red carpet wearing a custom suit from Saint Laurent, designed by the house’s creative director Anthony Vaccarello. The look, consistent with Ford’s quintessential menswear style, included a red velvet tuxedo jacket paired with black smoking pants. He accessorized the look with his go-to black sunglasses.
Ford’s sartorial decision for the Met Gala comes after the designer sold his namesake label to The Estée Lauder Cos. in 2022 in a deal that valued the brand at $2.8 billion. Under the new deal, designer Peter Hawkings was tapped as the brand’s new creative director.
Tom Ford
Gilbert Flores for Variety
While Ford chose not to wear a suit from his namesake label for the Met Gala, other stars looked to the brand for their red carpet looks. Met Gala celebrity cochair Chris Hemsworth, for one, wore a custom cream-colored three-piece suit from the label. He walked the red carpet alongside his wife Elsa Pataky, who also wore a custom Tom Ford gold metallic dress.
Although Ford’s red carpet look was striking to some, the designer is no stranger to Saint Laurent. Ford was appointed the creative director of the label, then known as Yves Saint Laurent, in 1999 when the design house was acquired by Gucci. He left the position in 2004.
Ford was one of the many men at the Met Gala who took a unique spin on classic menswear. Many male celebrities, such as Colman Domingo, Bad Bunny, Donald Glover and others wore colorful and graphic takes on the classic menswear suit to lean into the night’s dress code, “The Garden of Time.”