The Making of Jenna Ortega's Met Gala Dress | Vogue

Jenna, she does have a real sense of her own style. The dress is definitely not wearing her. She's definitely wearing the dress. My name is Tom Brown. Here in the studio, I am going to show you what I have designed for Jenna Ortega, and we are getting ready for the Met on Monday. The theme is Karl Lagerfeld, celebrating his 65-year career as a designer. Karl, I think, has directly or indirectly inspired most of us. When I was thinking of the outfit for Jenna, one of the biggest inspirations for me was Karl's work at Chanel. You think of black and white, you think of tweed, you think of chain and the pearls, and his specific references, and this one specifically was an 18th century panier. So I hope that people see the perfect marriage of what I do, but also to what Karl did at Chanel. The process began a couple months ago. Hearing that Jenna was going to be coming with me to the night was exciting for me because I know that she has actually worn my clothing in the past and she appreciates tailoring, so it was a very authentic, natural fit. First of all, it starts with just an idea in my head. Then it is a sketch that I shared with Jenna, and then, you know, a more specific sketch, and that's what you ultimately see. For this, because of the reference of the 18th century, it does play with shape and proportion. You do see the panier of the 18th century reference, and then you also see the oversized, more conceptualized version of the overcoat that is draped over the panier. There's a heavy tweed influence, which is, I think, playing very much an homage to Karl's work at Chanel. You know, from really developing the fabric to developing what you'll actually see and finishing everything on Monday, it took us a good six weeks. Creating something like this, of course, it's a village. There's a lot of people right now that will be embroidering and finalizing just the embroidery on the looks. What you're gonna see here is more of the detail work that will go into finalizing Jenna's dress. That's Hecky, Hector. He runs the studio. This is one of the final swatches, and then the details with the gold and the pearls. This is one of the embroidery that will go on the 18th century reference panier. This is the panier here. When working with somebody like Jenna, I always feel like there has to be a real, you know, some type of authentic relationship between the two of us. And Jenna's very true to herself, and she's also very good at what she does. And I think that is something that is inspiring to me. I think Jenna's coming in tomorrow or the next day, and this will be her third fitting. I still think it looks so cool. I think it reads really well, especially when you can see the cuff right there. Well, the one thing, it feels so you. Very. Yeah. Yeah. And it feels very true to your whole sensibility, and I think it looks great. And also the tweed is very Carl. Well, I was saying it was very easy to do, you know, looks for this Met, because what he did at Chanel was so strong and so ingrained in people's minds. And I think when you think of Carl, I think of Chanel, and, you know, there's so many codes to play with. Sitting at dinner might be a little tough. No one sits anyway. Yeah. It's not worth it. It looks so good. It looks really, really good. It looks really good. And it just looks perfect for you. It's also surprisingly comfortable. I feel very good. See you tomorrow. See you. Thank you so much. I'm overwhelmed by how happy I am, so thank you. I'm so excited to attend the Met with Tom Brown just because I have looked up to him creatively and as a designer for a very long time, and I've been such a major fan of his work that I think it's kind of a collaboration I always made up in my head. So the fact that it's actually panning out and we got to work on a design together and come up with something really beautiful, I can't believe it. I think the special little piece about this outfit is probably the chain. I remember we weren't sure whether or not we wanted to wear it, but I think that the white shirt really brought it out. The design and spacing is specific to something that Carl did in his career, so it's a perfect homage to him, I think. Thank you so much for being involved in this process and paying attention and caring. I really, really appreciate it. Again, I feel so grateful and lucky. It's an honor working with Tom, and yeah, hope you enjoy the rest of the night.