Nicole Kidman Gets Ready for the Met Gala | Vogue

Five, 10 and three quarters. I'm always like, I'm not 5'11". I've had so many decades now where I've been associated with Chanel, but to be able to come back at this time in my life is beautiful and with Mathieu now designing. But I was talking about how I used to go and stay with Karl in Biarritz and then we did the cruise show in Biarritz and now I'm doing the Met here with Mathieu. I'm wearing the first time his collection has been shown in terms of the Met. He hasn't designed a couture dress for the Met gala yet, so I get to wear the first. When we were talking initially about me coming back to the house, he just said, I loved what you did with Karl with Chanel and it was part of my evolution in terms of the Chanel No. 5 commercial and that dress that I wore. And I think we were just meant to be. He pulled me in because he's such a gentle person, but he's so exquisitely talented and I just felt he'll take care of me and he'll be loving and he'll be generous of spirit. You can just feel that, you can feel that in his designs, you can feel that in his essence. I think there's an ease and a beauty to what he does. So it's an incredible privilege to be able to wear his clothes. A lot of times I'm stressed because I'm like, I hope I can do them justice. The magical thing about working with someone like Nicole is like, she is a true artist. And to start from the museum and you think about art, you think about history, it's actually great to collaborate with someone who is an artist. And Nicole is such an artist and also what I do is an art form. And she kind of like leans into you and like pours into this idea of letting you just be free. Nicole is one of the greatest collaborators I've ever worked with because she is incredibly fearless. She can get into these beautiful characters that we kind of build together. I mean, no wonder she's been nominated many times for an Oscar and no wonder she's one of our greatest celebrated artists, right? Because she loves collaborating with talent. I have been working with her, I think it's maybe consistently about four years. I did actually do a cover of Vogue with Nicole years ago in the English countryside. I think I was pregnant with my second at the time. Her ongoing story with Chanel is couture. She is couture. We think about it from every carpet that Nicole has ever touched, it's couture. So that's the house that's so identifiable with that word. That's why I'm pretty sure they both starts with the letter C because Chanel couture. And like, you know, we have this internal joke that she's Lady Couture. Mattu, I'm such a fan in what he's doing, blowing this beautiful fresh air back into Chanel. The DNA that he's like really kind of enhanced is so important. It was just, it's nice to collaborate with someone who is open to listening and feeling what you're saying. So the collaboration was easy and spectacular. We talked, then we had a fitting in Biarritz and then we adjusted again. And he just keeps, he sees it and then he creates it more and creates it more. And that's what I've always said is that I love being the doll. I love standing there and having it designed around your body. So I came up with a couple of ideas and we talked about some things and this color red just kept jumping off the page for me. And it's something to note in history that, you know, red is such a dynamic color when you think of most paintings and it's something that just draws people and it's very dynamic and it's very sensual and it's very like strong and yet at the same time, effortless. It's not as easy as you think because a lot of the time, I still have not seen the dress on. This is the day of the Met, you guys, okay? And I still have not seen the dress on. I have seen photos, I did some FaceTime, but to actually visually feel and see, I have not done that. And so it's a beautiful process of collaboration. My intention is to make her the most gorgeous version of herself and just make her feel the most confident she's ever felt. You know, I wanna make sure that her complexion looks as beautiful and harmonizes with the dress as humanly possible. The finish of the skin, the complexion, I've always been known for that. People often say to me, they can tell when I've done the makeup because of the quality of the skin, which is such a nice compliment. So you know what people don't understand? This is a lot of work. It's a lot, a lot of work. And outside of me, it is the people who all touch this gown from the ateliers to like people who just carry these things. It's a lot of work and it's a lot of energy and it's a lot of passion that goes into it. And that's a piece for me, that's a large art form as well. So when you think about artist fashion, it's like we, from start to finish, a slice of art, a slice of an artist has touched this moment. It's a lot. You're the steward. You're greeting everybody. You're standing at the top of those magnificent stairs. You're standing there with that iconic sort of feeling of what the Met represents, the museum and art. And there's so much history. When hair has this incredible elongation, it can form around the body as a language ultimately. And I think hair is a very powerful tool and has been for many, many years. You know, when you think of Tina Turner, you think of her hair. When you think of Dolly Parton, you think of her hair. When you think of Cher, you think of her hair. Hair walks into the room first a lot of the time. It is about self-expression where you are in your life, right? I can remember haircuts more than I can remember a lot of things. Sometimes for the good and sometimes for the bad. We sometimes got like boop over by getting a bad haircut. Hair is one of your greatest accessories. And tonight I used it as a form of art. This particular dress is covered in this most amazing flat beading. There's these feathers that trim the cuff and the cascade throughout her waistline. And it's something about it that just feels like liquid. It's literally like she's been dipped in such this beautiful candy apple. It kind of feels that way. And, you know, even just saying that out loud, it's just something that just the color red is so symbolic for me with like New York, like the Big Apple and things like that. There's all these great artful plays for what you're gonna see tonight with this dress. I'm really excited for what the final look will be. Today I'm working with Clé de Peau and I'm excited to get going. When you have it all together and you're walking up those stairs, something magic happens. Partly being able to wear clothes was something I could do ever since I was little because I was so tall. And it's lovely to be still asked to do that at this time in my life. And then to be able to bring my daughter who's blooming and what she's wearing tonight shows that. It's springtime, it's blossoming, it's blooming. And I'm wearing red, which is the deepest form of love. It represents love. And so to be her loving mother while she's blossoming is kind of lovely. I hope it's gonna be a great night. I hope we're gonna see beautiful, beautiful creations because we're seeing fashion as art. And let's go, let's have some fun.