Quinta Brunson’s Met Gala look caps off an award season of red carpet misses
At the 2023 Met Gala’s tribute to the late Karl Lagerfeld, Brunson did not shine.
I love everything about Philly-bred Quinta Brunson’s city-centric sitcom Abbott Elementary.
Brunson rocks.
Her red carpet looks do not.
As the 2023 red carpet season wrapped up Monday night with the Met Gala’s tribute to the late Karl Lagerfeld, Brunson did not shine on the red carpet in the too-pale Prabul Gurung. The light purple hue didn’t work for her. Tulle is not her friend. The corset was too tight. The ridiculously large bow was as distracting as an unwanted bustle. And perhaps the biggest fashion faux pas, the baby hair gelled to her scalp was as stiff as the dress.
Coco Chanel relaxed women’s fashion at the turn of the 19th century, eliminating corsets and turning the little black dress into an easy-to-wear staple. As Chanel’s creative director from 1983 to 2019, Lagerfeld made Chanel’s looks even more accessible, so that women who wore Chanel looked like they belonged in it. Draped in strands of signature Chanel pearls, celebs like Nicole Kidman, who wore vintage Lagerfeld, to Halle Bailey in her frothy, white Gucci appeared at ease Monday night.
Brunson, however, looked so uncomfortable on the Metropolitan Museum of Arts steps, I thought she might just topple over.
This isn’t Brunson’s fault.
That blame goes to her stylist, Byron Javar, who keeps blowing it. He failed Brunson when he put her in the the gothic Christian Siriano for the Golden Globes and dropped the ball when he went with a mustard yellow and ostrich feathered gown by Aliétte for last month’s Independent Spirit Awards. The shiny Dundas gown Brunson wore to the the NAACP Image Awards almost worked, before I noticed the way the ill-fitting sweetheart bodice smashed her breasts into pancakes.
It’s Javar’s job to not to squeeze Brunson into mermaid-style gowns that make her look like she’s choking.
Choking is not winning.
And I want Brunson to win, especially on the red carpet.
I know Brunson will take home more statues during next year’s award’s season. So, I hope she takes the summer to rethink her red carpet looks. Her style deserves to shine.