Last night was the 2022 Met Gala, the biggest night in fashion, the E3 of clothes. While social media always kicks itself into a frenzy regardless of the quality of the looks, it’s good fun to closely dissect each look. Who designed it? Is it on theme? Where is she going? What’s the concept? With these already in mind, it’s easy to arrive at and answer one other crucial question: What video game does this belong in?
Blake Lively — Transistor
Between the art deco and transitional nature of the gown, it’s hard not to place Blake Lively squarely into Supergiant Games’ 2014 masterpiece Transistor. The Versace gown, just as Transistor, only becomes more beautiful as your time with it grows. Like the statues that inspired it, it began as solid, metallic copper and “oxidized” on the red carpet, revealing a stunning turquoise streaked with leftover copper. I’m not sure if she’s a hero, a villain, or another soul lost to the Transistor, but needless to say, she looks incredible.
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Janelle Monae — Shin Megami Tensei
Janelle Monae described her Ralph Lauren look as “gilded glamor from the future,” a sentiment echoed in Shin Megami Tensei’s contemporary designs of ancient Gods and demons. However, the combination of sleekness and fine, sparkling details, in particular, is what cements this as an Atlus look. Just let her be as gay as she wants, alright?
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Emma Corrin — Guilty Gear
Look, I don’t know much about Guilty Gear. But I do know that there’s a gun in that hat. Emma Corrin’s look was inspired by the 19th-century dandy Evander Berry Wall, who was so dedicated to a life of fashion and won so many spats with other prominent fashionistas that he was labeled King of the Dudes several times. King of the Dudes. Come on.
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Lizzo — Elden Ring
With an outfit this unnecessarily large and ornate, a gilded flute, corkscrew nails… tell me Lizzo isn’t everyone’s favorite FromSoftware boss. Tell me Lizzo doesn’t have two stages. Hell, once her next album drops, she’ll have three! You probably have to fight the security guards whose only task is carrying her train too. She’ll afflict you with Frenzy when the flute solo hits, and I know a single swing of that cape would destroy my health bar.
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Teyana Taylor — Subnautica
Teyana Taylor looked positively ethereal in her custom Iris van Herpen gown as she flowed down the red carpet in a marbled purple print. Top that off with her (probably 3D-printed) headpiece and you’ve got nothing short of a telepathic alien goddess.
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Odell Beckham Jr. — Thief
When playing Thief: The Dark Project for the first time as a kid, I often wondered just how Garrett was able to carry the dozens of artifacts he’d swipe while maintaining a cat burglar’s grace. It’s a little less difficult to imagine wide receiver OBJ managing the weight — not only because professional football players are strong as hell, but also because that big, diamond chain around his neck is worth $650,000.
Gigi Hadid — Resident Evil
Do I even have to say it? If Resident Evil were allowed a smidge more color in its drab palette, Gigi Hadid would fit right in amongst the elite in this statuesque, vampy look. Lady D can hardly fit through doors because of her height, so there’s some interesting contrast here with the sheer width of Gigi Hadid’s garment.
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Lily James — The Legend of Zelda
I think we all distinctly remember entering our first fairy fountain in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and feeling some combination of admiration and scandal. To see a giant, scantily-clad woman with the most voluptuous figure the Nintendo 64 could muster emerge from a sparkling fountain? Lily James perfectly channels that, dripping in pearls in her custom Versace.
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Kid Cudi — Magic: The Gathering Arena
Kid Cudi is a sleeper hit as far as fashionable celebrities go, but he always manages to turn heads with one of his many masculinity-challenging moments or his impeccable streetwear. This is a simple, well-executed, and effective look — I know he can ponder the fuck out of some orbs. While not everyone in Magic: The Gathering is a wizard, Kid Cudi would fit in any blue deck; and because he’s a celebrity, he can actually afford to build one. Legendary Planeswalker Kid Cudi, Man on the Moon.
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Bad Bunny — Nancy Drew and the Secret of the Old Clock
He’s ready to solve a mystery. ¡Échale ganas!
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Conan Gray — Final Fantasy XIV
Every healer wants it, every performer wants it — and especially, every male Viera wants it.
In New York for the #MetGala #ConanGray opted for a Valentino custom white tulle embroidered shirt and chiffon cape, paired with all-over silver sequin pants and #VALENTINOGARAVANI white platform boots, styled by #KatieQian@metmuseum pic.twitter.com/y6UhulyPbN
— Valentino (@MaisonValentino) May 3, 2022
Evan Mock — Katamari Damacy
Evan Mock is looking formal, playful, colorful, and most importantly of all: corseted. It’s the perfect look for the capricious King of All Cosmos.
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Sebastian Stan — Danganronpa
New York City’s 2022 Met Gala is home to the best and brightest celebrities — the beacons of hope for the future of fashion. But that hope suddenly dies when Sebastian Stan and his contemporaries find themselves imprisoned in the museum, cut off from the outside world and subject to the whims of a strange little Editor-in-Chief of Vogue named Anna Wintour.
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Natasha Poonawalla — Paradise Killer
Schiaparelli is resurging, dressing a handful of celebrities in their signature avant-garde, surrealist, and often gilded style — perfectly on theme for the 2022 Met Gala, as well as the 2020 investigation adventure Paradise Killer. I just know her name is Aurelia Immunity or something.
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Nicola Coughlan — Super Mario
Anyone who’s even glanced at the world of video games knows Princess Peach. Despite her generic style of “pretty in pink,” Nintendo rarely misses when it comes to dressing her, most notably in Super Mario Odyssey’s post-game as she tours the various Kingdoms. If the much-desired sequel has a Regency Kingdom, you can believe Princess Peach’s vacation attire will look a little something like this.
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