Red carpet toilet paper? These are the best at-home DIY Met Gala looks

May 04, 2020

Before pandemic PJs became the global uniform, there was this little thing called the Met Gala.

Held on the first Monday in May, the Vogue-hosted soirée at the Metropolitan Museum is typically NYC’s most glamorous evening. Celebrities and fashion elites hit the red carpet in haute couture to kick off the Met Costume Institute’s annual fashion exhibit.

As with most big events, this year’s party, themed, “About Time: Fashion and Duration” and chaired by Meryl Streep, Emma Stone and Lin-Manuel Miranda, has been indefinitely postponed due to the coronavirus. But style fans aren’t resigning themselves to sweatpants.

Around the globe, red-carpet obsessives have been participating in the #MetGalaChallenge. The dare — announced April 22 by Broadway actor and Met Gala knockout Billy Porter — has fashion lovers re-creating their favorite Gala get-ups with everyday materials from home and posting them on Instagram. Vogue will announce contest winners on Monday.

Here, The Post highlights the best of the Met Gala magic at home.

Masterpiece theater

EPA/JUSTIN LANE; Sanja Nestorovic

Some people are spending their lockdown watching “Ozark.” Williamsburg’s Sanja Nestorovic has used hers to make not one, but five Met Gala re-creations.

“I started doing this because it was just something to keep me sane and not lose my mind,” Nestorovic tells The Post.

The 32-year-old, who usually tends bar on the Upper East Side, describes her personal style as “European chic meets New York cool.” For the challenge, she re-created Kylie Jenner’s black Alexander Wang dress from the 2018 Met Gala using nothing but trash bags and Scotch tape.

“My friends always told me, ‘You can put a trash bag over yourself and make it cool,’ ” says Nestorovic. “They were right.”

The best part? Wang himself commented on and reposted the photo on his account.

WireImage; Sanja Nestorovic

As for her other four looks, the Mitrovica, Kosovo, native re-created Céline Dion’s 2019 Oscar de la Renta Vegas showgirl style with a clear plastic recycling bag, ribbon and glitter, plus string lights for the headpiece.

Getty Images; Sanja Nestorovic

For Emily Ratajkowski’s super-sexy 2019 Dundas dress, she used more clear recycling bags and silver Scotch tape.

Getty Images; Sanja Nestorovic

Rihanna’s 2018 John Galliano for Maison Margiela came together almost entirely out of newspaper. And “the trickiest” one — Blake Lively’s 2016 Burberry dress — was mimicked with toilet paper and gift wrap.

A bright idea

Getty Images; Natasha Vinnikova

To re-create Katy Perry’s unforgettable Jeremy Scott chandelier headdress from 2019, London fashion stylist Natasha Vinnikova took a brave stand.

“I stood on a chair under the light fixture to make it appear as though it was a headpiece,” says the 47-year-old. “It’s all about angles, right?”

She completed the look with tinfoil, vintage pearls and her own statement earrings.

She’s well-rounded

Getty Images; Patrice Pugh

Solange’s 2015 Giles Deacon structural dress offered a perfect opportunity for Patrice Pugh, 25, to show off her pour-painting skills.

You “pour multiple colors of acrylic paint into one cup and pour it out to reveal a beautiful marble effect,” says Pugh, a New York City professional makeup artist who used sturdy photography paper for the base of the fanned-out dress.

She folded the dried creation into pleats, trimmed the edges and strung some string through it to tie it to her body.

Give her a rays!

FilmMagic; asmina Vasquez-Carmel

Jasmina Vasquez-Carmel had a yearlong head start when designing Zendaya’s 2015 Fausto Puglisi gown.

“I started this project back in March 2019,” says the Montreal artist and die-hard Zendaya fan, who loves to make costumes in her spare time. The 22-year-old embellished the dress with over 1,000 crystals and beads, and made the sun-like appliqués with a 3-D printer and resin.

She has no plans to stop stanning the singer and actress. “I want to re-create all her Met Gala looks.”

What a gem

Getty Images; Victoire Saint Valmont

In just four hours, Victoire Saint Valmont, a Paris-based manager at a consulting firm, created this jaw-dropping copy of Bella Hadid’s Moschino dress designed by Jeremy Scott in 2019.

“It’s the perfect balance between chic, sensual and camp,” the 32-year-old says, referring to the theme of last year’s gala. He added tulle to the base of a plain bandeau dress to create a “mermaid effect,” snipped cutouts into the dress’s hip and torso, and stapled glossy-paper printouts of jewels onto the gloves to create the illusion of encrusted precious stones.

Painted lady

Getty Images; Melissa Surdy

It took three days — and all of her 8-year-old son’s Crayola art supplies, glitter glue and water paints — for Melissa Surdy to re-create Naomi Campbell’s graphic Versace dress from 1990.

“It’s my first real fashion memory from my childhood,” the 39-year-old mom from Dyer, Ind., tells The Post of the dress. “I was 10 years old and in love with Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell.” She re-created the look on paper, and finished it off with shiny ribbon straps.

A head of the competition

WireImage; Jeff Johnson

“Jared Leto’s effortless gender-fluid style has always been inspirational,” Jeff Johnson, a music teacher from Minneapolis, tells The Post. So the 41-year-old took a stab at Leto’s infamous 2019 camp-themed Gucci ensemble.

He emulated Leto’s locks with a wig, then tricked out a mannequin head with craft paint and Sharpie. Then, with husband Michael’s help, Johnson embellished a sleek red dress with crystal garland and safety pins.

Wedded bliss

Getty Images; Gabrielle Angelone

Yes, toilet paper is a hot commodity during a pandemic. But Gabrielle Angelone, 25, says it was worth it to use two and a half rolls to mimic the ruffles on Lily Collins’ 2019 Giambattista Valli look, which was inspired by Priscilla Presley’s wedding dress.

“It was a flawless execution of camp,” the Melbourne, Australia, department store worker tells The Post. Her dupe also used a shirt, petticoat and tablecloth that Angelone trimmed and hemmed by hand.

Fit for a queen

FilmMagic; Karlo Jacobs

LA-based costume designer and performer Karlo Jacobs, who goes by “Plastique Pussey,” chose to channel Beyoncé in her sheer bejeweled Givenchy “naked dress” from 2015.

“I figured if I am gonna do the Met (even from my living room), I’m going Queen Bey all the way,” Jacobs, 27, tells The Post. The dress took two weeks and 15 pounds of crystals and gems to craft.

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