Tyla Returned To The Met Gala With A Show Stopping Retro Glam Designed
Emerging directly from a vintage movie set, South African artist Tyla arrived at the 2025 Met Gala like a reimagined Hollywood starlet. In a snowy white off-shoulder Jacquemus mini dress with navy pinstripes and a floor cape, she stood with elegance that combined 1930s sophistication with present pop sensibility.
The dress — custom-made in collaboration with stylist Law Roach — nodded to menswear blouses (its imposing coat and sharp tailoring are pretty much a love letter to tuxedo drama) without being silly in best Tyla style. Platinum-blonde ringlets were pulled into luscious, retro waves, and she paid obvious tribute to icons like Dorothy Dandridge and Josephine Baker. It was old-school Hollywood with a South African twist, and Tyla wore it with effortless cool.
A Custom Jacquemus Statement
Tyla’s Jacquemus ensemble was breathtaking. The pin-sharp poplin dress was corseted to show off her figure and embellished with dainty sequined pinstripes that shone like diamonds as she danced. On one shoulder, there was a dramatic draped jacket (a giant bowler-coat shape, white) that added a splash of rebellious chic. Every detail felt calculated: the raw, uneven embroidery and crystal fil coupé on the fabric added a touch of undone glamour, as if 21st-century street art collided with traditional Savile Row tailoring.
Even the color palette — white with navy stripes — was dual. It reminded us of the perpetually right suits of Old Hollywood along with Tyla’s South African sun and the fashionable pointiness of a Paris catwalk (Jacquemus being, naturally, a French brand). And as she strode the blue carpet, she embodied this year’s “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” subject to perfection: pinstripes pointed, silhouette trimmed, energy “timeless.”
Golden Beauty & Diamond Bling
Tyla’s transformation did not end above the shoulders. Her dark locks, usually braided or set in sleek dark waves, had been hacked into a chic platinum-blonde pixie cut, set in loose pin-curls that looked straight off a 1940s studio portrait. The look was very “new-age Dorothy Dandridge,” in the words of one magazine: dewy, fresh neutral makeup with a smoky golden eye that shone like a classic Hollywood starlet’s, paired with sculpted red lips that were chic and sultry.
Legendary makeup artist Pat McGrath tended to the beauty, making Tyla’s skin glow and eyes pop — “warm-toned smoky eyes, sculpted red lips, and radiant skin” that completed the mid-century movie-star appearance.
And then, of course, there was the bling. Tyla accessorized with over 30 carats of Pandora diamonds: imagine a beautiful tennis necklace and a cheeky bespoke diamond monocle on a chain. One personalized piece was a heart-shaped 6-carat lab-created diamond necklace on Pandora’s new “Me” collection — a sweet, contemporary twist on the classic jewel that was so Tyla. These glittering accessories added just the right dash of glamour and whimsy, combining the classic “Hollywood sparkle” notion with a light-hearted, contemporary self-assurance.
