When singer and actor Keke Palmer hit the carpet at the Met Gala 2023 Monday night, her Sergio Hudson gown was a mixture of classic Hollywood and the 1990s reign of Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel. The multitalented new mom also wore one of Hudson’s designs when she cohosted the red-carpet event in 2021, but before she started getting ready, she reminisced about the first time she ever wore the designer, when she donned a red-and-black houndstooth minidress on an episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show back in 2014.
By Erick Robinson
“I love Sergio. He’s so talented,” Palmer told Vanity Fair. “It’s just the way that his dresses fit me—I can’t even explain! I was excited about this, and to see the vision. Immediately when he sent me the design, I was like, ‘Yes, this is gonna give, it’s glamorous, it’s gorgeous.’”
Because Hudson has spent much of his career making structured suits that made their wearer look, well, rich, it made sense that he would look to Lagerfeld’s suits for a bit of inspiration. For Palmer, he designed a white gown in white tweed with silver elements to make it pop. He added a cape, and the dress was designed to accentuate her figure. “We have a beautiful cape,” she said. “All the elements complement each other very well, and you know, the body is bodying.”
By Erick Robinson
Palmer said that she and her hairstylist, Tamika Gibson, were thinking of Robin Givens and her iconic big hair in planning the lustrous blowout. “It’s that more ’90s glamorous, beautiful Black queen,” Palmer said.
At the gala, Hudson told Vogue that he was originally thinking of “Josephine Baker in her heyday” when he started designing the look for Palmer, but added in some homages to the late Chanel designer. “My favorite era of Chanel with Karl is the early ’90s,” he said, “So we wanted to give a nod to that with the pastels and the styling.”
Palmer’s night at the Met Gala comes in the middle of a busy few weeks when she is launching new music—her single “Waiting” is out now, and her visual album, Big Boss, is coming soon—and starting work on a few new film projects. But she said that she has an even better time at these big events now that she knows her two-month-old son, Leo Jackson, is waiting at home.
By Erick Robinson
“It’s so much more effortless,” she said. “I have so much more fun now with stuff because the only stakes I have in my life, really, are anything to do with my child. Everything in life has more of an ease to it because what I’m mostly concerned with is just, how’s my baby doing?… It doesn’t have to be so serious—it’s just a good time! There’s no pressure to it.”