Hillary Clinton rocked up to the Met Gala yesterday for the first time in two decades, having chosen to take the opportunity to pay tribute to the 60 women who have inspired her over the years with a nod to each of them on her dress.
The dress code for 2022 called for ‘gilded glamour’, and Clinton worked with designer Joseph Altuzarra for a custom burgundy gown that celebrated incredible women of the past. She was also accompanied on the red carpet by her longtime aide Huma Abedin, who wore a vibrant yellow gown.
Speaking to red carpet interviewers Vanessa Hudgens and Hamish Bowles, Editor at Large for Vogue, Clinton revealed how she and Altuzarra came up with the idea.
She explained: “I said, 'What about American women in the past who have inspired me?'”
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The initial list of women that they drew up proved to be a little too long, so in the end the pair whittled it down to figures from the past, including Rosa Parks, Lady Bird Johnson, Harriet Tubman, Sacagawea, Eleanor Roosevelt, Madeleine Albright, Elizabeth Blackwell and Clara Barton and Clinton's mother, Dorothy Rodham.
In an interview with Vogue, Altuzarra explained how he looked to the homemade quilts made in the second half of the 19th Century after going to the Outsider Art Fair recently, noticing a blanket covered in names known as a ‘friendship quilt’.
These would have been popular in the 1840s through to the early 20th Century, and would be made by a community – for instance, if someone was moving away.
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Altuzarra told the outlet: “The quilt was an opportunity for women to get together and have this social interaction. They were often a kind of memory for women of their community and families, especially if they didn’t stay in one place all their life.”
The designer continued: “I do think America has a very rich and long history of folk craftsmanship, which I thought was a really nice story to allude to. People who aren’t famous but who would quilt at home and create things for their families.”
Altuzarra said it had been ‘really wonderful’ to work with Clinton, who last attended the Met Gala in 2001 after starting her duties as senator for New York, adding that the dress felt like something ‘unexpected for her, which she was into’.
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“For better or worse, whatever she wears is dissected and analysed so thoroughly that you have to be very thoughtful about the choices that you make,” he said.
“Obviously I was thinking about making her look great, but I was also thinking about the story she’s going to be telling through this dress, and how she would actually vocalise that when people ask her about it. I wanted that story to be something she felt a personal connection to.”
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Topics: Celebrity