Michelle Williams Made a Historic Jewelry Reference at the 2024 Met Gala
In keeping with the archival-friendly theme, Michelle Williams found inspiration in jewelry history with her natural diamond headpiece at the 2024 Met Gala.
Michelle Williams made a head-turning style statement in her hair on the 2024 Met Gala red carpet – and we’re not talking about her freshly-colored cotton-candy pink coiffe.
Styled by Kate Young, Williams wore a reproduction of a natural diamond fringe necklace, originally designed back in 1932 by the one and only, Coco Chanel from her first (and only) diamond jewelry collection, “Bijoux des Diamants.”
First released in the thick of the Great Depression, Chanel once said of the collection, “Nothing could be better for forgetting the crisis than feasting one’s eyes on beautiful new things, which the skills of our craftsmen and women never cease to unveil.”
The fashion house didn’t release its second fine jewelry collection until 1993. In 1995, Chanel recreated its founder’s original 1932 jewelry designs and landed one of its pieces on the neck of Celine Dion for the 1997 Academy Awards.
The songstress wore a glimmering ombré gown and debuted Chanel’s relaunched high jewelry collection. The Chanel Comète shooting star diamond necklace was made in the exact size and scale as the original. The singer paired the masterpiece with diamond star stud earrings and was accompanied by four bodyguards. At the time, she joked, “Nobody looked me in the eye that day. That was the necklace. But I was the lucky one wearing it and I had a great time. I went to bed very late, I just wanted to make sure I was wearing it for as long as I could.”
Williams was not on her own in Chanel at the 2024 Met Gala. Fellow actresses and friends of the brand like Penélope Cruz, Riley Keough, and Tessa Thompson, all glistened in Chanel diamond jewels.
The Fabelmans actress wore her Chanel diamond fringe necklace in her hair as a headband, just a little further back than it was shown in the look book from 92 years ago. The model lined the piece up with her hairline, letting the dangling diamond fringes scrape against her forehead.
No stranger to diamond fringe, the necklace (though in her hair) calls to mind another special diamond jewelry moment for Williams. Nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Brokeback Mountain in 2006, the star attended the Academy Awards wearing a marigold Vera Wang pleated frock and a stunning vintage Fred Leighton Victorian fringed diamond necklace.
This year’s Met Gala moment also calls back to Williams’ 2013 appearance at the Met Gala celebrating the “PUNK: Chaos to Couture” exhibition. Sporting a similar side-parted French new wave era pixie cut as this year (sans her pink hue), over a decade ago, Williams’ blonde locks were styled under a nineteenth-century natural diamond fringe tiara from Fred Leighton.
Raising funds to benefit the Met’s Costume Institute, this year’s exhibit, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion,” will open to the public on May 10, showcasing 250 items from the museum’s permanent collection. The exhibition references delicate and fragile vintage designs that have been “sleeping” in the archives, while the theme and suggested dress code for the evening is “The Garden of Time,” based on a 1962 short story of the same name by J.G. Ballard.
So, not only is Williams referencing Chanel’s influential diamond jewelry history, but she’s also referencing her own red carpet past – perfectly on the nose for the evening’s vintage-friendly theme.
Each year since 1948, A-list guests gather in New York City for the Met Gala, widely considered to be the Super Bowl of fashion. On the first Monday in May, celebrities, designers, industry icons, and socialites all come together at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, looking their very best in over-the-top couture ensembles and exuberant natural diamond jewels.
