This is outside my wheelhouse, but it seems like Met Gala dresses grow more outlandish each year. Reuters went into the photo archive to confirm.
Using the Reuters photo archive, the Reuters Graphics desk traced 310 celebrity outfits on the red carpet for years 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019 and 2024. Of the thousands of photos in the archive for those years, Reuters selected photos that captured entire outfits in which the subject was facing the camera or slightly turned. Reuters further narrowed the outfits to exclude suits and kilts, then traced the silhouettes of the remaining 310 unique outfits. The traced silhouettes were then laid on top of one another by aligning the shoulder, bust and waist of each garment.
I saw a handful of photos from this year’s 2025 Met Gala, and it seems like attendees dialed dress sizes all the way back (because they were instructed to?). Maybe 2024 was the peak for puffing silhouettes.
In any case, I like the sketch-overlay method to show the variation in patterns. It’s like a combination of this dress size classic and jean pocket comparison, with a touch of hurricane forecast.
