Jenna Ortega Elevates Custom Balmain Ruler Gown in Towering Vintage Silver Louboutin Platforms for 2025 Met Gala
Jenna Ortega arrived in a futuristic take on old Hollywood glamour for the Met Gala on Monday in a custom metallic Balmain dress crafted from pattern-maker’s rulers and vintage towering silver Louboutin platforms.
The “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” actor went into the Louboutin archive to reach for higher heights with shiny silver Nenecheritza platform heels. The vintage shoes feature a staggering 160mm (6.3-inches) block heel and chunky 5 cm (1.97-inch) platform.
The trendy metallic shoes, which peeked out from the back slit of her floor-length dress, have a peep-toe and t-strap design. Her stunning look was selected by her longtime stylist Enrique Melendez.
Louboutin currently makes the Sandaloo platform peep-toe shoe in silver with a 130mm block heel, the modern, slightly shorter cousin to Ortega’s Met Gala heels. They retail for $1295.
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Metallic shoes, especially in gold and silver tones, started to take over fashion in 2022. The style has continued to gain a consistent spot in designers’ collections since then. Several high-end labels like Bottega Veneta, Prada and Manolo Blahnik have included the shiny material in their runway shoes over the past couple months.
Her bustier dress, designed by Balmain creative director Olivier Rousteing, is an elegant work of art celebrating the craftsmanship of fashion, taking the Met Gala dress code “Tailored for You” beautifully to heart. “Jenna’s look an ode to the art of craftsmanship, to couture, and the atelier where hands work meticulously, shaping fabric into magic,” Rousteing told WWD.
“No symbol captures it more poetically than the metallic meter, a quiet tribute to craft and precision… The bustier gown sculpted on her body is not just a garment, but a piece of strength, a symbol of her presence as an actress, a woman, a force.”
Similarly, designer’s measuring tape has been a prominent symbol in Schiaparelli‘s designs over the years, including on several pairs of heels in the current ready-to-wear collection, as seen on Hailey Bieber and others.
Every year, the Met Gala turns New York’s Met Museum into “fashion’s biggest night,” to celebrate the Museum’s Costume Institute’s newest exhibit and to raise money for its operating budget. Bad Bunny, Rihanna, A$AP Rocky—a co-chair this year—Diana Ross, Tracee Ellis Ross, Taraji P. Henson, FKA twigs and many other celebs also walked the Met Gala 2025 carpet in stunning looks.
This year’s Met Gala celebrated Black fashion via the Met’s “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” exhibit exploring dandyism over 300 years. The new Costume Institute exhibition showcases historical fashion alongside looks from over forty contemporary Black and POC designers, including Grace Wales Bonner, Telfar, Ozwald Boateng, Dapper Dan, Jeffrey Banks, Luar, Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing, Fear of God, Off-White’s Ib Kamara and Willy Chavarria. It is the Institute’s first show to focus on designers of color and the first in two decades to center men’s fashion.
The lead sponsor behind the show and gala is Louis Vuitton, where the late Virgil Abloh served as creative director of men’s collections from 2018 until his untimely death in November 2021, after which he was succeeded by Pharrell Williams.
Met Gala guests got a first look at “Superfine,” which opens to the public on Saturday and runs through Oct. 26.
