Dark Makeup Turned the 2024 Met Gala Red Carpet Into a Gothic Fairytale

When you think of a garden, what typically comes to mind? Greenery, surely. Sweet floral scents. Maybe a butterfly fluttering by? At the Met Gala 2024—which boasts the dress code "The Garden in Time"—we're seeing beauty looks that inspire visions of all of this. But like a real garden, there's also something a little darker under the rose-colored surface. In the literal sense, we're talking dirt. In the symbolic sense, we're talking dark makeup.

On Monday, May 6, a number of Met Gala guests chose to take a gothic approach to their glam. Emma Chamberlain, one of the first stars to arrive on the red carpet, led the charge with extra-smoky brown eyeshadow and a dark matte lip that echoed the natural tones of her custom Jean Paul Gaultier gown. Kelsey Deenihan, the artist behind her makeup, posted via her Instagram stories that she was obsessed with the "moody moment."

"Oh. My. Goth." she wrote.

Zendaya also gave the trend a spin, wearing a super dark, glossy oxblood lip and heavy dark red-toned eye makeup that gave an almost ethereal, bruised appearance. Makeup artist Pat McGrath (if you were wondering why the look was reminding you of the artist's recent Maison Margiela glass skin moment, it's because it's exactly that) also gave her a thin, Clara Bow-esque brow. The co-chair's beauty was paired with none other than a dark mermaid gown by Maison Margiela Couture. Styled by Law Roach, it consisted of royal blue sheer paneling and an emerald green bodice.

"The Garden in Time" is a '60s short story, and the exhibition the gala honors is a celebration of Elizabethan-era fashion featuring vintage pieces too old and too fragile to be worn. Naturally, there's a connection between Elizabethan culture and the gothic. During the era, people were quite fascinated the supernatural—Ashley Graham's Beetlejuice bangs fit right in, as do Amelia Gray Hamlin's spider-y strands.

Other attendees like Hamlin and Charli XCX also chose to honor the trend through their lipstick. They both wore extra-dark shades—a purple for Hamlin a lá Gucci's "Anne Lilac" shade and a reddish brown for Charli that reminds me of Chanel's "Attraction" or Charlotte Tilbury's "So '90s"—that would look right at home in the aisles of Hot Topic.

Shop the dark fairytale looks below.