I might have signed off on Marie Claire's Met Gala best-dressed list a few hours early. When I woke up this morning and saw the vintage Mugler Kendall Jenner and stylist Dani Michelle had sourced for the 2025 Met Gala after-parties, I felt it needed an update. I also Slacked my boss immediately: "This is what chic actually looks like."
Let me set the scene: Jenner's official Met Gala red carpet look had been a refreshing fashion curveball. Instead of wearing one of her usual favorites—say, The Row or Gucci—she tapped the emerging designer Torishéju Dumi for a gray gown that "took inspiration from Gladys Bentley and the elegance of 1920s Harlem Renaissance women." Jenner has a thing for gray suiting (especially when she's traveling to Paris), but this look's combination of historic vintage references and exquisite tailoring felt like a swerve. I thought the night ended there; I thought wrong.
A few hours after snapping photos with Hailey Bieber and catching up with her sister, Kylie Jenner, Kendall departed for the Carlyle Hotel and an opulent after-party outfit change. She traded her floor-grazing gown for a sculpted black midi dress by Mugler, circa the Fall 1999 "La Vie En Rose" collection. The piece, according to snaps shared by Michelle and Mugler on Instagram Stories, was crafted from black wool crepe and designed by the late Manfred Thierry Mugler himself.
Jenner has worn her fair share of little black dresses, even ones from the Mugler archive. The element sending this look over the top was a slanted black hat, angled so Jenner could barely make eye contact with the cameras waiting outside her hotel. Between the hat's sculpted shape, Jenner's minimal, nipped-in dress, and her sharp black pumps, she was a vision of vintage royalty.
Kendall Jenner has no shortage of connections to vintage boutiques and runway designers to supply her Met Gala after-party fashion. Last year, she alternated between two heavenly white looks to follow up her Givenchy gown on the red carpet. First came another Givenchy mini that had been worn once before, sculpted to look like an angel in flight. Then came a custom Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood lace mini.
As far as I can tell, Jenner only wore one Met Gala after-party outfit on the late-night circuit, where she joined Rihanna (in all-black lace), Zendaya (in archival Patrick Kelly), and Sabrina Carpenter (coordinating with Jenna Ortega). But when a dress is this chic, it doesn't need a sequel.
