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Kim Kardashian Met Gala outfit: Allen Jones & Whitaker Malem
KIM KARDASHIAN MET GALA OUTFIT: ALLEN JONES & WHITAKER MALEM
Who would have guessed that, after all those negative responses to the sponsorship takeover of this year’s Met Gala by billionaire couple Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos, the biggest fashion story to come out of the actual event on May 4 would be the costume collaboration between Kim Kardashian, legendary British pop artist Allen Jones, and his regular British leathercrafting go-to guys, ‘pop artisans’ Patrick Whitaker and Keir Malem?
With its single ticket price raised to $100,000 and this year’s fundraising beneficiary the Met’s Costume Institute, the Gala’s theme of ‘Costume Art’ and its official dress code of ‘Fashion Is Art’ were bound to result in a lot of very wealthy people splashing even vaster wads of cash than usual on incredibly expensive couturier’s creations whose entire raison d’être is the extravagant embrace of that very theme and code.
So please excuse us if we find it ironic — but also gratifying — that, whether intentionally subversive or not on the part of media critical of the Bezos takeover, so much coverage has been devoted to the glossy orange fibreglass breastplate and leather half-skirt ensemble created for Ms Kardashian by three Brits notable for translating certain fetish themes into highly collectable art.
Top image, left: Kim Kardashian with Patrick Whitaker and Keir Malem, fitting their leather half-skirt to the Allen Jones fibreglass breastplate created for Kim’s Met Gala appearance (photo: Aaron Idelson). Right: Kim wearing the finished piece at the 2026 Met Gala
And it was difficult not to smile upon learning that the lacquered orange finish of Kim’s breastplate was the work of a Kent car body shop owner called Martyn Smith. He takes care of Whitaker and Malem’s Jaguar, but confessed that he was not a follower of Kardashian or, indeed, fashion.
Since couturiers are extremely dependent on skilled craftspeople who generally don’t get namechecked for their vital contributions to couture garments, we imagine Martyn might even start getting a few calls from foreign-sounding people if Kim’s costume starts a trend that any designers decide they ought to be following.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of the media coverage of the Kardashian outfit was that she, Jones and Whitaker Malem were all happy to talk to journalists about the process involved in the creation of her Met Gala costume, and also to allow a substantial amount of behind-the-scenes photography to accompany it.
This doubtless helped to ensure the very substantial amount of column inches in print and online media. But it also had the advantage of being genuinely fascinating to read and view. One of the best print articles was published by The Guardian, while online, The Perfect Magazine deserves a gold star for its coverage, which, incidentally, Whitaker Malem chose to share on their own Instagram page.
The Guardian article, with a substantial interview of WM by Morwenna Ferrier, was headlined A London studio, a car repair garage and Kim’s Met Gala costume, while Perfect’s piece ran with the title Kim Kardashian’s day out in Dalston with Whitakert Malem. The latter included a combination of full-size BTS images and selected ‘pull-out’ quotes from Whitaker Malem about different aspects of their interactions with Allen and Kim.
And for us, one of the more surprising elements that this coverage revealed was how friendly, amenable and involved in the creative process Kim herself was. She and her clan come in for some flak from people who regard them as only ‘famous for being famous’. But in a Vogue video that you can watch on YouTube (link below), she talks the viewer through the whole process of creating the outfit, which began when she saw an Allen Jones-themed shoot done by Nadia Lee Cohen for Perfect, which featured a homage to Allen’s work featuring Whitaker Malem pieces.
Allen Jones, left, painting the attached leather half-skirt created by Whitaker Malem (photo: Aaron Idelson). Right: Kim posing in her finished Met Gala costume (photo: Nadia Lee Cohen)
As the pop artisans explained to Perfect mag, this led to Kim coming to the UK and visiting Jones’ studio in Oxfordshire to meet him and Whitaker Malem, try on various pieces and “establish what the look might actually be”. It turned out that Kim’s torso curves and silhouette were “remarkably close to Allen’s breastplate sculptures, which were never intended to be worn”.
Just a week before the Gala, Kim visited WM’s studio in Dalston for one final fitting. “We loved working on this project together with Kim and Allen,” the duo told Perfect, adding that creating Kim’s ‘Fashion Is Art’ costume with Allen had been “a new whirlwind experience for us all”.
If you’re interested in learning more about Allen Jones, Whitaker Malem or their joint collaborations — which began 25 years ago — check out their website and Instagram links below. Other links are provided to The Perfect Magazine’s Kim Kardashian feature and Nadia Lee Cohen photographic tribute to Allen Jones, and to a recent major online article about Whitaker Malem by EctoMorph designer Krystina Kitsis.
Kim Kardashian Met Gala costume story – The Guardian
Kim Kardashian Met Gala costume story – The Perfect Magazine
Kim Kardashian Met Gala Costume – Vogue YouTube video
Kim Kardashian Instagram
Allen Jones Instagram
Allen Jones Wikipedia
Whitaker Malem Instagram
Whitaker Malem website
Whitaker Malem interview – Krystina Kitsis
The Perfect Magazine instagram
Aaron Idelson Instagram
Nadia Lee Cohen Instagram
Charlie Denis Instagram