Kim Kardashian didn’t just have one single fantasy for her 2026 Met Gala look.
She had a gallery of sculpted options before finally reaching the glossy orange breastplate she wore to the Met Gala. Some of the scrapped versions were even more daring and risqué than the final look.
Netizens were irked by the alternate designs, calling them “obscene” and claiming they looked like pictures from the Epstein files.
Highlights
- Kim Kardashian shared a batch of behind-the-scenes photos showing the process that ultimately led to her final 2026 Met Gala look.
- Netizens said the alternate designs made them uncomfortable, calling them “obscene” and “degrading.”
- “Why am I feeling so Uncomfortable?” one commented on the pictures.
Kim Kardashian went through several sculpted options before her final 2026 Met Gala look
Image credits: TheStewartofNY/Getty Images
For the 2026 Met Gala on May 4, Kim Kardashian leaned into the “Costume Art” theme and wore a piece of sculpted body armor with a leather half-skirt.
The central piece of her look was the orange fiberglass breastplate, originally created by British artist Allen Jones.
The 88-year-old artist first created the piece, titled “Body Armor,” in the late 1960s for a film he wrote but never produced.
Supermodel Kate Moss once wore the original piece in a now-famous 2013 portrait.
Image credits: Mike Marsland/Getty Images
After attending fashion’s biggest night this week, Kim shared a fresh batch of behind-the-scenes photos that show the journey of her final look.
The team originally planned to paint the body cast pink but later decided to go with orange.
The photos also suggested that they experimented with a dark version as well.
The team originally planned to paint the piece pink but eventually decided to go with orange
The discarded versions included fully backless body casts, with nothing but leather straps to keep them from falling off her body.
Another photo in her Instagram carousel captured the reality TV star wearing a sky-blue cropped turtleneck top with faux n*pples, paired with pink silk Ilona bloomers that exposed her derriére.
Image credits: kimkardashian
The photos, somehow, made netizens uncomfortable. Some called them “degrading” and asked, “Why am I feeling so Uncomfortable?”
“So obscene,” one said, while another wrote, “I've never seen anything so ridiculous.”
“There is something about this that makes me extremely uncomfortable,” read one comment online
Image credits: kimkardashian
“Anyone else feeling uncomfortable?” one asked.
Others felt the pictures reminded them of something more sinister.
“It looks like a picture from Eipstein [sic] file,” one said.
Another wrote, “The Epstein files reimagined?”
Image credits: Vogue
The Kardashians star said she decided to reach out to Jones after seeing his work referenced by people in the fashion industry.
“I’ve always been, like, a big admirer of his work. Allen Jones would be iconic. S*xy. Classic. Cool. Innovative,” she said about seeking his help for her Met Gala appearance.
The Skims founder called British artist Allen Jones’ work “S*xy. Classic. Cool. Innovative”
It took about three weeks to finish her final look, including sourcing the fiberglass and painting the breastplate at an auto body shop.
Allen Jones’ piece from the 1960s was repurposed, and the original full-length body cast was shortened to create a bodysuit. This was to allow Kim to move better during the event.
“I wanted something original, I didn’t want to cast my own body,” Kim told Vogue.
Image credits: allenjonestheartist
During the trials, the team found that Jones’ breastplates were nearly perfect for Kim’s body.
“Kim’s torso curves and silhouette were remarkably close to Allen’s breastplate sculptures, which were never really intended to be worn,” Whitaker Malem, part of Kim’s Met team, told Perfect magazine.
“We’d never seen an Allen Jones breastplate fit anyone as well as Kim!” they added.
Kim’s Met Gala team said her “torso curves and silhouette” were close to Jones’ breastplate sculptures
Image credits: kimkardashian
The leather skirt that completed the look was created by artisans Patrick Whitaker and Keir Malem of Whitaker Malem.
It was Jones himself who painted the orange strokes on the final half-skirt.
“He was adamant that it be something current and fresh that he had just worked on—not just a piece from his past,” Kim said.
Image credits: chrisappleton1
On the day of the star-studded Met Gala, Kim indulged in some ice cream covered with rainbow sprinkles ahead of her appearance.
“Met prep,” she wrote on Instagram while sharing the ice cream in its chocolate-dipped waffle cone.
Vogue’s behind-the-scenes footage also showed her briefly panicking over possibly breaking her custom Allen Jones breastplate during the final fitting.
Kim thought she nearly broke the custom breastplate during her final fitting
“Did I break this?” a concerned Kim asked. “I ran into it so hard.”
She asked whether it broke or chipped, prompting her team member to assure her that the piece was fine.
“We wouldn't have had a Met look,” Kim then said. “I would've had to cancel.”
Whitaker Malem, who created the leather skirt, told Perfect magazine, “We have loved working on this project together with Kim and Allen... Creating Kim’s Met Gala ‘Fashion is Art’ costume with Allen has been a new whirlwind experience for us all!”
“Enough with the fake nips already,” one netizen commented online
