Sarah Jessica Parker is back at the Met Gala — and has brought one of her best friends with her!
A highly anticipated fixture of one of fashion’s biggest nights, the And Just Like That star, 59, returned to the annual event this year after her absence in 2023. For her long-awaited return, Parker walked up the iconic steps alongside her longtime pal, Andy Cohen.
Parker stunned in a structured, tea-length, birdcage-esque gown by Richard Quinn, which she paired with a coordinating Philip Treacy headpiece.
“Hand-cut lace is appliquéd over the frame, appearing to grow around it and adding a subtle floral element to the design,” Quinn tells Vogue of the dress. “The crystals incorporate a level of hardness and unbreakability, glistening across the fragile lace below.”
Cohen, who opted for a classic black tuxedo and bowtie, joked to ET’s Rachel Smith that it took “five minutes” for his date to get ready for the extravagant evening.
Parker and Cohen previously attended the gala together in 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018.
The Sex and the City alum is known to take her looks for the annual Met Ball very seriously, and after appearing on the red-carpeted Costume Institute steps more than 10 times over the years — often with unforgettable headwear — she’s no novice at dressing for the unique soirée.
“All I ever think about is the theme and influence,” she previously told Vogue. “Whenever I go to the Met, I don’t understand how everyone else didn’t spend seven to 10 months working on it. I’m like how do you not arrive exhausted by the details of, like, getting it right?… It is an assignment and you should interpret it and it should be labor intensive and it should be challenging and it would be so easy to find a beautiful dress to wear that night. That would be a great relief and like going on vacation, but that is not the assignment. The assignment is the theme.”
While she won’t name a favorite of her Met Gala ensembles, she’s said her 2013 look by Giles Deacon and Philip Treacy comes “pretty close.” “You always work really hard. Sometimes it comes together in surprising ways. Sometimes it’s exactly as you planned. Sometimes it’s better. Sometimes you fall short for any number of reasons,” she explained to Vogue. “And this was just one of those things that it just all arrived at the same time… Everybody did their job.”
This year’s theme is “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” Describing the associated exhibition, the Metropolitan Museum of Art states on its website, “Approximately 250 garments and accessories spanning four centuries will be on view, visually united by iconography related to nature, which will serve as a metaphor for the fragility and ephemerality of fashion and a vehicle to examine the cyclical themes of rebirth and renewal.”
The year’s co-chairs include Jennifer Lopez, Zendaya, Chris Hemsworth and Bad Bunny. Jonathan Anderson, creative director of LOEWE, and Shou Chew, TikTok’s CEO, are honorary co-chairs.
For everything else you need to know about the 2024 Met Gala, check out ET’s guide here.
Entertainment Tonight will be on the iconic Met Gala red carpet, so keep checking back with ETonline for more coverage from fashion’s biggest night, including live updates and all of the jaw-dropping red carpet looks.