Music superstar (and newly announced Austin City Limits headliner)Leon Bridges repped his home state and adopted hometown at the 2024 Met Gala, donning a suit adorned with Texas bluebonnets and inspired by a Fort Worth museum exhibition that is traveling next to San Antonio.
Bridges unveiled his sartorial tribute to the Lone Star State as he walked the green carpet and ascended the stairs into New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art on Monday, May 6. The dual themes of this year's event were "The Garden of Time" and "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion."
Celebrities and their stylists interpreted the themes with jaw-dropping floral frocks, overgrown-garden get-ups, and enough tulle to wrap New York City in a mosquito net (particularly one look, as noted by a local fashion critic). But Bridges' thematic homage was more subtle.
The suit by American designer Willy Chavarria featured embroidered bluebonnets on the jacket lapels and a bluebonnet brooch attached to the belt loops. Bridgesβ brooch depicts the Texas bluebonnet specifically to represent his home state, Vogue reports.
Leon Bridges wore a bluebonnet brooch at his waist.Photo by Marleen Moise/Getty Images
The brooch was made of silk faille and satin, with edges burnt for an added romantic, distressed look, the magazine says.
"The oversized floral brooches (also worn by actor Morgan Spector and Colman Domingo) ... were designed in collaboration with New York City-based Filipino designer Chris Habana, whose accessories have seen the Met Gala red carpet before, on the likes of Grimes, Halsey, Paloma Elsesser, and SZA," says Vogue.
But it wasn't just the bluebonnet brooch giving Texas vibes. According According to Bridges' stylist Gabriela Tena, the entire look was inspired by Black cowboys of the Old West, as depicted in the exhibition Black Cowboys: An American Story, which was on view January 20 to April 13 at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. (It was organized by San Antonio's Witte Museum and will open there on June 15.)
"My upmost respect to the history of the Black cowboy, the [heroes] of the Old West," the stylist posted on Instagram. "We know many of our techniques used on ranches and rodeos because of them. Thank you."
Another post from Tena further breaks down the details of the look and inspiration: "We wanted to honor the history of the Black cowboy in Texas before the Civil War through the twentieth century. Specifically taking inspiration from an exhibit in Fort Worth ... Big thank you to that exhibit for sending us all their beautiful photographs and archive before it went on to San Antonio. 1 in 4 cowboys were black and for too long their stories were untold!," she posted.
The bluebonnets on the lapels of Bridges' jacket, she explains, came from Fort Worth florist Blomme Te Amo. They were dried, preserved, and sewn on. Bridges accessorized with three vintage brooches from 1907, and his belts were leather laser cut.
"We layered the belts and placed the silk fabric Texas bonnets where the gun sheets would have gone," Tena says. "Representing the garden of TEJAS."
Bridges' Western-chic look β which also featured an oversized silver belt buckle and bolo-style tie β landed him on several best-dressed lists; fashion critic Paolo Sandoval rated him 5/5 for aesthetics, 3/5 for creativity, 1/5 for theme, and 3/5 overall. "Once a cowboy, always a cowboy," he writes.
Us Weekly included him among their Best-Dressed Men and commented, "Bridges looked straight out of the 1970s in a black Willy Chavarria suit featuring dramatically flared trousers..."
Leon Bridges' suit featured flared pants described 'straight out of the 1970s.'Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images
Bridges, who was born in Atlanta but raised in Fort Worth and calls the city home, posted a fun video of himself getting ready for the Met Gala to TikTok.
Organized by fashion media scion Anna Wintour and hosted annually the first Monday in May, the Met Gala raises money for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute.
