From Cinderella to Jiffy Lube: Hits and misses from the 2019 Met Gala

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Zendaya went full Cinderella in a light-up Tommy Hilfiger gown with stylist Law Roach (with smoking wand, right) playing the role of the transformative fairy godmother. Zendaya was already on our list of favorites -- even before she left a glass slipper on the pink carpet on the way into the gala.

(Angela Weiss / AFP / Getty Images)

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Early-arrival Lady Gaga had already made an impression (and was headed toward the hits list) in her pink Brandon Maxwell gown (left) before the look morphed into a black gown accessorized with an umbrella. But she still wasn’t finished ...

(Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images for the Met Museum / Vogue)

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Looks three (left) and four of Lady Gaga’s multiple arrival looks designed by Brandon Maxwell. In addition to earning a spot on our “hits” list, she gets an A for effort.

(Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images for the Met Museum / Vogue)

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Cardi B swanned her way onto our hits list in an oxblood-colored, feather-trimmed Thom Browne gown.

(Neilson Barnard / Getty Images)

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Janelle Monáe and Michael Urie made our list of the evening’s favorites thanks to custom looks by Christian Siriano.

(Neilson Barnard / Getty Images (left) and Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum / Vogue (right))

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Tracee Ellis Ross was framed (from left) and Katy Perry lit things up -- both in Moschino and both among our favorite looks of the 2019 Met Gala arrivals red carpet.

(Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images for the Met Museum / Vogue)

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Lizzo (left) in Marc Jacobs and Hailee Steinfeld in Viktor & Rolf made memorable entrances at the 2019 Met Gala.

(Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images for the Met Museum / Vogue)

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Billy Porter winged his way onto our hits list thanks to this Cleopatra-inspired outfit designed by the Blonds.

(Jamie McCarthy / Getty Images )

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Lupita Nyong’o’s Versace macramé column dress and rainbow-colored “wings” earned her a spot on our list of the night’s standout looks.

(Angela Weiss / AFP / Getty Images)

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Ryan Murphy channels Liberace (left) in custom Christian Siriano and Cara Delevingne channels rainbow-striped lollipops (in Dior) on the Met Gala arrivals red carpet, efforts that earned them spots on our best-of list.

(Jamie McCarthy / Getty Images (left) and Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images for the Met Museum / Vogue (right))

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Elle Fanning (in Miu Miu) earns an honorable mention on our hits list for a campy manicure that included minature tubes of toothpaste, boxes of French fries and cans of beer.

(Angela Weiss / AFP / Getty Images)

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Kanye West’s zip-up jacket felt more appropriate to a Jiffy Lube than the Met Gala, which makes him one of the evening’s most high-profile misses. His wife, Kim Kardashian West, wore Thierry Mugler.

(Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images for the Met Museum / Vogue)

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On anyone else, Celine Dion’s outfit (left) would have been camp. On her, it fell flat. Likewise, Gwyneth Paltrow’s bespoke Chloé dress was beautiful but campy it was not.

(Neilson Barnard / Getty Images)

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Frank Ocean’s understated Prada ensemble (left) seemed to have little to do with the evening’s theme, while Nick Jonas (at right with wife Priyanka Chopra) looked like an odd combination of a maitre d’ and a yoga instructor.

(Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images for the Met Museum / Vogue)

By Adam Tschorn

Senior Features Writer

May 7, 2019 1:14 PM PT

Some of the most memorable looks to come down the red (well, pink, technically) carpet at Monday night’s Met Gala — for which the stated theme was “Camp: Notes on Fashion” — had us in a serious quandary as to what was calculated camp, what may have been meta-camp and what could have simply been shoulder-shrugging disdain for the theme.

Although we covered a lot of that — and more — in our boots-on-the-ground fashion recap from the big night, we’ve compiled the above photo gallery to illustrate some of the night’s big hits and misses. Among them are Zendaya, whose on-carpet Cinderella moment (in a light-up Tommy Hilfiger dress) included a wand-wielding fairy godfather (longtime stylist Law Roach) and a glass slipper left behind on the stairs (a home-run hit) to Celine Dion’s ensemble (a miss) that on anyone else would have qualified as camp but on her felt like something she might wear out to get her oil changed.

Speaking of oil changes, Kanye West, whose wife turned out in a dress designed by Thierry Mugler (the man himself — based on pieces from the Mugler archives), wore a zip-front workwear-style jacket that felt more appropriate to the local Jiffy Lube than the Met Gala. (In the missed opportunity department, the Sunday Service “church merch” he dropped a few weeks back would have at least been on topic with last year’s religious-themed Met Gala.)

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