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From Chewing Gum to co-chairing the 2023 Met Gala benefiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. Michaela Coel has come quite a long way since her humble beginnings in East London, and on May 1, she proved why there’s no limit on her talent – or her beauty. When arriving at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Michaela, 35, left jaws dropped when she posed in a custom Schiaparelli gown. The outfit made her form look like a heavenly body, a galaxy of jewels with stars, moons, and galaxies of jewels. The fabric itself was slightly sheer, showing off her killer curves and her elegant skin. She ate, as they say.
Michaela’s role in the 2023 Met Gala is another achievement in an already incredible career. She was the first Black person in five years to attend the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, according to British Harper’s Bazaar. She’s also the first Black woman – and fourth woman overall – to give the Mac-Targgart lecture. She followed her breakthrough work on the BAFTA-winning series Chewing Gum with her Emmy- and BAFTA-winning I May Destroy You.
“It’s ‘seeing to believe,’” she told Harper’s. “When I was growing up, I never saw a picture of a Black woman sitting in a director’s chair. I didn’t know that was something that we could do, so it almost wasn’t something that I wished for. I just kind of stumbled here.” This spring, she will launch the BMW Filmmaking Challenge in partnership with the British Film Institute, where she will mentor five shortlisted filmmakers. The five will receive “a £10,000 production budget and access to cutting-edge technology to make their project.”
“People ask me questions, they grill me about my choices, trying to force me to make a choice that they would prefer. That has really helped me understand why I do what I do,” she said. “It would be great to allow creatives to see that the questions are not threats, and the questions are not negatively critical.”
The theme of the 2023 Met Gala is “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,” a celebration of the beloved yet controversial Karl Lagerfeld, who passed away in 2019 following complications from pancreatic cancer. The corresponding Met exhibit will showcase over 150 original looks from the designer, per Vogue.
“He would sketch everything,” said Andrew Bolton, the Costume Institute’s Wendy Yu Curator in Charge, in September. “He would always say that he could draw before he could talk or walk. In many ways, it was his primary form of communication, whether he was delivering them by fax machine or iPhone. So at its heart, the exhibition will look at the evolution of Karl’s two-dimensional drawings into three-dimensional garments.”
Penélope Cruz, Dua Lipa, Roger Federer, and Anna Wintour are the evening’s other official co-chairs.
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