Punk Fashion, the Met Gala and the Perfect Dress

So the Metropolitan Museum of Art has an exhibition called PUNK: From Chaos and Couture and the Gala was your average red carpet celebrity pile-up (there's a slide show here with a bunch of snaps from the event). The red carpet displayed a pretty typical range of hits and misses - though with slightly more OTT eye makeup than usual. There are a few goes at the theme, some more obvious than others, but only one person I feel really got it absolutely perfect: Carey Mulligan.

[Image from perezhilton.com]

So why is this dress basically the most perfect thing ever? Because of the dress Liz Hurley wore to the premier of Four Weddings and a Funeral in 1994. The infamous Versace number epitomises punk's influence on fashion. It even has its own Wikipedia page.

[Image from partnoveau.com]

Mulligan's Balenciaga dress subtly references this number while also being extremely elegant and sophisticated. A little black dress captures with one safety pin the entire history of punk's influence on fashion. When I came across the picture of Mulligan while flicking through the slideshow I was so, so excited - yes, perfect, yes, she totally gets it, this is amazing. And while that probably says more about my sad interests than anything else, it's still probably the best fashion moment I've seen in a long time.

It's just a pity it seems to have gone over the heads of so many.