Yara Shahidi at MET Gala 2019

Stylist: Jason Bolden assisted by John Mumblo and Star Burleigh
Outfit: custom Prada by Miuccia Prada
Makeup Artist: Emily Cheng using Bobbi Brown Cosmetics
and Prada excess jewels
Hairstylist: Kendall Dorsey assisted by @kherrington_ using Evolis
Manicurist: Emi Kudo using OPI
Shoes: Prada
Jewelry: David Webb

For last year’s MET Gala–and also her second one–actress and activist Yara Shahidi took a deep cultural plunge into the Black entertainers’ plethora of greatness.

Embed from Getty Images

To the Gala, the Black Beauty wore a custom Prada ice blue silk mini suit embroidered all over with Swarovski crystal clusters in shades of clear, and lemon, topped with a jet black ostrich duster coat embellished with black crystals, silver footless tights hand-embroidered with gold and silver metal paillettes all over, and satin shoes accented with a metallic lightning bolt heel.

During the red carpet interviews, the actress cited everyone from model Naomi Campbell to singer Eartha Kitt to model Beverly Johnson as cultural references. In general the Black excellence who paved the way for her to be there that night.

Several David Webb blings adorned her fingers like: a Crossover Cubist ring on her right index finger, a Mega Cubist ringon her right ring finger, a Radiator ring on her left middle finger and many more.

Are you curious about her makeup? Well, according to an Allure interview with her makeup artist Emily Cheng, the makeup was inspired by Yara‘s love for astrology and her star sign: Aquarius.

“Emily Cheng reimagined the actor’s star sign symbol, Aquarius’ parallel waves of water, as a single strand of crystals framing her left eye.”
“She’s always talking about her astrological sign. We did [the shape] very organically—I kind of mapped it out a bit.”

“To double-down on sparkle, Cheng added constellations of loose gold glitter in a deconstructed winged liner shape using a fluffy brush.” The makeup artist dabbed it on so it kind of looked like stars in the sky.

For a full rundown of the Bobbi Brown Cosmetics products that her MUA used, you can read the article mentioned above.

What about hair, then? It’s obvious that Shahidi‘s mane evoked the iconic Diana Ross.

Manicurist Emi Kudo used Pattie Yankee press ons for Yara’s almond shaped nails and picked a similar color to the outfit: Kanpai from the OPI Tokyo Collection (a periwinkle blue and grey long-lasting nail polish).

To decorate the nails, Kudo put hologram glitters of her personal stock on them. She knew what to do with Shahidi‘s nails only the night before and she got a permit to use excess beads and rhinestones from her Prada custom outfit to bejewel them.