There’s more where that breastplate came from.
Kim Kardashian shared a carousel of behind-the-scenes photos on Instagram Tuesday, revealing several alternate looks from the creative process behind her Met Gala 2026 outfit.
Among the images are two earlier versions of the Allen Jones body cast she eventually wore to the “Costume Art”-themed gala. The team originally planned to paint the piece pink before settling on the orange hue, and also seemingly experimented with a dark version, as seen in a black-and-white shot of Kardashian posed atop a glass pedestal table.
The earlier iterations are also fully backless, held on to the reality star’s body with only leather straps.
The looks were photographed and creatively directed by Nadia Lee Cohen, who inspired the project via an Allen Jones-themed shoot she had done for Perfect magazine.
That shoot featured pieces by leather artisans Whitaker Malem, who created the half-skirt Kardashian wore to the Met.
“Kim’s torso curves and silhouette were remarkably close to Allen’s breastplate sculptures, which were never really intended to be worn,” Whitaker Malem told Perfect. “We’d never seen an Allen Jones breastplate fit anyone as well as Kim!”
View this post on Instagram Jones originally made the fiberglass body cast — a work entitled “Body Armour” — in the late 1960s as a prop for a film he’d written that was never produced.
A portrait of Kate Moss wearing the piece in 2013 sold for roughly $52,000 at Christie’s.
For Kardashian’s version, the piece was repurposed from that same mold and finished in glossy orange at an auto body shop. The body plate started as a full-length piece — feet and all — before being chopped at the ankles, then cut high on the hips for the final look.
In another shot, Kardashian wears pale pink silk Ilona bloomers with an open back to reveal her derriére, styled with a sky blue cropped turtleneck, matching socks and pumps, and a padded bra with faux nipples. She grips a pool cue with billiard balls scattered at her feet, looking like a character from Jones’ oeuvre of stylized, fetish-inflected female figures.
Chloe and Chenelle Delgadillo styled the looks, with Kardashian’s hair in a retro updo with short bangs for the earlier fittings. For the carpet, hairstylist Chris Appleton took a different approach, switching her to a loose, “cashmere blond” shade worn down.
“The inspiration behind Kim’s Met hair look was disheveled — a lived-in, undone glamour influenced by the provocative work of Allen Jones,” Appleton posted on Instagram.
The entire look came together in just three weeks, with Kardashian traveling to Jones’ studio in Oxfordshire and later to Whitaker Malem’s space in Dalston, London, for a final fitting.
