How Bhavitha Mandava's Chanel look became the unofficial face of Met's new theme

The Met's 2027 theme has brought Bhavitha Mandava's debated Chanel debut back into focus. Her couture take on everyday clothing now mirrors the exhibition's central idea.

If there is one thing no one can imagine on the Met Gala red carpet, it is something as basic as a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. But, in a rather unexpected turn of events, that is pretty much what next year's Met Gala exhibition will celebrate.

After scrapping its controversial plan to honour fashion designer John Galliano, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has finally announced the new theme for its 2027 Costume Institute exhibition. Titled 'extraORDINARY: Fashion and the Poetics of the Everyday', the exhibition will explore how designers transform familiar garments, everyday objects and commonplace materials into extraordinary fashion creations.

From jeans, T-shirts, hoodies and puffer coats to paper, plastic and metal, the exhibition will examine how designers use craftsmanship, construction and material experimentation to give ordinary things an entirely new meaning. It will run from May 9, 2027, to January 9, 2028, with the Met Gala fundraiser scheduled for May 3.

While the official dress code for the gala is yet to be announced, it is generally inspired by the accompanying exhibition. And that brings us to Bhavitha Mandava, the Hyderabad-born, New York-based model who has been making waves in the world of luxury fashion.

Remember her rather controversial Met Gala debut earlier this year? The model arrived on the red carpet wearing what appeared to be a pair of jeans, a white top and a quarter-zip sweater, courtesy of Chanel. At an event where celebrities usually pull out all the stops with extravagant gowns, elaborate headpieces and dramatic couture creations, her relatively understated look certainly stood out.

The outfit sparked quite a debate online, with many questioning Chanel's decision to dress its ambassador in something that looked so casual for fashion's biggest night. We, too, had questioned the choice, writing that 'Chanel messed it up' by giving her what looked like a couture version of jeans and a zipper for the red carpet.

Cut to now, and that very look has found a rather interesting place in the conversation around the upcoming exhibition. As international media outlets report on the new theme, photographs of Bhavitha in her Chanel ensemble have been used to illustrate stories about the Met's celebration of everyday fashion.

And it is not difficult to see why. Her look, with its denim-inspired trousers and quarter-zip top, is a fitting visual representation of the exhibition's central idea: taking familiar, everyday clothing and bringing it into the world of high fashion.

For the record, those weren't actually regular jeans. Chanel revealed that the ensemble was made using beige muslin, a white muslin top and printed trousers designed to create a blue denim effect. The look reportedly took 250 hours to make and was a haute couture reinterpretation of the outfit she wore when opening Chanel's Metiers d'Art show in New York in December 2025.

In hindsight, perhaps she was a little ahead of her time.

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