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Janelle Monáe had all eyes on her at Richie Akiva’s 10th Annual “The After” Met Gala after party. The musician wore white platform mules from Area’s Spring 2024 collection.
About the shoes
The heels feature a jumbo flower with a large googly eye in the center. Though the exact model Monáe wore isn’t available for purchase on Area’s website, you can check out a similar style. The Jumbo Flower Platform Mule features the same key components as Monae’s shoe choice and retails at $995.
Mules have been one of the hottest shoe trends this season. Other stars besides Monáe to recently step out in the easy-to-wear slip-on shoes are Bella Hadid and Kaia Gerber.
About the brand
Area was founded in 2014 by designers and Parsons School of Design graduates Piotrek Panszczyk and Beckett Fogg in New York City. The brand is known for its bold designs, and for the Spring 2024 collection, particularly the cartoon eyes, the duo sought inspiration from a past era. “The eyes as a symbol just always speak to us because they connect so many of our favorite art forms like Pop Art in the ’60s or surrealism in the 1920s; from Warhol to Man Ray,” Panszczyk told Vogue Runway in February.
The brand recently experienced a shift in its aesthetic. “This is our tenth year in business, so we thought it was a perfect time to switch things up,” he explained. “We’re expanding into more and more categories and they don’t always click for a lot of people; if you come from a fashion show kind of perspective, maybe you don’t know that we also do jeans, and we also do jersey.”
The Met Gala raises funds for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and celebrates the Costume Institute’s annual exhibits. This year’s theme, “The Garden of Time,” celebrated the “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” exhibit. The 2024 event was notably co-chaired by Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Bad Bunny, Chris Hemsworth and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour.
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