Inside Cartier’s Star-Studded Met Gala 2024 Pre-party With Demi Moore, Jessica Biel, Elle Fanning, and Sofia Coppola

A few hours before strutting up the steps of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and into the 2024 Met Gala on Monday evening, a parade of fashion royalty gathered at Cartier’s annual Met Gala pre-party to calm any pre-gala jitters.

Demi Moore was among the guests at New York’s Bemelmans Bar, a legendary institution located inside the Carlyle. The actor’s return to the Met Gala for the first time since 2019 called for a very special accessory: Moore debuted Cartier’s never-before-seen Chloris necklace, which sparkles with 7.87 carats of emeralds, and was designed to look like dandelion seeds swept away by the wind. “It feels spectacular to wear it,” Moore told Vanity Fair. “And most importantly, I feel like it is in perfect symmetry with my entire look.”

That look was a spectacular ensemble created by British American designer Harris Reed. “The front of the dress is a 100-year-old piece of archival silk wallpaper, and the rose design itself has 11,000 hours of embroidery,” explained Moore’s stylist, Brad Goreski, who accompanied her to the party. “We really wanted to represent the blossoming of the rose, but also the decay. The decay becomes 3D at the bottom with the organza petals that are hand-painted. And the feathered arrows around the outside represent the thorns.”

In support of the Met Gala’s “Garden of Time” dress code, which celebrates the Costume Institute’s new exhibition, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion,” Donald Glover, Jessica Biel, Sofia Coppola, Elle Fanning, and Emma Chamberlain all emerged at Bemelmans in their most glamorous themed attire.

Chamberlain was the first person at the party, but bolted out to the gala’s red carpet to interview guests as Vogue’s special correspondent. Dressed in a chocolate brown, thorn-wrapped Jean Paul Gaultier dress, the internet personality was inspired by the mossy, wintery deadness of nature. She juxtaposed her dark look with an opulent diamond Cartier Nature Sauvage Renda necklace set in 18-karat white gold. “I feel, right now, absolutely like I’m going to shit my pants, to be completely honest with you. I can’t think clearly,” she admitted. “But once I do the carpet, I am relaxed, I’m happy, I’m chill. It’s getting those photos done. It’s an intimidating carpet. Once you get it done, you feel free.”

Fanning arrived wearing a sheer gown by Balmain that was dipped in resin to appear like glass, and featured sleeves adorned with sculptural birds, an homage to Sleeping Beauty herself. “Balmain has never constructed anything like this before. The whole dress, it’s really like a science experiment,” said Fanning about the resin substance. “They took a mold of my body and it looked amazing.” Fanning wore two Cartier diamond bracelets from the 1920s and Cartier ear pendants from 2007. “It’s very exciting to wear these because they brought them out of the vault for me.”

When it comes to dressing for any red carpet, Fanning looks to her older sister, Dakota, for feedback. Fanning, who attended her first Met Gala at age 13 and now has been invited six times, sent photos of her dress to Dakota, who is currently working, and received her stamp of approval. “She said, ‘Wow, it’s unreal,’” said Fanning. “I don’t even think she knew what the concept was. I surprised her and she loved it. Of course her opinion matters to me. I’ve got to ask my mom, my sister what they think, and [Dakota] will be honest. She’ll tell me if she doesn’t like it. So, when she does like it, I know it’s a good thing.”

Coppola wore a long, sheer black-and-white tulle custom Chanel jacket and a matching skirt, and greeted Fanning with excitement as soon as they saw each other, the two friends—Coppola directed Fanning in Somewhere (2010) and The Beguiled (2017)—sharing compliments about their looks. Coppola showed Fanning her stunning Tuttitutti Cartier Libre Hiatus bracelets, which feature diamonds and 18-karat white and yellow gold. “I love that it’s a matching cuff situation like Wonder Woman,” she said. “Who doesn’t want stunning cuffs?”

Coppola is a Met Gala veteran. The filmmaker has now attended the event at least seven times—her first in 2004. “I have a lot of early, good memories of going with my friend Marc Jacobs, and it’s definitely become a bigger production,” she said. “It was kind of like an old-guard New York society, and now it feels more show business. I’m curious to discover what it will be like tonight. It’s always interesting for people-watching, and also to be at The Met at night is incredible.”

Grammy Award winner Jon Batiste was the next guest to arrive. The minute he walked in, he made a beeline to the bar’s grand piano where Emmy Award–winning pianist and composer Earl Rose was playing “The Girl From Ipanema.” Batiste quickly joined Rose on the keys for an impromptu duet. For his gala garb, Batiste chose a Dunhill suit that featured a halterneck waistcoat made of 300-year-old floral Spitalfields silk jacquard. He accessorized his ensemble with a beautiful 1928 platinum and diamond brooch from the Cartier Collection and wore a breathtaking yellow diamond Cartier necklace. “When you see it in the light, it looks like it’s shining from heaven,” Batiste said.

Across from the piano, Jessica Biel held court in a whimsical pink Tamara Ralph gown decorated with feathers and crystals. She described her ensemble as a “garden flower bird that is happy, playful, like you want to skip around in the garden.” In sticking with the night’s theme, Biel accessorized her look with a Cartier Grain de Café necklace—made out of 18-karat yellow gold, platinum, and diamonds—that resembles flower petals. Though her look was flawless, she admitted the dress wasn’t her first choice. “I’ve never worn a color like this. I tend to go to something that is a little bit more muted,” she said. “And feathers, I haven’t really worn before, so this kind of thing is quite new for me. But when I put it on, and everyone that I was with took a look at it, it just felt like a breath of fresh air.”

Biel attended this year’s Met Gala—her first since 2013—without husband Justin Timberlake, who is on his Forget Tomorrow World Tour, but she did send him a photo of her dress to get his feedback. “I’m always running ideas and dresses and options by him. He has such good taste and he’s got such good style, and he knows me so well and knows what I would be comfortable with,” she said. “He’s helpful to push me outside of my comfort zone, so I sent him a picture of this and he goes, ‘I love this. It’s the best dress you’ve worn to The Met yet. Do it. One hundred percent, no question.’ It was a big thumbs up from him.”