Gala’s Worst Gowns Now Up For Auction At The Gap

by Megan Baldwin | 10:31 am, May 4th, 2010

Itching to get your paws on that dowdy lavender ode to the Wild West that actress Vera Farmiga donned for last night’s Met Gala? Or perhaps you’ve just been dying to get stood up at the altar and think Kirsten Dunst’s matronly white frock and matching lace-up boots would be perfect to add sartorial shame to public scorn. Well, ladies, fret not. In fact thanks to the big event’s retail-minded co-host, last night’s trash (for a sincere lack of a better word) can be your designer treasure because starting today all the Gala-approved “x Gap” garbs go up on the auction blocks. (Because who doesn’t have enough unwearable items from The Gap hanging in their closet?)

Now if you couldn’t tell by our snark, we were more than a little disappointed with the All-American retailer’s half baked red-carpet take. Of course, we weren’t exactly sure how the Gap would translate for the high-fashion gala — but if Sharon Stone could pull it off, we figured, that certainly a bevy of A-Listers and a few CFDA darlings (Alexander Wang, Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte, Thakoon Panichgul and Sophie Theallet), could make it work. Plus a supremely covetable pair of Pierre Hardy wedges were enough to inspire us to hope.

Turns out we were way, way off; not only were the majority of the “x Gap’s” an epic miss of OMFG proportions (see our worst dressed front runners: Farmiga in Sophie Theallet and Dunst in Rodarte), but there was nary a starched oxford in sight! Honestly, it would have taken a highly trained eye (and possibly a magnifying glass) to spot the differences between your standard issue Rodarte runway gown and Kirsten’s offensive, matronly number.

Or who knows, maybe there was a navy blue tag that identified M.I.A’s dramatic sparkling floor length Alexander Wang frock as having earned the Patrick Robinson seal o’ all-American approval — because to Wang’s credit, he was the only designer whose Gap wares were, well, wearable. His asymmetrical black gown for Gisele Bundchen — which, as far as we can tell, was designed by Wang and Wang alone — was very short, very leather, very fringed, and clearly perfect for the 5’10 brazilian stunner. It even made her feel like she was in Brazil. (Which is to say: perfectly at home.)

In any case, we think the jeans-and-tee-heavy chain should have just admitted what was painfully obvious: the Gap does not a gala gown make. Not that that should stop you from bidding until your heart’s content: Halloween will be here before you know it — and nothing says horrifying like a modern day Havisham.

PHOTOS:

Kirsten Dunst in Rodarte