Kiara Advani's Met Gala Debut: The Bravehearts Look

Kiara Advani made her Met Gala debut on May 5, 2025 in a custom Gaurav Gupta creation called Bravehearts. She was pregnant at the time, and the look was built around that. The designer's studio, Vogue India and The Indian Express give a detailed account of how it was made and what it was meant to say.

The theme

The 2025 Met Gala celebrated "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style", with a dress code of "Tailored for You". Gupta's studio says Bravehearts is built on the spirit of the Black dandy, people who challenged norms and reshaped culture with grace, strength and individuality, and calls the look "a tribute to defiance, legacy, and new beginnings".

Advani was styled by Anaita Shroff Adajania. In a statement quoted by the Indian Express, she said that making her debut "at this point in my life, as both an artist and mother-to-be" felt special, and that the look was inspired by the legacy of the fashion editor André Leon Talley.

The design

The look had a sculptural black gown with an antique-gold breastplate decorated with ghungroos, the small Indian bells, and crystals. At its core, the studio says, are two hearts, mother and child, joined by chains that suggest an abstract umbilical cord. A white double-panel cape with black trim echoed a cape Talley wore to the 2010 Met Gala.

Gupta told the Indian Express that the work took months and involved more than 23 artisans. The gown and cape took over 120 hours, and the sculpted breastplate another 150 hours of handwork. He said the gown was built in a soft, stretch-knit jersey so it could move with her, and the breastplate used a lightweight gold-toned metal, hand-moulded to her body to avoid discomfort.

Made before the announcement

The paper adds that the outfit was designed before Advani publicly shared her pregnancy, which Gupta's comments describe as an emotional time capsule. She arrived at the Gala showing her baby bump publicly for the first time, according to the report. Vogue India says she was the first Indian actor to walk the Met steps with a baby bump, a claim we attribute to the magazine.

Jewellery and beauty

Vogue India lists gold rings, bold earrings and an ear cuff from Outhouse Jewellery and Wrapgame India. It also names a 17-carat pear-shaped diamond piece and five-carat heart-shaped diamond earrings by Kantilal Chhotalal. Her hair was pinned back in waves, with a smoky eye.

Her place in the Met Gala history of Bollywood

The Indian Express calls her the fourth Bollywood actress to walk the red carpet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute event. Vogue India places her in a line that includes Alia Bhatt and Deepika Padukone, who have attended before. On the same night, Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra and the singer Diljit Dosanjh also attended, according to Indian Express coverage, while Bhatt and Padukone did not.

She travelled to New York with her husband, Sidharth Malhotra, the paper says.

Why the look worked as a story

Fashion coverage tends to focus on the dress, and this one gave reporters a clear narrative: a motherhood theme in gold, a tribute to a respected editor, and a debut on the carpet. The studio's and Vogue India's accounts are close in detail, and the team's own account carries much of the story.

What we could not confirm

We could not independently verify the artisan count or the hours of work, which come from the designer. The "first Indian actor with a baby bump" claim comes from Vogue India alone. We did not find how the look was received by the Met Gala's own fashion critics. The carpet count of Bollywood actresses is the Indian Express's tally.

Sources

*Cover photo: The Agashe Foundation, Wikimedia Commons, *[*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sheetal-agashe-award-brihans-natural-products-kiara-advani-april-2019.jpg*](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sheetal-agashe-award-brihans-natural-products-kiara-advani-april-2019.jpg)* (CC BY-SA 4.0).*