Met Gala 2021: Maisie Williams sports HORNS and a quirky black cape designed by her boyfriend

The annual Met Gala is always a place where people can experiment with fashion. 

And Maisie Williams took that attitude in her stride as she made a kooky arrival at the fashion event held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on Sunday. 

The actress, 24, turned heads in her ensemble – which had been designed by her boyfriend Reuben Selby in a homage to The Matrix. 

The quirky look consisted of a voluminous cape that she layered over a bodysuit and paired with sheer stirrup tights and heels. 

Maisie also used a headpiece to make a statement, fashioning horns out of material that blended seamlessly into her hair. 

Speaking to E! News on the red carpet, Maisie said of her look: ‘It was designed by Reuben Selby, who is my boyfriend, and it’s inspired by The Matrix.

‘I have my coat and my Matrix nails. I’ve grown up on these American icons—women in film, these heroines. It shaped the woman that I became, and so it kind of made sense for me to honor those people tonight.’

The Matrix starred Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss and Laurence Fishburne and followed the tale of a computer programmer who is led to fight an underground war against powerful computers who have constructed his entire reality. 

Maisie’s outfit comes ahead of the release of The Matrix Resurrections, the surprise fourth instalment in the science-fiction franchise.

The film comes 18-years after The Matrix Revolutions, originally intended to be the final chapter in a trilogy. 

Meanwhile, Maisie added of her headpiece, ‘the process of actually putting it all onto my head was only about two hours.

‘I don’t really like to take too long, and they nailed it in a very short amount of time.’

Maisie’s big break came when she was cast as Arya Stark in Game of Thrones in 2011, appearing on the show until the final season in 2019.

Meanwhile, Reuben is the founder of modelling agency The Contact Agency and has his own fashion line.  

The Met Gala was finally back after being cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic. This year it was pushed to September from its traditional slot on the first Sunday in May. 

The theme was In America: A Lexicon of Fashion and the event features a heavy-hitting contingent of celebrity co-chairs: actor Timothée Chalamet, musician Billie Eilish, poet Amanda Gorman and tennis star Naomi Osaka.

Honorary chairs for the evening were designer Tom Ford, sponsor Instagram’s Adam Mosseri, and Vogue’s Anna Wintour.

When the hosts were first announced, Vogue magazine said: ‘Each of the Met’s four co-hosts embodies the defining factor of American style: individualism.

‘[They have each] developed a distinct visual language for their public personas, one that is informed by the legacy of iconic fashion made in the USA.’

The must-have accessory for all at this year’s gala is a Covid-19 vaccine.

‘Currently, all attendees at The Met Gala on September 13 must provide proof of full vaccination and will also be expected to wear masks indoors except when eating or drinking,’ a spokesperson for The Met said last month.

This year’s gala will be a more intimate affair, to be followed by a larger one on May 2, 2022. 

Both will launch a two-part exhibition, a survey of American fashion to be on view for almost a year.

In America: A Lexicon of Fashion, opening Sept. 18, will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the museum´s Costume Institute and ‘explore a modern vocabulary of American fashion,’ the spokesperson added.

Part two, In America: An Anthology of Fashion, will open in the museum’s popular American Wing period rooms on May 5, 2022, and will explore American fashion, with collaborations with film directors, by ‘presenting narratives that relate to the complex and layered histories of those spaces.’ 

Both parts will close on September 5, 2022.