Whitaker Malem worked with pop art sculptor Allen Jones, visual artist Nadia Lee Cohen and a car bodyshop in Kent
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t Monday’s Met Gala, it inevitably fell to Kim Kardashian to deliver the evening’s biggest jolt. One of the few celebrities to straightforwardly interpret the “fashion is art” dress code – which focused on how the dressed and undressed human body is the through-line in most works of art – she decided to forgo her usual role as a walking billboard for a major fashion house and instead arrived in an orange fibreglass breastplate created by a small east London art duo and a car bodyshop in Kent.
“Good art should start conversation, and Kim did exactly that,” says 61-year-old Patrick Whitaker, half of design practice Whitaker Malem, who made the breastplate just weeks before the gala. “She was very clear on wanting a breastplate, very clear on the car body finish. And I think she was nervous really. She understands the competition.”
She also found out from Anna Wintour that five other people were wearing breastplates, including her half-sisters, Kylie and Kendall Jenner. Soft armour and pert nipples might have been the themes of the night, but for someone that famous, says Whitaker, it’s still a risky proposition to wear it.
