The Best Crowns, Veils, and Pope Hats at the Met Ball

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

Monday night, celebrities and regular rich folk alike descended on the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the annual Met Gala, the fundraiser for the museum that’s often called the Oscars for fashion.

This year’s costume exhibit theme is “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,” and celebrities were invited to dress in their interpretation of Catholicism’s influence on fashion. Many chose to honor the theme by wearing headpieces. While ostentatious veils and and bejeweled crowns are beautiful accessories, they also nod to Catholic ritual and history. Some were literal, while others were hybrids of several traditions. Some took a lot of creative liberties.

Here’s a round up of the best of the best of them.

Veils

Plenty of celebrities chose to wear veils, presumably as an homage to imagery of the Virgin Mary, the most important virgin in Catholicism (sorry, priests). Historically, veils have signified modesty. Wearing a chapel veil to Mass was a tradition for a long time in the Catholic Church. (Remember Melania Trump’s veil when she visited the Vatican?)

Kate Bosworth

Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

Doutzen Kroes

Photo: AFP/Getty Images

Kate Upton

Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Bella Hadid

Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

Diane Kruger

Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

Crowns

Some Met Gala attendees wore crowns, which show up often in Catholicism. Popes wear papal tiaras, and Mary, Jesus’s mother, is also often pictured with a crown in her designation as the queen of heaven. In art, Mary gets coronated by angels (or by God Himself). At the Met Gala, you get crowned by your stylist.

Mindy Kaling wore the crown of all crowns (although it was incredibly unclear how it stayed on her head).

Photo: Mike Coppola/Getty Images

Lynda Carter wore a gold crown with Hebrew words that read “Never forget.”

Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

Amanda Seyfried wore a crown and the vibes of “Ray of Light” Madonna.

Photo: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

Hailee Steinfeld

Photo: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

Madonna fulfilled her destiny.

Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

Emilia Clarke obviously wore a crown because she’s Daenerys Targaryen, queen of the Seven Kingdoms.

Photo: Karwai Tang/Getty Images

Jared Leto. Hey, Jesus.

Photo: Mike Coppola/Getty Images

Halos

Halos are symbols of holiness. So if you’re an angel, a saint, Jesus, closely related to Jesus, or otherwise divine, you are depicted with one in art. It’s basically a way to tell who the normies are.

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

SZA

Photo: Mike Coppola/Getty Images

Solange Knowles

Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

Amber Heard

Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

Rita Ora

Photo: FilmMagic/Getty Images

Anne Hathaway wore a very good/complicated one. It sort of looks like a halo but also could symbolize Jesus’s crown of thorns. Good job, Annie.

Photo: Mike Coppola/Getty Images

Cardi B

Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

Lily Collins

Photo: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

Blake Lively

Photo: Karwai Tang/Getty Images

Janelle Monáe’s Yung Pope hat doubles as a halo. Layers, people.

Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

Lana Del Rey

Photo: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

Winnie Harlow

Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

Chainmail headdresses

Several people went for a Joan of Arc theme. While not all wore headpieces (like Michelle Williams, Shailene Woodley, and Zendaya), some chose to channel the French saint and the crusades, “protecting” their heads with jewels and metal ringlets.

Nicki Minaj

Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

Priyanka Chopra

Photo: John Shearer/Getty Images

Olivia Munn wore a chainmail dress and headdress, which was reportedly inspired by the Crusades.

Photo: John Shearer/Getty Images

Cara Delevingne has several themes going on here, but the overall vibe is very Joan of Arc, so please just go with it.

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Pope hats

For those choosing to bring next-level representation of the theme, there were pope hats, also called mitres. No one gets to wear one except the pope. Which is why...

Rihanna wore one by Maison Margiela.

Photo: John Shearer/Getty Images

Oh, and Sarah Jessica Parker wore one too, with artsy embellishment.

Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

Others

A few attendees showed up wearing eye-catching headdresses that didn’t quite fit into motifs of classic Catholic theology. Okay, no wait, there was only one: Frances McDormand, in the most surprising outfit of the evening. Amen.

Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images