This afternoon, Bella Hadid sent our editor-in-chief Mel Ottenberg some delicious photos of her Met Ball shenanigans—captured by her boyfriend, Marc Kalman. To get the gossip on her big night out, Ottenberg called the supermodel from his hotel in London.
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MEL OTTENBERG: Hey Bella, how are we feeling today?
BELLA HADID: We’re feeling good. We have our leave-in conditioner in, we slept for 24 hours, first day off in a long time, and then I’m getting on a plane to see you.
OTTENBERG: I know, come to me, mama. I’m so excited just to get all of your time and attention. Okay, okay, okay, so we’re gonna talk Met Ball. Thanks for sending us these pictures, they’re really fab. Is it stressful getting ready for this thing? Or are you totally used to it and it’s chill.
HADID: Um, honestly, I used to get so much anxiety and it would, like, ruin my whole day. But I really take a lot of pressure off of myself now, I don’t feel like there’s as much to lose, so it’s just fun for me at this point. We spend a lot of time—designing the dress and with my glam team—figuring out the creative part before I actually get to the hotel on Met day. So by the time it’s Met day, we’re just like living, listening to music, dancing. But 20 minutes beforehand it gets kind of stressful, because I’m a Libra and I’m always late. I try to not be late, but I always am anyway.
OTTENBERG: I feel like the key to the Met is having fun and being like, “Well, I like my outfit. Maybe people will like it, maybe they won’t, but who cares because I’m into it and I feel great.”
HADID: Yeah, for sure. Paloma and I were talking about this—we want to be able to give for the girls, you know? For the girls and the gays! So that’s the main pressure, to make the girls and the gays proud. We want to step out and, like, have it be a moment. But we also take the pressure off of ourselves by knowing that we’re just fab regardless. It’s self confidence, which I’m trying to gain. So that’s where I’m at.
OTTENBERG: I like it. I like it. So, Evanie [Frausto], and Raisa [Flowers], and Gab [ Gabriella Karefa-Johnson] worked on this with you? And who designed this dress, Mr. Ricardo Tisci?
HADID: Yeah, Mr. Ricardo Tisci. You know, I made a 25 page deck with all of our references, and I tried to limit it to the period from 1895 to 1903. I really liked a lot of the ties and the big fabrics and the tulle and obviously the corsets and the bustiers, but we also wanted to make sure that it stayed very much Ricardo—very simplistic, but chic.
OTTENBERG: Fierce bitch.
HADID: Yeah, we had to combine our tastes. At this point in my life, I really take a lot of pride in my style and what I do for myself. So, I guess that’s why this Met was so different. I mean, I’ve always put my little bit of creativity into each look, but yeah, I really wanted to make sure this one felt like me, and Ricardo, and Gabi and Raisa and Evanie. I think it gave a little of all of us.
OTTENBERG: And was the braided hair giving some moment from the olden Gilded Ages?
HADID: Yeah, absolutely.
OTTENBERG: Hot.
HADID: Pretty much Angie in Original Sin was the vibe.
OTTENBERG: Angie in Original Sin. I love it. And then who is this gray dress girl, she’s really hot.
HADID: Okay, so that is Jean Paul Gaultier fall/winter 2004, but that was the original from the archives. The JPG team is just amazing with me, I feel so lucky. They let me go through and razzle dazzle their archive, and Gabi slayed by somehow getting that from Paris to here, so I was like, “I can’t let her just go back to Paris without taking her for a spin.”
OTTENBERG: And who was this very naughty, unacceptable girl they took out late night? Because I really liked her too.
HADID: Oh, that was Dilara [Findikoglu], she slayed that in four days. Dilara and I DM all the time. She’s like a queen to me and she’s so talented, but I really felt like this theme was her, you know what I mean? It was her moment. That outfit could have walked on the red carpet. She gave me everything I needed for the timeless theme.
OTTENBERG: How sucked in and unbreathing are you on the red carpet? Or are you giving ease?
HADID: Mel, I literally like, blacked out. I don’t even think I got one good photo on the red carpet. Now that I look back, I realize that people literally stand there for 20 minutes and they give. I looked once to the left, once to the right, and I ran up the stairs. I don’t think I was out there for more than three minutes. I don’t know if that was my anxiety, or maybe the waist was giving cinch and I couldn’t breathe. I mean, there were probably a lot of things happening.
OTTENBERG: There’s a lot going on for a girl at that point, but you gave the girls and the gays what they needed. And again, whoever this chick is that made this fucking after party thing, it’s like a real sin, this harlot shit is fab. What was the music you guys were listening to while getting ready?
HADID: We kind of spiraled, to be honest. I have playlists for days. Raisa is an amazing DJ, so she’ll throw out random bangers. But my phone is always plugged in, and we hit all the vibes—from The Strokes to, like, Gunna. The last thing Raisa played before I stepped out of the bus was “P Power” by Gunna and Drake. That’s my hype song these days.
OTTENBERG: I love it. Gunna looked so cute at the Met. I loved his look and I want to meet him. We’ve done him for Interview before, but I wasn’t there. Was the Met actually fun this time? I don’t mean it was bad, but sometimes it’s very stressful and difficult. So was it chill or psychotic or what?
HADID: Well this is like my first time back, in like, actual years.
OTTENBERG: Wait, Marc is so cute. I met him at the gym right?
HADID: Right. [Laughs] He’s been doing a lot of boxing these days.
OTTENBERG: He took the most fab pictures. I’m not going to say what our mood/creative was, because then everyone will copy it.
HADID: I mean, obviously, I’m super comfortable and feel very safe with Marc. He does this funny thing where he puts the camera down by his belly, so sometimes I literally don’t even know that he’s taking a photo. He’s very much in the moment, takes one photo, and that’s the photo you get, which I think is interesting and fun. These photos are really personal because I don’t let people in my space like that. We really keep a lot of photos for ourselves, but you know, when Melzy asks, we gotta deliver. I’m just really excited that these are gonna be out and about, and I’m really proud of Marc, who’s like my emotional support bunny and is incredibly talented at everything he does. So yeah, it worked out well.
OTTENBERG: I’m looking forward to having Marc do more stuff for Interview. One last question—what goes in your purse for the Met?
HADID: My lipgloss, honestly. All the girls and boys at the Met have nothing in their purse except their phone and their lipgloss. It’s a fact.
OTTENBERG: All right, well, I love you. Thanks for getting on the phone. I’ll see you tomorrow and I will make you look fierce.
HADID: See you tomorrow, Melzy. Love you.