Fact check! Lupita Nyong’o’s gravity-defying hairstyle stopped traffic on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Gala 2016 carpet. The 12 Years a Slave star, 33, had longtime hairstylist Vernon Francois sweep her natural locks into a sky-high segmented bun for the evening. And while some tweeters didn’t understand her statement-making ‘do, a certain high-fashion magazine took a misguided stab at explaining it.
Even though Nyong’o told Vogue that the source of her inspiration was “sculptural hairdos from all around the continent,” as well as Nina Simone, they came up with another theory. In a May 3 web post titled “Is Lupita Nyong’o the New Audrey Hepburn? Celebrating the Star’s Met Gala Hair,” the magazine declared that “the sculptural style is also reminiscent of the updo Audrey Hepburn sported in a 1963 Vogue shoot with Bert Stern.”
Nyong’o corrected the magazine in a classy (and sort of sassy!) way. In a May 4 Instagram, she posted a side-by-side slideshow that displayed traditional African hairstyles and a portrait of Nina Simone with a similar ‘do — much like Nyong’o’s. “Hair Inspiration. Check,” she wrote, mentioning the magazine in her caption.
And Nyong’o is not the only star to school someone on her Met Gala look. After a fashion blogger accused Sarah Jessica Parker of “missing the memo” about the evening’s Manus x Machina theme, the Sex and the City star stood up for herself.
“Perhaps you weren’t aware of the technology used in the details and embellishments of the design,” Parker, 51, wrote on the blogger’s March 4 Instagram post. “Or perhaps you simply didn’t like what I wore which is completely fine but you can’t accuse me of not paying close attention and adhering to the theme.”