Yung Miami’s Chanel-Inspired Met Gala Afterparty Dress Was Made From 55 Handbags

Duran Lantink’s Met Gala design for Yung Miami (aka Caresha) didn’t make the red carpet, but it should have. 

Lantink received a call from Yung Miami’s stylist Marni Senofonte two weeks before the event requesting concepts that paid homage to Karl Lagerfeld, the late designer who formerly led brands like Chloe, Fendi, and Chanel. He’s the subject of the Costume Institute’s spring 2023 exhibition: “A Line of Beauty.”

Lantink, who has created designs for artists like Beyoncé, came up with about nine concepts, including a birdcage made of pearls, but the corset dress constructed with gold chains, which were intertwined with fake hair to mimic the handles on Chanel’s quilted bags, was Yung Miami’s favorite.

He also created a head piece made out of fake hair that remixed Chanel’s double C logo with “CG,” which stands for City Girls. His design was one of the few looks from the evening that played with a Lagerfeld signature: logos. 

“Once Karl Lagerfeld presented the double F Fendi logo on top of a hat. So I started thinking about playing around with the double C Chanel logo,” says Lantink. “It was a tribute to Karl, who brought logos to Chanel. Coco Chanel wasn’t really about logos, so I thought it would be fun to play with a logo.”

The Dutch designer, who is based in Amsterdam, is known for using old luxury clothes to make something new and he took a similar approach with Yung Miami’s dress, which was constructed with about 55 handbags purchased across eight different cities in Holland. Here, Lantink speaks about the process of designing the dress, the impact it had on his brand, and his thoughts on the other Met Gala looks.