This year’s Met Gala theme, Camp, sparked a lot of creativity on the red carpet, with celebrities showing up in outfits that took fashion to its very outermost limits. But for an attendee, what is the point of an over-the-top Met Gala outfit? Well, if they play their cards right, they can score tons of new followers.
Just ask Billy Porter. He’s a Broadway actor who had a relatively small following and is best known for his acting in the shows Pose and Kinky Boots. On Monday night, he was carried onto the red carpet on a palanquin carried by six shirtless men. His outfit was designed by The Blonds to conjure up the image of a Sun God and included 10-foot wings and a gold headpiece. That entrance earned him a nearly 20K bump in Instagram followers, a 4.21% bump, giving him a new grand total of 457.9K followers.
Singer Lizzo, who had a pink feathered Marc Jacobs and matching pink hair, appeared to have the biggest follower increase of the night, growing her follower base by 7.7%, or 76.2K followers, tipping her into a million Instagram follower range.
Show-stopping outfits can also boost the following of A-list celebrities who already have enormous fan bases. The Kardashian clan, for instance, got major spikes in followers. In terms of sheer numbers, Kim Kardashian West received a million new followers. She showed up in a Thierry Mugler-designed beaded latex gown that made her appear naked and accentuated her waist. But given that she already has an Instagram based f 137 million followers, this was only a 0.76% increase. Kendall and Kylie Jenner, wearing matching feathery Versace gowns, got 571k and 801.2k new followers each.
Cardi B, who wore a striking red dress with an enormous train that conjured blood, was another winner, scoring 653k followers, taking her base to 44.4 million.
On average, your run-of-the-mill celebrity–like Mindy Kaling, Harry Styles, Serena Williams, and Janelle Monae–scored between 10k and 20k new followers. But there was one loser of the night. Jared Leto actually lost nearly 2,000 of his 10M followers over the last week. Perhaps his Instagram audience couldn’t handle his Gucci outfit which included an odd accessory: A realistic disembodied replica of his own head.