No One’s Over Anna Wintour’s Puffy Pockets Yet

Anna Wintour’s Chanel Haute Couture gown at the Costume Institute gala on Monday night was one of the most talked about of the evening for one reason: its gloriously puffy pockets. Never mind that it sparkled more splendidly than Britney Spears did in her “Toxic” video, or that Karl Lagerfeld himself created the dress just for A-Dubs. Reporters like us just couldn’t get them out of our heads. Of course we also couldn’t resist making pocket analogies. We called them puffy antlers, but, as with an M.C. Escher painting, everyone saw something different in those hand holes.
British Vogue called the gown “croissant-hipped.” The Telegraph’s Hilary Alexander called it “cyber couture.” The Independent’s Susannah Frankel quipped that Wintour looked caught in a “Starlight Express moment.” Suki Matthews likened the pockets to “handles” in the London Times. The Boston Herald’s Ivana Martini wrote, “Leave it to Anna Wintour to glam-up the fanny pack,” and likened the pockets to “fabric saddlebags.” And in the Houston Chronicle, Clifford Pugh wrote, “Her look brought to mind a whacked-out version of Star Wars, with Princess Leia’s pillowlike buns attached to Wintour’s middle-aged hips.”

Related: Met Gala: The Agony and the Ecstasy of the Red Carpet