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The meaning of Mindy Kaling's Met Gala dress

The dress has an official name.
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Mindy Kaling's architectural dress stunned at the 2024 Met Gala. On E!, commentator Elaine Welteroth said the dress made her "heart beat faster."

The dress, designed by Gaurav Gupta, unfolds around Kaling in gravity-defying directions. She is surrounded by its glimmering beige fabric.

Image: The 2024 Met Gala Celebrating "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion" - Arrivals
Mindy Kaling at the Met Gala.Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images

The back of the look is equally intricate. The series of cascading arches is actually a removable cape, E! News clarified — citing Kaling's stylist Molly Dickson — meaning the actor will be able to sit during the evening.

Image: The 2024 Met Gala Celebrating "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion" - Arrivals
The back of Mindy Kaling's dress.Marleen Moise / Getty Images

Officially named "The Melting Flower of Time," the dress fits into 2024 Met Gala's dress code, "The Garden of Time." The back of the dress represents a "bud and a blossoming flower that is now withering," she told Reuters on the carpet.

The color is meant to represent a dying flower, she added.

Mindy Kaling
The back of Mindy Kaling's dress from another angle.Angela Weiss / AFP - Getty Images

Unlike many other looks on the carpet, which take a literal approach to floral designs, Kaling's is more structural and abstract.

Speaking to TODAY, Vogue editorial director Anna Wintour said she predicted many florals on the red carpet.

“We came up with the title ‘Sleeping Beauties.’ It’s wonderful, it’s poetic, its romantic, but actually it could be many, many things,” she said of the theme.