\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n\tThe Indian billionaire philanthropist and businesswoman arrived at the 2026 Met Gala<\/a> in \u201cThe Tree of Life,\u201d a custom creation by Malhotra styled by Mariel Haenn. The look drew from Kalamkari, the Indian textile tradition with a history that stretches back roughly 3,000 years, and connected the evening\u2019s \u201cCostume Art\u201d theme to Hyderabad and Telangana, Reddy\u2019s home region. The tradition is known for hand-painted natural dyes and intricate depictions of mythology, nature and cosmology, with the Tree of Life among its most enduring motifs.<\/p>\n \n\tReddy\u2019s gown started with a deep royal blue velvet corset, cut with a wide neckline and covered through the bodice in antique gold floral embroidery. Below the waist, the velvet fell close through the hips before opening into a long train. Gold vines, flowers and tree branches covered the back panel, building toward the large \u201cTree of Life\u201d motif that filled the center of the train. Malhotra also folded in regional references including the Palapitta, or Indian Roller; Jammi Chettu; Tangedu; Kalpavriksha; Surya and Chandra. Peacock motifs appeared across the train, adding another layer of Indian iconography to the back view.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\tMalhotra\u2019s atelier built the look over 3,459 hours with more than 90 artisans. The handwork moved between several Indian embroidery techniques, including zardozi, marodi and resham, with metalwork worked into the bodice, cape and train. Gold and ivory thread covered the royal blue velvet in botanical motifs, while red, blue and pale floral details ran across the sheer tulle cape. The cape was edged in wide gold trim, and the shoulders carried the heaviest sculptural detail, with brass, copper and silver elements worked into the upper back. At the center of the upper-back installation, the Kalpavriksha motif gave the sculpted metalwork its focal point.<\/p>\n \n\tReddy\u2019s jewelry<\/a> pushed the scale even further. She wore a necklace from her personal collection valued at more than $15 million, with the \u201cQueen of Merelani\u201d \u2014 a 550-carat deep violet-blue tanzanite from Tanzania\u2019s Merelani Hills \u2014 set as the pendant. Rose-cut diamonds in triangular and pear shapes surrounded the stone in floral clusters. The necklace had a Victorian-finished setting, keeping the high-jewelry<\/a> story in the same antique register as the gold embroidery. She also wore a 23-carat yellow diamond ring and a 30-carat rose-cut polki diamond ring.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tBook Cover with Tree, Birds, and Insects, c. 1700. This book cover decorated with opulent and fantastical flowering scenes on lacquer was made for a manuscript or album that has since been disseminated. Depictions of flowering vases are a known design from the Deccan, and the fertile trees are oftentimes interpreted as \u201cTree of Life\u201d motifs. The unusually large scale of the birds and insects in the scene is characteristic of the whimsical creativity of artists from the Deccan region of India.<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Met\/Public Domain<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\t\u201cHyderabad is my foundation, and this ensemble is a translation of that cultural identity into a language that is both global and deeply personal,\u201d Reddy said in a statement. \u201cIndian craftsmanship isn\u2019t a legacy confined to history but a living, breathing art form. It was vital to demonstrate that these ancient techniques possess the structural integrity and aesthetic power to lead the global fashion dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFor Malhotra, the piece placed Indian handcraft in the center of the Met Gala conversation rather than treating it as ornament. \u201cFashion, for me, has always been about the emotion behind the image,\u201d Malhotra said in a statement. \u201cWith \u2018The Tree of Life,\u2019 we wanted to create something that carries memory and the soul of the craft.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\tReddy made her Met Gala debut in 2021 and returned again in 2024, building a red-carpet record centered on Indian couture and craftsmanship.<\/p>\n \n\tThe 2026 Met Gala took place on Monday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. This year\u2019s exhibition, \u201cCostume Art,\u201d celebrated fashion as an art form, with a dress code of \u201cFashion Is Art.\u201d The event featured Jeff Bezos and Lauren S\u00e1nchez Bezos serving as honorary chairs. The annual benefit raises funds for the Met\u2019s Costume Institute.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source wwd.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sudha Reddy returned to the Met Gala on Monday in one of the evening\u2019s most craft-intensive looks, wearing custom Manish Malhotra couture and a necklace valued at more than $15 million from her personal collection. The Indian billionaire philanthropist and businesswoman arrived at the 2026 Met Gala in \u201cThe Tree of Life,\u201d a custom creation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2402516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25177],"tags":[365932,308845],"class_list":["post-2402515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","tag-jewelry","tag-met-gala"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Sudha-Reddy-Wears-Manish-Malhotra-and-15M-Necklace-at-2026.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2402515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2402515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2402515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2402517,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2402515\/revisions\/2402517"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2402516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2402515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2402515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2402515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Sudha](\"https:\/\/wwd.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-wwd-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
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