Nell Diamond Takes Us Behind the Scenes of Her Custom Hill House Met Gala Gown

From the last-minute bag design to fresh flowers sewn into the dress on the way to the red carpet.

Hill House has become synonymous with summer dressing thanks to the brand's ubiquitous Nap Dresses (seriously, they need to develop a special hand signal for Nap Dress wearers to deploy when we recognize a kindred spirit on the street). And while the brand might have cornered the market on the perfect floral floaty frock to wear to brunch with friends or drinks on a boat, designing a gown for the Met Gala—also known as the red carpet event of the year—is another beast entirely. Yet founder Nell Diamond didn't even hesitate.

Taking inspiration from her favorite painting at the Tate Britain, Diamond designed a gown that checked all her comfort boxes, featured Hill House's signature girly flair, and fit the gala's "Garden of Time" theme. Here, the founder takes us inside the design process, reveals her getting ready playlist, and shares how she unwinds after such a momentous night (spoiler: It's by prepping for the biggest Nap Dress drop ever, today!).

InStyle: What were you most excited about leading up to the Met Gala?

Nell Diamond: I was most excited about seeing the actual exhibit and the opportunity to see such a thoughtfully curated show in an intimate setting. To have dinner in The Met also felt totally surreal. And the people watching did not hurt!

The getting ready process with my Hill House team was also amazing. So many people worked so hard to help me feel my best, and seeing their joy and hard work come to life through our first custom Hill House gown was contagious. It made me feel like I was representing them and our team at large on the carpet, which felt so exciting.

InStyle: How did you decide to create a custom Hill House look for the evening? And when did the design process begin?

ND: It was never a question that I would wear Hill House from the first time I saw the theme.

This was our first custom Hill House gown. We had done a few custom dress projects before, like Olivia Rodrigo for SNL, but never a gown. We have the most talented design and dressmaking team in New York, so I knew we could make it happen. Once we received the invite, we started pulling references and moved forward from there.

InStyle: Tell us more about the inspiration for the look? How did you take the idea from painting to red carpet moment?

ND: My dress was inspired by one of my favorite paintings, Sir Frederic Leighton’s 1895 Flaming June. I was introduced to the painting by my mom, who announced, “That’s my Nellie,” in front of a reproduction of the work. I saw the real thing for the first time at the Tate Britain in 2008. I’ve always been drawn to the hypnotic females floating through the Victorian cultural imagination. June is amongst my favorites of the bunch; a sleeping beauty in a flowing, orange dress.

This is the first custom gown for Hill House, and it was important for us to add a Hill House touch: in this case, a waist-moment, a tiny bow on the handbag, and flowers of different shapes and sizes.

As we began to consider the floral elements of the dress, we looked to Millais’ Ophelia—certainly a sister to June—and imagined what Ophelia might look like If she stood up and walked right out of the riverbank, the back of her dress and hair coated with slight wet, wilting flowers. We felt it only right to use real, fresh flowers, to illustrate the impermanence of our very own Sleeping Beauty, a dress that will look this way for one night only.

InStyle: The bag!

ND: The bag was actually so last minute! A couple of days ago we thought about the bag. I started to think about what June might carry; it definitely was not an envelope clutch. We thought about it and moved forward with a soft pouch with a wrist strap. It fit my phone, compact, and lip product, and it was the same fabric as my underwear corset. We added a Hill House touch with some fun jewel embellishments and an extra long bow.

InStyle: The fresh flowers!

ND: We knew we wanted to work with fresh flowers and create something ephemeral and for one night only. The flowers were super fresh at the start of the night, and really became part of the dress over time, by blending into the organza. They felt like true sleeping beauties—fragile, and by wearing them throughout the night, they were also going to sleep. We placed fresh flowers all over the train and on the back of my hair. We finished sewing them in in the van on the way to the Met. The first time I truly saw the final dress was on the red carpet. It was not done until the last one was sewn in. We wanted them to feel scattered, organic and natural.

InStyle: What's the most important thing for you when getting dressed for a big event? How did that inform (or not) your final design?

ND: I always feel my best in a fitted waist—that is one of the reasons that the first Nap Dress came to be. I wanted to feel comfortable and tailored. When we first started making dresses with our proprietary smocking, I was so excited about having both a fitted waist, and being able to be comfortable and breathe.

I knew that the dress needed to have a fitted waist because that is what I feel most confident in. Confidence is so important and knowing your silhouettes is an important lesson to learn. We focused on fabric and color first and draped it on a dress form. We wanted it to feel natural and beautiful.

InStyle: What are you going to do with the dress now that the event is over? Will it inspire anything for production?

ND: We created 10 limited-edition Collector’s Edition Ellie Nap Dresses. They sold out in 10 minutes that night. I can’t wait to see people wear them!

InStyle: What song must be on your getting ready playlist?

ND: "Texas Hold Em" by Beyoncé and "Espresso" by Sabrina Carpenter.

InStyle: Tell me about your glam, what was the inspo?

ND: My hair [done by Rosibel Del Jesus] was inspired by Renaissance Victorian age paintings that I love so much. Similar to June, I had natural waves and we added in the fresh flowers from my dress to the back of my hair. I wanted to feel like myself so it was important to me to have the natural waves I often have, but with an elevated touch.

We went for an ethereal glow for my makeup [done by Isabel Rosado] to resemble June. I had a blushy, glowy look with a bright coral lip to go with my dress. Winged liner is a staple look for me, so we did a soft brown winged eye with gold flecks. I wanted to keep it subtle but true still true to myself!

InStyle: Which celeb were you most excited to see?

ND: One of the things that I did not fully realize before is that you get to spend so much personal time in the exhibit. I am such a museum person, so being in the exhibit in your gown post red-carpet rush was a huge highlight for me. And of course, it did not hurt that Matt Damon was right there looking as well! So much work goes into the actual show, so seeing this incredible curation up close was incredible.

InStyle: What did you do afterwards?

ND: I met up with some friends and my husband and we went to the Boom Boom Room—it was so fun!

InStyle: How do you recover after event like this?

ND: Host of our biggest drop of the year, of course! Nap Dress Summer is here. This is such an exciting week.

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