Alysa Liu surveyed the glittery crowd arrayed in front of her, sipping cocktails and chatting. It was her first Met Gala, and she hesitated for a second, searching for a word to describe it.
“It’s … BIG,” the Olympic gold medalist finally said with a grin.
But what Liu, dressed in a blood-red custom Louis Vuitton gown with a full skirt and huge ruffles, couldn’t quite get was how big SHE had become. Even at a party full of very, very famous people, everyone wanted to greet her.
“I don’t know what to expect,” Liu, who was announced as a Louis Vuitton ambassador on Monday morning, said in one interview. “It’s kind of secretive around here.”
Liu was asked by Teen Vogue whom she was excited to potentially meet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual exclusive fundraiser on Fifth Avenue in New York City.
“They said Beyonce, Rihanna, are they really both gonna be here?” Liu said.
Liu was among several Olympians in attendance, including fellow Milan Cortina Games gold medalist Eileen Gu, who wore a dress adorned with 15,000 glass bubbles.
Some Met Gala guests have been famous for many years. Others have achieved fame with dizzying speed. For Liu, all it took was a gold-medal performance that charmed the whole world.
“Everybody recognizes me!” she said, with genuine surprise, of the crowd packed into the airy Charles Engelhard Court. “It’s crazy. Imagine that overnight, suddenly everyone knows who you are!”
And then Liu was off, soon to be spotted laughing with Connor Storrie of “Heated Rivalry,” another star of the night who also arrived from an ice rink.
“I wanted to draw inspiration from the “Body” theme of the Met Exhibit— it’s perfect because Alysa exists in the intersection of athleticism and art! Our LV look is a “dissected”dress— it’s meant to recall a cross section of the human body or a cell. The ruffles have an… pic.twitter.com/SCRvBhm846
— Up Next (@upnextdesigner) May 4, 2026
