Q&A: Suki Waterhouse on Wearing Combat Boots to the Met Ball

Still high on the afterglow of Monday night’s Met Ball, Suki Waterhouse cozied up on a banquette at Lafayette last night at the Burberry/W Magazine dinner to celebrate New Museum artists. (Naomi Campbell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Lily Donaldson were also present.) She talked to the Cut about red-carpet anxiety, sporting a blanket as a coat, and wearing combat boots to the Met Ball.

You were just at the Met Ball, and you wore Burberry, that great dress with all the tulle layers. Is that something Christopher Bailey picked out for you?
He gave me a bunch of options. I chose one. I changed the neckline on it. I didn’t really know what it was going to look like, actually.

You changed the neckline to strapless?
Yeah, to a bodice. I wanted pink in it. I love that pale pink, so I wanted a little bit of that in it. And then I left it up to them, and then didn’t really see it until three days before. It’s kind of scary actually. And then I saw it, and I remember walking in and seeing it and we were just all like, Ahhh! They just did such an amazing job. It’s one of those things where you don’t really know what it’s going to be like, and then it’s fucking amazing. So high-five, Burberry.

And there was a photo you posted on Instagram where you were wearing combat boots under the dress.
I was wearing my boots that I’ve had since I was 16.

Just to be comfortable under the dress?
Just for height.

What’s it like inside the Met Ball? What’s the atmosphere there like?
Actually very relaxed. Not actually how you’d expect.

Is it weird being in a museum and being at a party simultaneously?
It was very atmospheric actually, and beautiful. I felt like I was at a very special occasion. Getting ready I felt like it was my wedding a tiny bit.

A fashion wedding.
You go up the stairs, and it’s very quiet, and you walk through and there are there are girls standing on the side and the beautiful dresses in the exhibition.

But it’s really frenetic outside on the red carpet. Are people screaming?
No, it wasn’t for me because I got there so early. I was one of the first to arrive. So it was empty. So it was actually…I want to do that if I ever do it again. Go early.

Just get it over with.
If there’s like fucking five people on the carpet, they’re like, Ahhh! And then people get thrown out the way like, [mimes shoving] Get out of the way!

At the Burberry show in London in February, all the models got monogrammed blankets. Have you kept yours? 
I was wearing it today. It’s pretty good, actually, as an alternative to a coat.