Kim Kardashian’s tangerine-colored Met Gala look was a true piece of wearable pop art. She wore a custom fiberglass breastplate designed by iconic British artist Allen Jones in collaboration with the design team Whitaker Malem…

At Monday’s Met Gala, it inevitably fell to Kim Kardashian to deliver the evening’s biggest jolt. One ofthe few celebrities to straightforwardly interpret the “fashion is art” dress code – which focused on how the dressed and undressed human body is the through-line in most works of art – she decided to forgo her usual role as a walking billboard for a major fashion house and instead arrived in an orange fibreglass breastplate created by a small east London art duo and a car bodyshop in Kent.

Good art should start conversation, and Kim did exactly that,” says 61-year-old Patrick Whitaker, half of the design practice Whitaker Malem, who made the breastplate just weeks before the gala. “She was very clear on wanting a breastplate, very clear on the car body finish. And I think she was nervous really. She understands the competition.”

She also found out from Anna Wintour that five other people were wearing breastplates, including her half-sisters, Kylie and Kendall Jenner. Soft armour and pert nipples might have been the themes of the night, but for someone that famous, says Whitaker, it’s still a risky proposition to wear it.

Speaking at the home he shares with his partner, Keir Malem, 60, the duo are still recovering from watching the gala live. “We went to bed at 5am. It’s surprisingly tedious, isn’t it? A bit Hunger Games,” says Whitaker.