How Kent garage helped Kim Kardashian with her 2026 Met Gala look

The 2026 Met Gala saw the debut of an unusual new fashion house - an auto repair garage in Kent. MPS Body & Paint painted an orange fibreglass breastplate that Kim Kardashian wore to the New York event, considered the biggest night in fashion. The bodyshop, in Lydd, was called on after its previous work on a car for Keir Malem and Patrick Whitaker, who created the outfit with pop artist Allen Jones. "I'd repaired and painted their car for them," said MPS owner Martyn Smith. "They turned up here one day, asked me if I would basically paint this." He told the BBC he was "guessing" who it was for, but was only told when the designers came to collect it and then "sworn to secrecy". Smith said: "I had 24 hours to do it in and it meant I had to drop some work to do it, but I thought what an honour and a pleasure, as well as a job, to do it." According to the artists, known together as Whitaker Malem, the breastplate was moulded from Jones's 1969 sculpture Hatstand, with the 88-year-old artist painting the attached leather skirt. They said Kardashian travelled to England twice to develop the item and have it fitted, with it taking three weeks to complete. Malem, himself originally from Ly