This season’s trend for exorbitant spending habits that have spiralled wildly beyond your means has been conditionally approved – that is, if a recent red carpet appearance by cultural bellwether Poppy Delevingne is anything to go by. The model-turned-actress, who was unforgettable in her star turn as ‘Huki Muki Attendee’ in Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (2016), made quite the impression at the National Gallery of Victoria’s second annual NGV Gala in a look that is nothing short of superlative.

Staged this weekend on occasion of the launch of the world-premiere exhibition, Escher x nendo I Between Two Worlds, the first major Australian exhibition to feature more than 160 works by the Dutch artist M.C. Escher in dialogue with the work of acclaimed Japanese design studio, nendo, the NGV Gala festivities were buoyed by some major red carpet chutzpah, lead by none other than the eldest Delevingne sheathed in a dazzling feat of #spon content.

“Thank you for making a princess out of me,” Delevingne wrote of her custom gown on Instagram. “(I was a bona fide heap when I arrived)”. Well, same.

Looking every bit like the American Express Platinum Card that the gown’s designer Paolo Sebastian was inspired by, Delevingne made a convincing case for dressing to one’s credit if ever there were one. Also there, fresh from her appearance at a Melbourne Demons AFL training session on Wednesday, Natalie Portman wore an understated dusky pink draped and pleated dress from the Autumn-Winter 2018-2019 Dior Haute Couture collection; and the evening’s entertainment, Troye Sivan, cut a voluminous figure in Valentino. We continue to stan.

Escher X nendo | Between Two Worlds will be on display until April 7, 2019, at NGV International.

Tile and cover image: Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images for American Express courtesy of the National Gallery of Victoria