Kanye West wore ripped jeans and a sparkly denim jacket to fashion's biggest event of the year

Kanye West is never one to play it safe or traditional.

But he really outdid himself on this year's Met Gala red carpet. The theme for the annual charity event, which supports the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was "Manus x Machina: Fashion In An Age Of Technology."

For Kanye, that apparently meant blue contacts, ripped jeans, and a sparkly metallic-looking denim jacket - all by his favorite fashion house, Balmain.

Let's say this first: as a whole, Kanye's outfit is not bad. It's adventurous, sure, but in that "he's taking risks and they're not all working" and not the "what a disaster" way.

Unfortunately for the "Life of Pablo" rapper, the Met Gala is a black-tie event. That means tuxedos, or since it's a relatively fashion-forward event, something that at least approximates it.

Last year at the gala Kanye did great with a black velvet number, and while we weren't quite sure what exactly to call the garment, it at least looked appropriate.

This year, it looks like Kanye forgot he was going to a black-tie event altogether and just showed up in something he might wear on the street.

What can you learn from this? That it doesn't matter how cool and fashion-forward your outfit is - if it's completely wrong for the event, it's just wrong. 

We're big fans of adhering to strict dress codes, and unfortunately Kanye's outfit just doesn't fit into the strict Met Gala guidelines.

If you're Kanye, you can get away with pretty much everything. But that doesn't mean you should.