What is the Met Gala?
The Met Gala is an annual fundraising event held for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York City.
Met Gala Theme 2024
Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion is the Costume Institute’s theme for their 2024 exhibition.
Met Gala 2024 Theme Explained
Approximately 250 pieces of fashion history are on display this spring in the Met, with some pieces dating back over 400 years.
Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, according to The Met, “will serve as… a vehicle to examine the cyclical themes of rebirth and renewal. The exhibition will breathe new life into these storied objects through creative and immersive activations designed to convey the smells, sounds, textures, and motions of garments that can no longer directly interact with the body.”
In an era where over-consumption is trendy and “more than 100 billion garments” [are produced] annually”, this thought-provoking theme seems to starkly contrast with how the fashion industry currently operates.
If a garment dating back over 400 years can still be of use in some capacity, why have we adopted the idea that fashion is ephemeral? Perhaps this is the question we should keep in mind as we view the museum’s four centuries worth of fashion history.
Met Gala 2024 Hosts
- Bad Bunny
- Chris Hemsworth
- Jennifer Lopez
- Zendaya
- Anna Wintour
Honorary 2024 Met Gala Chairs
- Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson
- TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew
Met Gala 2024 Dress Code
The 2024 Met Gala’s dress code is “The Garden of Time”. Many took this as a further play on the Sleeping Beauties theme. However, Vogue dismissed that rumor when they shared the true inspiration behind the Gala’s dress code.
The Garden of Time, a 1962 short story by J.G. Ballard, is to thank! Ballard’s story is a beautiful, thought-provoking piece on individualism, the inevitability of time, and the consequences of inaction.
Located in the “drab emptiness” of an “always dull and remote” plain, Count Axel and his wife reside in an ornate villa. Their lifestyle is lavish, yet the couple views it as normal- perhaps even mediocre. One night, during the Count’s evening stroll, he spots an army looming on the horizon.
The mob is full of angry working class men and women “in ragged uniforms… Some laboured under heavy loads suspended from crude yokes around their necks; others struggled with cumbersome wooden carts, their hands wrenching at the wheel spokes…” However, this scene causes Axel little alarm, so he continues on to the Villa’s garden.
There, he admires the “diamond brilliance” of the glass flowers. Despite noting how “many of the stems no longer bore flowers”, Axel decides to snap one off anyway to keep. Gradually, the flower begins to change and, with it, “dimensions of time and space.” The army has receded. The inevitable has been prolonged.
With eager encouragement from his wife, Axel makes a habit of picking a new flower each time the previous one’s effects wear off. Although “[both] of them knew that the garden was dying”, it did not deter them or prompt them to seek a better solution. Nor did the fact that the horizon became nearer than it previously had been each time the inevitable was delayed.
As the days pass, Axel grows conscious of his inattentive nature. He begins to notice how little he valued his lifestyle and the privilege it gives him. These realizations fail to spark any real change, though.
With the “vast concourse of labouring humanity” closing in on his villa, Axel begins “[taking] the flowers at random, refusing to count or ration them, plucking two or three of the smaller buds at the same time when necessary.”
It’s impossible to avoid the mob forever, though. The invasion begins and heavy tiles are soon hurled at their heads. Axel’s main priority throughout the calamity? To ensure his silk cravat remains straight.
“The ruin, formerly a spacious villa, barely interrupted the ceaseless tide of humanity.” In the end, Axel and his wife stand side by side, transformed as two stone statues, “gazing out over the grounds from their protected vantage point.”
Met Gala 2024 Dress Code Explained
The Garden of Time theme is meant to highlight “fleeting beauty”, according to Vogue. Guests can choose to focus on the ornate, lavish details from Ballard’s short story, or they can incorporate the story’s themes of decay and destruction into their red carpet looks.
While many celebrities will no doubt lean heavily into the “garden” aspect of the theme, other The Garden of Time correlated elements include:
- Avant-garde designs and accessories
- Elizabethan fashion
- Rococo style
- Crystals
- Translucent material
- Distressed and deconstructed looks
- Fire
- Stone
- Brocade fabric
Met Gala 2024 Predictions
Vogue announced in their 2024 Met Gala announcement that designs by Schiaparelli, Dior, and Givenchy will be featured throughout the exhibit. Other designers will be on display as well. However, those 3 fashion houses were name dropped specifically, so it’s probably safe to say we’ll see a few looks from them on the red carpet too.
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