The Fashion Super Bowl is Here
The Met Gala has helped make fashion into mass entertainment. And that's all good.
There are very few moments in culture today when we can sit down and all enjoy the same thing. At any given time, what you are watching on Netflix is not what I’m watching; my Instagram algorithm is different from yours. Live sport, the Eurovision song contest and the odd event like Glastonbury bring us together, but these celebratory moments are rare. When they do come, they are joyous: we lay our differences aside and all start talking to each other about the same thing.
Fashion’s version of this is the Met Gala. Say what you like about ‘Anna’ (and everyone does), she has turned red carpet glamour into content gold. Carefully curated celebrities (who’s in? who’s out?), bizarre themes (we’ll come to that in a minute), and theatrical costumes have turned the Met Gala into something way bigger than any catwalk or awards show. And today is the day! (Well actually it was last night NY ime, but today is the day we all get to dissect it).
The Met Gala dress theme for 2024 is The Garden of Time, a title drawn from a short story written by JG Ballard in 1962. The story details the attempts of a super rich couple holed up in Arcadian splendour, trying to hold back the hordes of marauding masses who are approaching in the distance, intent on invasion. Each flower in the rich couple’s garden slows their approach when picked, but there aren’t enough flowers to delay them forever. Either the Met have a great degree of insight into what’s going on in our fractured society, as the wealth divide splits us ever wider, or the irony is entirely lost on them. If indeed the irony is lost, then it’s as tone deaf as the Gilded Glamour dress code prescribed in 2022 as we were all emerging from Covid, or even last year’s Karl Lagerfeld retrospective, whose complicated views on women, size and race are not exactly fashionable right now. If you want to know more about this year’s theme, BBC Culture have an excellent piece here. Added to that the sponsor this year is Tiktok - timely, considering the US Government have given the Chinese social media app a deadline to divest themselves of ownership or get the **** out of America.
But all this is good fun and frankly, just adds to the gossip. What’s this got to do with sustainability you ask? Well I hope it helps cement fashion as an integral part of our culture, both in its most highbrow form, (the exhibition being celebrated is The Costume Institute's Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, and it is by all accounts an extraordinary display of ephemeral lost pieces from the Museum’s own fabulous archive), and in it’s mass appeal.
went to the press preview yesterday morning and posted this quick whip through the show on her Instagram - honestly, it looks beautiful.So as all your feeds light up today with gloriously inventive, extraordinary, ridiculous and beautiful outfits from last night’s Gala, here are my favourites. Please do tell me yours.
Zendaya was a Met Ball host, and should have been wearing Loewe (the event sponsor) but instead went for this Galliano dress. Apparently Anna wanted the exhibition to be a Galliano retrospective, but that was deemed too controversial. So she has hijacked the night by dressing most celebs in it. Zendaya looks like a Shakespearean fairy from a Midsummer Night’s Dream. Spot on.
J-Lo doing J-Lo in something sparkly and basically nude. Still, she looks incredible and is wearing the other hot fashion ticket of the moment: Schiaparelli. It’s right that this red carpet isn’t just bought by all the obvious Kering LVMH juggernauts. Apparently there was a no show from both Gucci and Louis Vuitton, who both refused to buy tables. Why? Too expensive? A power play? Who knows…
Poor old Rita gets the fail of the night, with general agreement that she is wearing something that looks like the backroom bead curtain in a corner store. But if you’re Rita Ora you don’t mind - being talked about is your number one job! Also if anyone else misses the days of Marni under founder Consuela Castiglioni, when it was all abstract and directional yet essentially female powered, form an orderly queue. Marni just feels like a mess these days.
Lana wore the label that should win all the dark fairytale awards, with a Narnia inspired woodland nymph vibe. Although his debut collection for McQueen was roundly trashed, designer Sean McGirr has at least promised to bring the darkness back. And there’s definitely room for that.
Sorry but I loved Kim’s look. Kim was once anti-fashion fashion, but the ironic embrace of Balenciaga when it was cool converted us. Now she just looks ethereally beautifully in silver lace and jersey, her face and body as iconic of the 21st century as Marilyn’s once was of the mid 20th.
It’s Lauren who has taken over Kim’s mantle of most gauche fashion crasher. Her very available cleavage has caused much hilarity since she was elevated into the spotlight by Bezos, who left his wife for her. Apparently Anna has stepped in to try and lend some chic, and I think she strikes the right cord here. Not sure what this says about Oscar de la Renta though. Any port in a billionaire’s storm? Though someone needs to tell her she has put too much plastic in her face, (poor Lauren, I can would imagine keeping Jeff’s interest is a high pressure job). Apparently Anna is trying to persuade Bezos to buy Condé Nast. Now that would definitely provide Lauren with an interesting playground.
I don’t know why, but this look reminds me of Posh and Becks in their purple wedding outfits. Very hard to pull of his n’ hers and look cool, but maybe that’s not the idea. Either way these two have thrown a new designer into the spotlight, the Brit Steve O’Smith. Welcome, Steve!
I think this is one of my favourites. It’s a proper ball gown (took several puffers to get her up the stairs), and the old school glamour of her hair and make up is perfect. Browne is the boyfriend of Andrew Bolton, the long suffering curator of the Metropolitan who has to design this high stakes Gala every year with Anna. As The Garden of Time dress theme seemed to be an entirely different concept from the show, Sleeping Beauties, this created some confusion. Apparently Anna had to go on NBC to apologise. I wonder how that one played out in the Whatsapp chat?
Happy fashion day everyone, and don’t forget to hop over to Vogue.com to enjoy lots more.
Tiff
I also liked Zendaya’s dress feeling it was on theme. Just love her. I also find something appealing about Mindy Kaling’s dress. The color was a bit safe, but I loved the swirls and drama.