The Met Gala, known universally as the biggest night in the fashion calendar, made another appearance this year. This prestigious event showcases the most outlandish and extravagant of designs from fashion designers from across the globe; it is truly a spectacle.
This year’s Met Gala was the 76th annual gala, held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute in Manhattan and run by Vogue, headed by Anna Wintour. It is held to raise money for the museum and to showcase the diverse and versatile nature of art and fashion in the modern culture. The original Met gala was only $50 each to attend, compared to the astonishing $75,000 fee to attend this year’s celebration of art.
Each year, the dress code for the event is drawn from the exhibition that the museum is holding that season. This year the exhibition is titled “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” and the dress code was themed around “The Garden of Time” a short story by J.G. Ballard.
So let’s dive into the celebrities that embraced the theme and executed it with utter perfection and those that just missed the mark this time.
CO-CHAIRS
Zendaya & Jennifer Lopez
Wow, just wow. Zendaya both opened and closed the Met Gala this year, being the first and last celebrity to face the plethora of paparazzi on the infamous stairs. She embodies both a green and blue dress that overflowed with detail and hints to this year’s theme, as well as a darker, more sophisticated long-trained black dress with flowered headdress, designed by John Galliano back in 1996 for Givenchy. She clearly understood this year’s theme with the transition of bright to dark in her outfits, just like the progression of Ballard’s story.
J.Lo took on and intricate and fragile design at this year’s gala, a dress that took a whopping 800 hours to construct. It shows the intricacies of time and nature, hitting this year’s brief on point.
Chris Hemsworth & Bad Bunny
The final two co-chair this year were the actor Chris Hemsworth and the rapper Bad Bunny. Chris Hemsworth’s outfit was underwhelming, a plain suit with open shirt. At least it wasn’t just a plain black one like most of the males wore. However, Bad Bunny was more on point with this year’s theme showing the ideas of despair and falling apart at the seams.
SMASH HITS
Tyla & Alia Bhatt
Alia Bhatt showcased a gorgeous saree at this year’s Met Gala; the first saree seen on the Met Gala carpet in the event’s history. This beautiful garment was topped off with addition of a 23-foot train that was all hand embroidered with ornate floral patterns and flowers. This work of art perfectly resembles the theme of “Garden of Time” as it shows the detail and extent of time. This also highlights the work and dedication that makes up the fashion industry and the time that is put into flawless looks like this one.
Tyla’s dress was one of the biggest talking points of the whole evening. The dress was sculpted to perfectly fit her structure and was textured to resemble sand. It is truly as work of fashion genius and innovative art. She also showed extreme dedication to the craft because she was carried up the stairs as the dress was too stiff and brittle for her to move herself. Alongside the dress, she accessorised with a glass, sand timer clutch purse. This perfectly hinted at the theme of time passing and running out of our most precious resource – time – all of which are prominent ideas in Ballard’s short story.
NEAR MISSES
Kim Kardashian & Cara Delevingne
Kim is known to stray from the brief but this year her look was further than most. The dress was made of industrial-style and harsh metal flowers that didn’t convey the beauty of nature or the concept of time. Her felt jumper also feel like an add-on, not fully thought through or maybe to cover up damage, like on the Marilyn Monroe dress she wore in 2022’s Met Gala.
Cara Delevingne’s outfit was questionable, showing no sign of staying on theme or even trying to. She adorned a chain mail-like crystal headdress/top and a plain white skirt. There was no link to a garden, nature or time. There wasn’t even a link to the overarching theme of Reawakening fashion apart from the fact that it looks like she’s travelled back to the time of King Arthur.
SEEING DOUBLE?
Lea Michele, Rachel Zegler and Naomi Campbell all walked the carpet in a very similar light blue dress, simple and form fitting. Two of them even accessorised with a long ruffed cape, making them even more similar. None of these dresses were bad but they weren’t unique and didn’t celebrate the freedom of expression in fashion.
Pictured: Jonnathan Groff, Steven Yeun & Damian Idris
Every year, there are some people who look like they didn’t try or at least they didn’t try as hard as they should for the Met Gala. This year they consisted of these men, and some others but these took the cake. They all came wearing a plain, dark (most just black) suit. Some of them are interesting in shape but it doesn’t make up for the blandness and boringness of their outfits. They didn’t show creativity unlike some of the other men below who showed these guys up, big time.
Pictured: Jonathan Bailey, Eddie Redmayne and Lil Nas X
There's your run down of the 2024 Met Gala - bring on next year!
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