The Met Gala, fashion’s biggest night of the year, has just taken place – a moment of frenzied anticipation as behind-the-scenes negotiations take place over which designer will have the honor of dressing which celebrity. given the hallowed Anna Wintour seal of approval) and the viewing audience gets to decide who complied with the dress code and who failed.
The 2024 theme felt loose, to say the least. A spin-off from the major costume exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, which this year explores the theme ‘Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion’ (comprising pieces spanning four centuries and in varying states of repair from the museum’s archives), celebrities were challenged to dress for Monday night’s gala according to a “Garden of Time” dress code, a title inspired by a JG Ballard short story of the same name.
With an unusual amount of freedom to play with, the resulting choices felt more disjointed than ever before.
Let’s take a look at the most notable looks:
Kim Kardashian in cardigan – with a controversial small waist
Kim Kardashian wore a strapless silver dress from Maison Margiela with a waist so impossibly small that it was reminiscent of the real Marilyn Monroe dress she wore to the same event in 2022. That design was so minuscule that she had an extreme diet and exercise regimen had to follow to fit into the situation. It.
Inevitably, the consternation on social media quickly increased. “Where did you put all your internal organs?” asked one commenter on Instagram. Certainly, it is worrying to see such influential figures promoting unattainable body standards, but this is what we have come to expect from La Kardashian.
What we never expected was that she would also become a vest influencer. “It’s the wildest night of my life in a garden and I just ran outside and threw on my boyfriend’s sweater… my hair is all messed up,” she explained of her ensemble, which was finished with some can only be described as a bolero or shrug. cardigan, an occasionwear item from the 1990s that we all thought belonged to fashion history. Maybe not?
Lauren Sánchez joins the fashion establishment
She’s the woman putting ‘filthy rich’ fashion on the map as the fiancée of Amazon founder and the world’s third richest man, Jeff Bezos, but Lauren Sánchez tried ‘something different’ for her first Met Gala after reportedly being wooed and was closely watched by Wintour in the run-up to the event.
Typically favoring a low-cut, sexy aesthetic, Sánchez relied on Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim, co-creative directors of Oscar de la Renta, for her dress, drawing on the label’s refined and luxurious design codes.
The black bustier with a skirt made of broken mirror glass is designed to reflect “a metaphor for life”. “It’s kind of about all your broken pieces in life and putting those pieces back together,” Sánchez said, adding that Bezos would be her best accessory of the evening.
Clandestine retrospective of John Galliano
This year’s exhibition was reportedly planned to focus on the work of John Galliano, the former Givenchy and Dior designer who fell from grace in 2010 after anti-Semitic rants and still works on the fringes of the industry at avant-garde label. House Margiela.
But those plans are said to have been shelved in favor of a less controversial theme. This didn’t stop Wintour (one of Galliano’s biggest cheerleaders who is said to be vying to return to a major fashion house) from designing countless red carpet tributes to her great friend, including Zendaya hitting the red carpet in two Galliano Houses. designed looks, one a custom Margiela dress and the other a Givenchy spring-summer 1996 creation from Galliano’s time at the house. Gwendoline Christie also paraded the red carpet in a look created by the designer for Margiela.
It is striking that Galliano himself did not appear on the red carpet, but did briefly pose with Kardashian.
Crispy packets, ice cubes and hourglasses as the new bags
Who needs a functional bag? Several attendees gave new meaning to the term “statement accessory” at this year’s gala. Singer Tyla paired her Balmain ‘sands of time’ dress (a sculpture) with an hourglass ‘bag’, while Camila Cabello wore a rose frozen in an ice block instead of a clutch.
Actor Michael Shannon also turned heads when he carried what looked like a packet of chips with cheese and onions, but was actually a supple leather bag designed by Balenciaga. The price tag? $1,850. So slightly more than the Walkers average.
The no-shows: from Rihanna to Blake Lively
From Rihanna in a sagging Chinese coat that shot to instant meme status to Beyoncé in sheer crystals and Katy Perry as a candelabra, the world’s biggest musical divas have delivered some of the biggest Met Gala-fueled water cooler moments.
With Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Blake Lively, Beyoncé and Perry all absent (despite fake images of Perry causing excitement early on), anyone looking for an iconic moment had to make do with Doja Cat leaving her hotel in a towel left and arrived. on the red carpet in an oversized, wet T-shirt or Tyla being carried up the museum stairs in her Balmain dress, which isn’t quite the same.
Flowers, groundbreaking?
As far as we know, Wintour never uttered the words: ‘Flowers? For spring? Groundbreaking.” That was Miranda Priestly, the editrix was said to be based on her in the book and the movie The devil wears Prada. And yet they always feel associated with her reputation for scathing criticism and exacting standards.
This year’s choice of theme may have been a playful nod to association or a daunting challenge for designers to do something truly groundbreaking with old-fashioned flowers. Wintour herself stepped up to the plate (or should I say flowerbed?) in a jacket adorned with floral motifs from Loewe, Sarah Jessica Parker opted for Richard Quinn’s crystals and lace floral patterns, Demi Moore looked spectacular in Harris Reed’s exaggerated print and Ayo Edebiri wore a dress with a beautiful flower meadow on the skirt.
Groundbreaking? Maybe not, but a reminder of the simple, timeless joy of a flower.