Every year on the first Monday in May, the Metropolitan Museum of Art hosts the Met Gala, a fundraiser for the museum’s Costume Institute, which houses some of history’s most culturally important clothing. The newest exhibit for the Met is Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, which focuses on clothes that are too delicate to ever be worn again. The dress code for the gala, however, is The Garden of Time, which is taken from a JD Ballard story about a rich couple trying to manipulate time to stop them from being apprehended by a mob of lower-class people. The Met Gala had 400 attendees in total this year, including some of your favorite celebrities.
Best Brand’s Night
Natasha Poonawalla in Maison Margiela (retrieved from Vogue India)
The brand known for its peculiarity, Loewe, was a sponsor of the event, and dressed 16 people in total, including Anna Wintour. However, it was John Galliano’s night. Galliano, convicted of a hate crime in 2011, was long excluded from the mainstream fashion industry, being fired by both Dior and his eponymous brand. He was hired by Maison Margiela in 2014, and just this spring released a collection that was both critically acclaimed and a viral hit (a rarity in the fashion industry). Maison Margiela dressed Gwendoline Christie, Bad Bunny, Zendaya, Kim Kardashian, and Adrien Brody, creating some of the most high-impact looks of the night.
Most Triumphant Return
Zendaya in Maison Margiela (retrieved from the Hollywood Reporter)
Zendaya has built herself a sterling reputation for being the most fashionable in the room, particularly when it comes to the Met Gala. However, the last time she attended the Met was in 2019, when the theme was Notes On Camp. This year, she was a co-host at the event and ultimately walked the (green) carpet in two different looks. The first was a Maison Margiela look with a peacock color scheme updated from a Dior spring 1999 couture show, according to WWD. The second was a vintage Givenchy (also designed by Galliano) along with a dramatic headpiece that evoked a bouquet.
Best Trend
Unconventional materials dominated the night. Balmain manipulated sand into fabric for her dress for Tyla, which relates to both themes as both the sands of time but since it was made out of the sand, it can only be worn once and was molded specifically to Tyla’s body. For other examples, the Balenciaga dress Naomi Watts wore used to be a tablecloth, Demi Moore’s dress was made out of vintage wallpaper, the bodice of Ariana Grande’s ethereal Loewe dress was constructed out of mother-of-pearl, Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s custom Gap ball gown was made out of denim, the wooden bodice of Taylor Russell’s Loewe dress and the florals in Lauren Sanchez’s Oscar de la Renta look were crafted from sewn-on broken glass, made to imitate flowers. Finally, Charli XCX’s dress was made from vintage T-shirts and wore a 1950s-inspired bullet bra to complete the look.
Best Headpiece
Lana del Rey in Alexander McQueen (retrieved from Tom and Lorenzo)
One of the most popular accessories this year was intriguing headwear. Lana del Rey certainly had the most striking look in a recreation of a 2006 Alexander McQueen look, according to Vogue. Additionally, Usher, Amanda Seyfried, Sarah Jessica Parker, Cara Delevingne, and of course, Zendaya all contributed to the trend.
Best Accessory
Camila Cabello in Ludovic de Saint Sernin (taken from Hollywood Life)
Camilla Cabello didn’t stop at a chainmail dress with subtle tears on the skirt but ended up accessorizing with a literal block of ice as a purse. The “purse” started as a copper rose which was then forced and encased in a block of ice. The way the ice will gradually melt over the night represents the natural degradation of clothing over time.
Most Noticeable Absence(s)
AI Katy Perry (retrieved from the New York Times)
The Queen of the Met Gala, Rihanna wasn’t able to attend the Met Gala after previously saying that she would due to her being sick with the flu, according to People. Katy Perry also didn’t make it, but that didn’t stop people from believing they were there due to AI likeness of what the two stars might have worn to the gala. Apparently, the pictures were so convincing that even Perry’s mother believed it!
Most Boring
Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky in Tom Ford (retrieved from Tom and Lorenzo)
Every year at the Met Gala, there’s always a contingent of people who don’t dress on the theme, which is especially confusing seeing as tickets are 75,000 dollars. Chris Hemsworth and his wife Elsa Pataky, were dressed by the brand Tom Ford. Ford (though he is not head designer of his eponymous brand anymore) has previously lamented the trend of the Met Gala becoming too grandiose, saying that the event had turned into a “costume party” and that galas of the past were “used to just be very chic people wearing very beautiful clothes going to an exhibition about the 18th century”.
Best Debut
Pamela Anderson in Oscar de la Renta (from the New York Times)
For Pamela Anderson’s first Met Gala, she opted for an ethereal Oscar de la Renta dress. The designers of de la Renta wanted the dress to look fairy-like. The beige chiffon dress was complete with feathers and off-center jewelry. She said, “I feel like everything has led me to this pinnacle moment where I get to be at the Met, being respected and accepted by Anna Wintour”.
Most Creative
Gigi Hadid in Thom Browne (retrieved from Harper’s Bazaar)
Both halves of Gigi Hadid’s dress evoked the past and the future of fashion, with old Hollywood glamor and mixing of feminine and masculine. Per Vanity Fair, the look was “comprised of two pieces: a sleek white figure-hugging column dress adorned with a single yellow rose, underneath the playful overskirt and train, which, if you look closely, is in the shape of a tuxedo jacket slipping down over the 29-year-old’s hips”. The dress has both rose motifs but it also unfurls like a petal down the train.
Most Period Piece
Chloë Sevigny in Dilara Fındıkoğlu (retrieved from Tom and Lorenzo)
Chloë Sevigny’s dress referenced both the JG Ballard story and also the exhibit of clothing degradation at once. According to Instyle, the dress itself is made from reused Victorian fabric. The Victoriana was completed by her hair, which is meant to resemble Victorian mourning portraits. Additionally, the petticoats were shown and revealed to be tattered.
Most Popular Garment
Kim Kardashian in Maison Margiela (retrieved from Glamour)
This year, the corset reigned supreme, and the traditional feminine style was worn by many, both men and women. Taylor Russell, Ariana Grande, and Bad Bunny all wore corsets, but as usual, it was Kim Kardashian who attracted the most controversy. During the Vogue Livestream, she seemed to hold a pilling sweater around her chest as if she was afraid the corset didn’t fit, but Kardashian said it’s meant to evoke getting dressed in a hurry. Additionally, the garment gained controversy because Kardashian’s waist was tightly cinched and critics accused her of perpetuating harmful beauty standards
Most Sculptural
Mindy Kaling in Gaurav Gupta Couture (from Tom and Lorenzo)
Mindy Kaling arrived at the Met in one of the most avant-garde designs of the night. Kaling’s dress incorporated both the Gala dress codes and the theme of the exhibit. She says that the dress is called The Melting Flower of Time, and from different perspectives, it could represent a flower at all stages of life. Depending on your view, it could be a flower bud, a fully formed flower, or, finally, a wilting flower.