The first Monday in May is almost upon us, with fashion’s biggest event, the Met Gala, set to take place in New York next week. What to know ahead of the red carpet and party, with the theme of gilded glamour? Here’s your fashion nerd history lesson.
What’s the Met Gala?
It’s a celebration, and a showcase of fashion, celebrity, art and history.
Of course there’s a bit more to it than that… For a more in-depth answer, let me quote myself from last year’s Met Gala explainer:
The Met Gala - or ball as it’s also sometimes known, and the Costume Institute Benefit as it is officially called - is a glamorous annual event held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, acting as both a fundraiser for the museum’s Costume Institute and the official opening of its fashion exhibition.
The first gala was held in 1948 and typically hosted wealthy New York society. In 1973, legendary fashion editor Diana Vreeland took over at the Costume Institute and revamped the gala to invite celebrities and introduce yearly themes. Since 1995 Vogue editor Anna Wintour has been chairwoman of the event, with huge power over its invite list and themes.
It is a huge event, with the red carpet covered globally - but it is also a massive fundraiser for the museum and the primary source of funding for the fashion department. People, or companies, are able to buy tables (reported to be US$200,000 to $300,000; though it is invite-only), while high-profile brands vie to be the sponsor for the event (recent sponsors have included Instagram, Gucci, Apple, Versace, Louis Vuitton and H&M). In 2019, it raised more than $13 million.
Largely considered to be one of the biggest fashion red carpet and social events, it has been described as the fashion industry’s version of the Oscars.
The red carpet is typically more exciting and creative than other red carpets with various instantly iconic moments as celebrities have stepped onto the red carpet: Rihanna in 2015 in a yellow gown by Guo Pei with its 16 foot train, and Lady Gaga’s fashion as performance art arrival in 2019 where she unveiled four outfits as she entered.
Last year’s Gala saw other iconic ensembles added to the list: ASAP Rocky’s quilt, and congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s dress embroidered with the words ‘Tax the Rich’.
Some found it hypocritical to criticise wealth inequality at an event with an obscene ticket price of around $30,000 USD; others found it heroic to directly and publicly criticise wealth inequality at an event with the eyes of the Western world on it (I sat somewhere between the two).
READ MORE: The most fabulous red carpet looks from the 2021 Met Gala
So why are we doing this?
The glamorous gala precedes the opening of the exhibition, and this year’s is In America: An Anthology of Fashion. It’s also the second part of last year’s exhibition In America: A Lexicon of Fashion which opened in September and explores changing American identity through design.
This new exhibition takes on similar themes, and will see fashion garments and ensembles from the eighteenth century to today displayed in period rooms and mise-en-scènes designed by nine American film directors including - squeal! - Janicza Bravo (Zola), Autumn de Wilde (Emma), Chloé Zhao (Nomadland) and Sofia Coppola (The Virgin Suicides, etc).
When is it?
The first Monday in May is the official date (and also the name of the documentary, released in 2016). After the event was cancelled in 2020 and postponed to September in 2021, this year harks back to tradition with the gala to be held on Monday May 2 in New York.
For those watching at home in Aotearoa, aka us, the red carpet generally starts at around 9.30am on Tuesday May 3.
Who’ll be there?
As always the guest list is a secret until the day of, but you can often guess which celebrities will be there based on album or film releases, or contracts with luxury fashion brands.
Those that we know will attend include 2022 Gala hosts Regina King, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and husband and wife Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds (whose unique take on the ‘In America’ theme was marrying on a former slave plantation in 2012; he apologised in 2020). The honorary co-chairs are once again Tom Ford, Instagram’s Adam Mosseri, and Anna Wintour.
We know that Kim Kardashian will be there as she talked about ‘fitting’ into her outfit in an interview at The Kardashians premiere earlier this month. There’s plenty of social media buzz - or manifestation - that she will attend hand in hand with beau Pete Davidson.
Newly engaged Bennifer will likely use it as a promo opportunity, as will newly married rich kids Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz. Harry Styles will release his new album later in the month and Lizzo in early July, so will both likely be there.
Lorde is set to perform in Portland on May 1, so likely won’t. Adele has never attended; maybe this will be her year. And Rihanna just appeared on the cover of Vogue’s May issue, generally a confirmation of Met Gala attendance (although we don’t know when she’s due to give birth).
Here’s who I hope is there: SNL comedians Bowen Yang and Aidy Bryant, Sarah Jessica Parker, the Olsens, Lady Gaga, Julia Fox, Britney Spears, Michelle Yeoh, Drew Barrymore, Kirsten Dunst (in Rodarte please), Maya Rudolph (in another Valentino caftan please), Rose Matafeo (she’d be a perfect Gucci muse).
What will they wear?
The red carpet is supposed to reflect the exhibition that’s being officially opened by the Gala, with a dress code decreed by Ms. Wintour. A lot of work goes into creating these looks, and it has become one of the key regular red carpet moments for many celebrities, alongside the Oscars and so on.
The best looks are always those that reference the broader themes, whether through subtle designer choice or an unexpected interpretation of the exhibition’s themes - and they’re fashion not costume.
Sometimes, guests fail miserably; 2019’s camp theme is widely considered to be the worst Met Gala red carpet ever, with most taking the theme too literally or theatrical (Lady Gaga being one of the few who got it right; Karlie Kloss becoming a meme).
The official dress code for this year’s Gala as ‘gilded glamour, white tie’, which some are saying is Wintour’s response to attempt to bring some old fashioned elegance back to the red carpet after years of theatrics.
It also seems timely given the popularity of period dramas like Bridgerton (actually set in the Regency era) and The Gilded Age. Expect ballgowns galore, traditional suiting, feathers, jewellery, corsets and bodices and opera gloves.
There has already been some criticism of the theme. The gilded age, from 1870 to 1890, was one of excess, socialites and ostentatious displays of wealth; it was also a time of extreme inequality and poverty for those who weren’t part of the privileged few.
It’s certainly an interesting choice following AOC’s Tax the Rich message last year, although someone smart could make a comment through clothing on how the two ages - gilded and social media - are, in many ways, symbiotic.
Hold on, can we go back to who’ll be there - or who should be attending?
With pleasure! The invite list for the Met Gala has been changing in recent years, with more and more content creators and influencers attending alongside mainstream celebrities.
That reflects media’s evolution in general, but it also coincides with the ‘mainstreaming’ of the Met Gala, which has gone from a relatively niche New York fashion insider event to a global juggernaut that’s covered and followed extensively by traditional media outlets and on social media.
And, of course, it reflects fashion’s wider push to become more inclusive - something that could be seen as at odds with the entire premise of the very exclusive Met Gala. They’ve tried to improve this in recent years by having live-streamed red carpet interviews, providing ‘access for all’, and having a more diverse guest list. But it seems there are limits to that.
On TikTok - a platform with ever-growing influence on fashion and media - the phrase “Met Gala behaviour” was born, created by Devin Halbal.
Also known as ‘Hal Baddie’, the content creator used it as a way to describe an attitude of confidence and fantasy with fashion, largely for trans people (or dolls, as Halbal and some in the queer community say).
Many of Halbal’s fans have been campaigning for her to attend and bring some Met Gala behaviour to the Met Gala, but recently Halbal shared on Instagram their frustration at not being considered or welcomed (they have since deleted the posts - hopefully a sign that they will be attending).
“Part of me wonders if I was a cis woman who invented the term, maybe a designer would’ve reached out to design something for me already?” they wrote.
“If I’m not “A List” enough to be at The MET Gala, then A list celebrities should NOT say “MET Gala Behavior” at the function. The creator of that phrase is ME, and for any celebrity to say it OR use it as their Instagram caption without me being there is an ERASURE of the artist!!!! PERIODT.”
In another post, Halbal wrote: “Why do these institutions feel ENTITLED and so comfortable gatekeeping fashion. What makes certain people “allowed” to enter spaces meanwhile others cannot??? That is classism, privilege, elitism and EXCLUSION.
“FASHION IS FOR EVERYONE and therefore should be accessible to everyone— not just very wealthy people!!! Classism is INHERENTLY VIOLENT!!! The world does not care about the dreams of young, POOR black and brown TRANS people. (EMPHASIS on TRANS PEOPLE).”
They have a point! And following actor Indya Moore’s comments last year on the ‘cognitive dissonance’ of attending the Met Gala as BLM protestors were arrested outside and millions are raised for a museum “on stolen land that black and brown people suffer on unless white supremacy thinks they are exceptional”, it seems these conversations are fortunately only going to become more common.
Yes! So what else happened last year?
The last Met Gala was actually only eight months ago, but, what is time these days... Here are a few things that happened last time, in case you already forgot:
• Keke Palmer co-hosted the Vogue livestream and uttered the best line of the night that quickly became a meme: “you know it’s your girrrrrrl”.
• Kim Kardashian turned up as a Balenciaga shadow.
• Rihanna and ASAP Rocky turned up late and won the red carpet.
• Valentino creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli once again had the best dates of the evening, attending with and dressing Whoopi Goldberg and Carey Mulligan.
• AOC enraged the right (and some of the left) in her Tax the Rich gown.
• Bennifer kissed with their masks on, and it was weird!
• Nicki Minaj tweeted about the vaccine mandate and her cousin’s friend’s swollen testicles and other misinformation. And it was weird!
