OPINION: The political is personal, even for the rich and famous with enough status to garner an invite to Vogue editor Anna Wintour’s annual Met Gala.
Long before some 600 celebrities began arriving on the steps of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art in their glitz on Tuesday morning (NZT), this year’s theme of “gilded glamour and white tie” wasn’t sitting well.
The theme pays homage to period of American prosperity, industrialisation and growth from 1870 to 1890, a period which couldn’t be further from most peoples’ post-Covid reality.
It prompted slogans, tributes, and a healthy dose of historical reflection from some members in the modern cult of celebrity.
(Meanwhile, billionaire Elon Musk simply showed up to say that his pending US$46.5 billion (NZD$69 billion) purchase of Twitter will make it “more inclusive”. Yeah, right.)
New York Mayor Eric Adams, who had said he’d been “dying to go” to the fundraiser for years, arrived wearing a jacket with decorative forearms and lapels that paid homage to the New York transit system. The back of his coat read “End Gun Violence” in red lettering.
Singer Alicia Keys wore a cape celebrating New York union history.
The theme of the exhibition that the Met Gala officially opens is “In America”, so it was fitting then to have former first lady, secretary of state and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in attendance. Clinton wore a red gown by designer Joseph Altuzarra.
She explained that her dress was hand embroidered with the names of “gutsy” American women of the 19th and 20th century liberation movements, including Abigail Adams, Harriet Tubman and Eleanor Roosevelt.
"I think we're all happy to be back together, supporting the museum and the Costume Institute - and also celebrating not just the fashion, but the spirit of America," Clinton told Vogue hosts on the red carpet.
One of hosts was World of Interiors editor Hamish Bowles. He took time to say “tonight our hearts are with the people of Ukraine and the victims of war and displacement around the world”.
Condé Nast, Vogue’s publication company and major event sponsor, had made a donation to the Red Cross, he said, and encouraged “those who can to do so as well”.
While most Gala attendees donned ruffles, beads, pearls and an air of Old Hollywood glamour, British-Pakistani actor and musician Riz Ahmed arrived in an understated silk shirt and undershirt.
He topped these off with a shoelace belt and Cartier necklace, saying “this is an homage to the immigrant workers who kept the Gilded Age going”.
The Oscar winner’s ensemble pointed out the reality of the Gilded Age – a time in American history when rapid economic growth benefited a wealthy few, while leading to rampant exploitation for the majority of immigrant workers, particularly immigrants of colour.
Met Gala veteran Sarah Jessica Parker took a similar but subtler approach, employing designer Christopher John Rogers to recreate a dress by Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley, the first Black female fashion designer in the White House.
Hobbs Keckley was a former slave who moved from Virginia to Washington DC in 1860 and went on to become the official dressmaker to first lady Mary Todd Lincoln.
“The idea was to highlight the dichotomy between the extravagant, over-the-top proportions of the time period, and the disparity that was happening in America at the time,” Rogers told Vogue.
If only Wintour had acknowledged the dichotomy between the extravagant wealth of her guests, and their messages.
Meanwhile, singers Billie Eilish and Camila Cabello interpreted the industrial revolution as a springboard to speak on climate crisis.
Eilish wore a custom Gucci corseted gown, that was made entirely with upcycled materials – “so we didn't have to waste a bunch of stuff.”
“I just wanted to be as eco-friendly as possible,” she said.
Cabello rocked up in “completely upcycled” white gown because “Gilded Age is irony,” she said. “The age of industrialism and materialism has got us into a climate crisis."
It would be a gross undersell to say Kim Kardashian’s dress is vintage. But well... talk about re-cycling.
She wore Marilyn Monroe’s ‘Happy Birthday Mr President’ dress for mere minutes, after going on a strict diet for weeks to squeeze into the sheer crystal number. Then she deftly changed into a replica of what she called “the original naked dress”.
Kardashian’s nod to history and progression of women who are considered sex symbols came as news surfaced that the US Supreme Court has provisionally voted to overturn Roe v Wade, the landmark ruling that legalised nationwide abortion in the US.
This story was originally published on Stuff
