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The Met Gala: the party of the year
from Fall issue 2021
by The Issue
The MET Gala: Party of the Year
Floor heldens Current Affairs
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This year’s Met Gala was highly anticipated after the postponing of last year’s gala due to Covid-19. So, when the first pictures of the celebrities’ outfits were posted online, social media was quick to point out that most looks didn’t correlate very well or were not creative with the theme: ‘In America: A Lexicon of Fashion’. Previous years, celebrities have come out with the most innovative and futuristic looks related to the theme. If this year was disappointing, which years weren’t in terms of looks and/or themes? And since it has been around for years, how did it start?
Today, the Met Gala is a cultural phenomenon and one of the most well- known red carpet events. However, that’s not entirely how it all started in 1948. The gala originates from the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. This institute is the only part of the museum that has to fund itself. As a way to fund the institute, Eleanor Lambert, who’s also the creator of the New York Fashion Week, started a benefit. The benefit entailed a midnight dinner and, of course, a gala. Although it was immediately advertised as ‘Party of the Year’, it wasn’t as grand and glamorous as we know it today. The guests were mainly members of New York high society, and it was seen as one of the many fundraising galas they attended. In 1972 this changed however, when the new consultant of the Costume Institute became Diana Vreeland, the old editor-in-chief of American Vogue. She wanted the gala to advertise the exhibitions of the museum, but in order to do that, she needed more publicity. She cleverly started inviting generally wellknown people to co-chair the event and moved the gala. Meaning for the first time, it was actually at the museum. Not only was the gala at the museum for the first time, themes that correlated to the exhibition were also introduced by Vreeland. Because of Vreeland the gala started changing into more of a social event and party rather than any other benefit, becoming more like the Met Gala we know today. Unfortunately, in 1989 Vreeland passed away, with socialite Pat Buckley now taking over her position as consultant. She was responsible for creating the lavish afterparties.
In 1995, Anna Wintour replaced Buckley and shook things up even more. Wintour was known for changing Vogue and diversifying their magazine, reflecting in the new and improved guestlist. The guestlist had and still has guests who push boundaries in fashion, entertainment, and politics. Under Wintour the performances of the gala also improved, with surprise performances by major stars like Rihanna and Madonna. Wintour also introduced the legendary date for the Met: the fifth of May. The gala was moved to spring 2001 after the death of the institute’s curator in 1999. The change in date resulted in a change of the gala itself, the fashion could be lighter, and it wouldn’t be as crowded with other social events, making the gala even more special. The Met Gala is popular for its amazing looks. Every year its looks are talked about all over social media. This year Kim Kardashian’s all black outfit was the inspiration for many internet jokes. Other looks that stood out this year were Nikkie de Jager’s Marsha P. Johnson inspired look and Lil Nas X’s three-part look, going from a big gold cape to a golden harness and ending in a gold and black body suit. Some say X ‘pulled a Gaga’, referring to Lady Gaga’s four- part look at the Met Gala in 2019. This goes to show how influential Met Gala looks can be, and how they are still remembered. Memorable outfits that have graced the red carpet, for instance, are Rihanna’s take on 2015’s “China Through the Looking Glass”, an enormous and breathtaking yellow robe by Chinese designer Guo Pei, Zendaya’s Joan of Arc inspired look for “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination”, Madonna wearing her infamous blazer look in 2013 for “Punk” and even Jared Leto’s look which included him holding a replica of his own head for 2019’s “Camp”. However, outstanding looks are often bound to a good theme. For example, in 2014 masculine dressing guests had a hard time dressing themselves appropriately “Charles James: Beyond Fashion”, because James is a dress designer. As you can imagine, the outfits that year weren’t very outrageous or miscellaneous, when guests either wore some variety of a dress or tuxedo. Creative themes lead to creative looks, like in 2019, when guests showed up in creative and unconventional outfits for the theme “Camp: Notes on Fashion”. Examples are the previous mentioned looks from Lady Gaga and Jared Leto, Darren Criss’s look with make-up and an extravagant and campy top, Billy Porter’s gold feathered outfit and Ezra Miller’s multi eye look. Other successful themes were 2013s Punk theme, 2016s technology inspired theme, that had iconic outfits from, for example, Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian, with her then husband, Kanye West. 2004s 18th century inspired theme had guests dressing à la Marie Antoinette.
The Met Gala has grown to be a cultural phenomenon thanks to Diana Vreeland and Anna Wintour, who’ve made the gala a real party and extraordinary event. It has been around for ages, yet every fifth of May we are all curiously waiting to see who’s invited and what they’re wearing. We even remember some of those outfits, either because they were extraordinary or because they were disappointing. So, let’s wait until the next fifth of May and hope the guests impress us and if they don’t, maybe they’ll inspire the internet to come up with some hilarious jokes about them.
