Spring 2021
W27
Issue 02
Fashion’s Superbowl Returns and a Look Back on Past Met Galas By Ashley Lawson (Advertising and Marketing Communications, ‘23)
The one night of the year that fashion enthusiasts nationwide look forward to has finally announced its return. As fashion’s “superbowl” date gets closer to premiering, let’s take a look back at the past five Met Gala themes that defined this magical night and my opinions on each of them.
2016: “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology”
This theme focused on the future of technology in its relationship with fashion. It specifically connected the ability to make clothing pieces with machines with homemade techniques. Most looks on the red carpet were characterized by looks either representing the manus or machina theme. Looks were recognized as manus by detailed embellishments while machina looks often were silver. A couple of my personal favorite looks from this night on the red carpet were Nicole Kidman in Alexander McQueen and Kylie Jenner in Balmain. I liked this theme because I think the integration between technology and fashion is something that becomes more prevalent every year. The creativity of the looks on the red carpet was also something that I greatly enjoyed.
2017: “Rei Kawakubo/Commes des Garcons: Art of the In-Between”
This theme applauded Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo and his influential impact on the fashion industry. The looks he curated for Commes des Garcons were placed in the Met’s exhibit for showing. For the looks on the runway, they either were inspired by Kawakubo’s work or were other interpretations of the theme. I was a bit disappointed in the looks for this theme because of the difficuvlty in matching looks with a theme dedicated to a designer. If I had not researched more about the theme, I would have been unable to see a commonality between looks of the night.
2018: “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” This theme focused on the integration between fashion and religion. The long history of Catholicism was infused into the many works of art that designers created for guests of the Met Gala. 20