by The first Monday in May is right around the corner and you know what that means: the 2024 Met Gala is almost upon us. Of course, London is five hours ahead of New York, so we’ll be watching the first of the outfits trickle through our social media timelines around 11pm. By the time Rihanna hits the red carpet, we’ll definitely be asleep. If anyone knows of any Super Bowl-esque watch parties? I would be a game.
Luckily, the hosts usually arrive early, because if there’s one thing Anna Wintour hates, it’s being late. Made of nylon. So, we’ll soon get a good look at the outfits of Bad Bunny co-hosts Jennifer Lopez and Chris Hemsworth, as well as the Met’s crown princess, Miss Zendaya Coleman. Regarding What they will spend? That’s up to the theme – and whether they stick to it. Here’s everything you need to know about the 2024 Met Gala.
What is the theme of Met Gala 2024?
The exhibition for 2024 is entitled “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion”. As is the case every year, guests at the opening night gala (AKA the First Monday in May) are expected to dress in accordance with this exhibition, but there is also a more straightforward dress code for the evening.
You might be immediately drawn towards images of fairy tales, as will some of the guests, no doubt, but the sleeping beauties in this theme are the garments to be displayed. The Met exhibit will focus on 250 “historically significant and aesthetically beautiful” items from 400 years of fashion, all of which are far too fragile to wear again (did you hear that clearly enough, Kim?).
And that’s just the theme. In February, the dress code was more clearly defined (or even made more confusing – depending on how you look at it, really). The 2024 Met Gala dress code is “Garden of Time,” and focuses on “luxuriant beauty,” pointing guests toward flowers for inspiration.
The Met Gala 2024 showcases all of the pieces from the Costume Institute’s permanent collection, some of which have never been seen before. There’s also a twist: the pieces will be brought to life through “cutting-edge preservation and technology”, including video animation, light projection, sound design, AI and CGI, so they’ll go to the ball of the 21st Century! Nick Knight, the London-based photographer and founder of SHOWstudio, has announced that he will be working on the show’s visuals, while Norwegian artist Sissel Tolaas, known for her work with scents, will develop scents to go with the installations.
It’s a much nerdier theme than the 2023 Met Gala, which paid tribute to the late, great designer Karl Lagerfeld. So, the guests entered the sea of Chanel, but also went out to the strange horror, see Jared Leto’s huge cat suit, referring to Lagerfeld’s infamous cat, Choupette. Always keen to keep the Met from feeling Halloween-y, perhaps Wintour is trying to send a “calm” message with this theme.
Before Karl Lagerfeld’s theme, there was a two-year tribute to American fashion, titled “In America: An Anthology of Fashion,” then the much-loved “Camp: Notes on Fashion,” who saw many Marabou feathers, outfits with four different heads. outfit changes and Katy Perry as a chandelier. Other recent themes included “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” in 2018, when Rihanna found herself next in line for the Vatican, “Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between,” in 2017 and “Manus x Machina: Fashion in the Age of Technology” in 2016.
How do you get tickets to the Met Gala?
To score a ticket to fashion’s most prestigious event, you must be personally selected by Wintour and her panel of co-hosts (yet to be announced). Generally, you cannot bring any guests or additional representation, and the use of social media photography or smartphones inside the event is prohibited. There are many other strange rules, such as no parsley, in case it gets stuck in the guests’ teeth, no bruschetta, in case it spills, and no onion or garlic, for bad rounds -suppressing breathing. Despite some incredibly chic images of stars smoking in the bathroom at previous Met Galas, this is also banned, and is considered disrespectful to the museum.
The Met Gala was originally founded by fashion entrepreneur and publicist Eleanor Lambert in 1948, when it was called the Costume Institute Benefit, but it’s now firmly Wintour’s baby. In addition to moving it to a celebrity-studded event and changing the date from December to the first Monday in May, the Gala has become an extremely lucrative business for Wintour. Ticket prices for the event were originally around $1,000, but by 2016, individual ticket prices for the event cost $25,000, and a table for 10 could be purchased for $250,000, according to a WWD report.
Basically, it’s the Fort Knox of fashion. But we love watching it from the sidelines.
