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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
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2024 Met Gala: Everything to know about fashion’s annual soiree | |
By Jacqui Palumbo, CNN | |
Updated: | |
5:51 AM EDT, Mon May 6, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
Fashion’s biggest night out — hosted at the Metropolitan Museum of | |
Art in New York each year on the first Monday of May — is both a | |
forever-evolving spectacle and a carefully crafted event. A parade of | |
A-Listers dress according to the theme inspired by the Costume | |
Institute’s latest exhibition (some more than others) and walk the | |
steps up to the museum before disappearing inside to enjoy the | |
galleries, dinner and drinks. | |
The Met Gala is taking place on Monday night and it’s time to place | |
your bets: Which showstopping archival piece will Zendaya wear? Who | |
will pull off the most uncanny stunt, topping Jared Leto’s “twin” | |
or Doja Cat’s feline prosthetics? Inside, which celebs will flout the | |
no-photos rule to sneak bathroom selfies? How late will Rihanna show | |
up? | |
What is this year’s theme and who are the co-chairs? | |
This year, the theme for the red carpet is “The Garden of Time,” | |
referencing a 1962 short story of the same name by . Like the New Wave | |
sci-fi story, which takes place in a garden of time-bending florals, | |
the museum’s exhibition, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening | |
Fashion,” highlights connections between nature and technology, using | |
AI, CGI and other tools to breathe new life into hundreds of fragile | |
archival pieces spanning hundreds of years. The theme is chosen each | |
year by Andrew Bolton, curator-in-charge at the Costume Institute. | |
Expect fantastical fashion with floral and sci-fi motifs on the red | |
carpet, and stylists working with luxury houses to resurface famous | |
older looks. The first celebrities to appear will be Gala co-chairs | |
Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Bad Bunny and Chris Hemsworth, the last of | |
whom is making his Met Gala debut. | |
What happens at the Met Gala? | |
A frenzy of A-List arrivals and photographs, the red carpet portion of | |
the evening’s proceedings last for a few hours, but that’s the only | |
part the public sees. Inside, guests tour the exhibition, which opens | |
to the public in the days following the gala, and have a seated dinner. | |
Phones at the table are discouraged, and the seating chart is carefully | |
crafted by American Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, who has | |
organized the gala since 1995. (Wintour has “final say” over every | |
guest in attendance, the New York Times has previously reported.) | |
Though the red-carpet and afterparties get the most attention of the | |
night, the gala is above all, a fundraiser, whose five-figure tickets | |
raise millions of dollars for the museum each year — setting a record | |
at nearly $22 million in 2023, according to the recently-released book | |
“Fashion’s Big Night Out.” | |
What was last year’s theme? | |
The conceptual theme is expected to be a change of pace from last year, | |
when the dress code was set to honor the late fashion designer Karl | |
Lagerfeld, who died in 2019. Over the decades, tributes to the legacies | |
of individual designers have included Rei Kawakubo, Charles James, | |
Christian Dior, Alexander McQueen and Gianni Versace, with the last two | |
scheduled shortly after the designers’ untimely deaths. | |
To celebrate Lagerfeld, celebrities including Anne Hathaway, Nicole | |
Kidman and Jenna Ortega flocked to the event in designs by Chanel, | |
Fendi and Chloé, where he left his indelible mark, but some paid a | |
cheeky tribute to Lagerfeld’s cat Choupette as well (hence Doja | |
Cat’s whiskered beauty look). Not all were pleased with the theme to | |
honor the controversial designer, however, given his history of | |
disparaging remarks about women’s bodies and his refusal to champion | |
more inclusive beauty standards. | |
When did the Met Gala start? | |
The Met Gala debuted in 1948 as a fundraiser for the nascent Costume | |
Institute, organized by fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert. Tickets for | |
the banquet reportedly cost $50 each. | |
Over the decades, the from an industry fete at off-site locations like | |
Manhattan’s Rainbow Room into an A-List phenomenon. In the 1970s, | |
Vogue editor Diana Vreeland positioned the gala as the opening soiree | |
of the Institute’s major exhibitions and invited the crème de la | |
crème of the fashion world and New York society. Wintour, her | |
successor, has favored high-profile musicians, actors and entertainment | |
figures, turning the gala into one of the most-watched events of the | |
fashion calendar — and the year. In 2023, the software company | |
LaunchMetrics found that the generated nearly double the “media | |
impact value” for brands than the at $995 million. | |
What was the first Met Gala theme? | |
The first theme was “The World of Balenciaga” in 1973, tied to a | |
retrospective of the couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga; the event was | |
attended by guests including Halston and Calvin Klein, according to | |
“Fashion’s Big Night Out.” | |
Early themes included “Romantic and Glamorous Hollywood Design,” | |
“The Glory of Russian Costume,” and “The 18th-Century Woman.” | |
But gala-goers mostly kept to conventional eveningwear until the 2000s, | |
when some guests began to have more fun with the themes — and the | |
internet allowed more eyes on the arrivals. The most memorable themes | |
from the past decade have included “China: Through the Looking | |
Glass,” “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” | |
and the divisive “Camp: Notes on Fashion” thanks to celebrities | |
including Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Zendaya and the | |
Kardashian-Jenners, who use the red carpet to put on a show. | |
Who is banned from the Met Gala? | |
Each year rumors fly about who may be persona non grata at the gala, | |
whether due to any offense towards the event or Wintour herself. But | |
the Vogue editor has only explicitly spoken about one guest she would | |
“never invite back” in public — whom she mentioned on James | |
Corden’s late night talk show in 2017 when asked to name names. | |
Other previous guests have sworn it off, however, including Demi | |
Lovato, Zayn Malik and Tina Fey. In 2015, five years after she made an | |
appearance at the event, Fey said on “Late Show with David | |
Letterman” that the gala is a “.” | |
“If you had a million arms, all the people you would want to punch in | |
the whole world — they’re all there,” she said. “I mean I was | |
there, clearly I was one of them.” | |
Some celebrities backtrack, however. Gwyneth Paltrow the Met Gala | |
“un-fun” in 2013 and said she’d “never” go again, but | |
returned in 2017 (and 2019). | |
What shouldn’t you do at the Met Gala? | |
Met Gala guests have often broken the no-social-media rule to give a | |
more candid glimpse of who is hanging with who and what goes on behind | |
closed doors. In 2017, that included smoking, as attendees including | |
Bella Hadid and Dakota Johnson lit up cigarettes in the museum bathroom | |
(to the ire of the museum’s donors, reportedly). | |
Despite what would have you believe, he — nor anyone else — has | |
taken a tumble down the stairs. But some guests have famously rumbled� | |
— this year marks ten years since the infamous after-party elevator | |
fight between Jay-Z and Solange. | |
A final faux pas? Wearing the same outfit, of course. While it’s been | |
that Wintour not only arranges the guest list but also has a hand in | |
their fashion choices, last year, Olivia Wilde and departing “Vogue | |
China” editor Margaret Zhang showed up in the same throwback Chloé | |
violin dress in different color schemes. The pair took it in stride, | |
sharing memes on social media about the accident. “Great minds,” | |
Wilde wrote on Instagram. “If you’re gonna twin with anyone, make | |
it @margaretzhang.” | |
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