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Met Gala 2024: The Garden of Time

by RepublicAsia

FLORALS for spring? Groundbreaking! 

The Met Gala will be held on Monday, May 6, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City — and will be followed by a public viewing of the exhibit on May 10 to September 10. 

“Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” is the name of the exhibition. While the theme of the actual gala is “The Garden of Time”. 

“The Garden of Time,” the dress code of the gala, is in keeping with the Costume Institute’s 400-year fashion history exhibition, which will feature some 250 rare pieces, including creations by well-known fashion houses such as Givenchy, Dior, and Schiaparelli.

This will allow the exhibition to look at the show’s other main themes, which include the need for sustainable fashion and the unending cycle of creation and destruction as well as the evolution of human history.

From The Archives 

A 17th-century English Elizabethan bodice and 21st-century pieces by modern fashion industry icons including Connor Ives, Stella McCartney, and Phillip Lim will all be on display during the walk-through.

Innovative technologies such as CGI, x-rays, light projection, and video animation will be used to present some of them. 

There will be three sub-themes to honor the natural world — which will be also used to organize the exhibition: Earth, Sea, and Sky, representing the four centuries covered by roughly 250 clothing and accessory pieces on display, as they will be displayed in public for the first time. 

According to Andrew Bolton, the Wendy Yu Curator in charge of the Costume Institute, “It is very much an ode to nature and the emotional poetics of fashion,” he said.

This is the “Dragonfly in a Petri Dish” by Rahul Mishra and according to him, dragonflies are rich in diversity. They have thrived on Earth for millions of years. It would be fascinating to see someone wear this at the Met Gala. 

The flower bouquet top by Olivier Roustening of the Balmain FW24 collection, which was also recently worn by Sydney Sweeney in the premiere of ‘Immaculate’. 

Decoding the Theme

One of the cyclical and recurrent themes in fashion is flowers. They are always associated with femininity and romanticism.

This year’s Met Gala dress code is inspired by J.G. Ballard’s 1962 short fiction, “The Garden of Time,” which lends itself to a variety of interpretations that might include red carpet ensembles that incorporate flowers and plants.

The English novelist, essayist, and satire Ballard is renowned for his thought-provoking writings that explore the connection between mass media and human psychology.

The story follows Count Axel and his wife in their lavish villa, which is said to be a “magical” garden—filled with rare books, paintings, sculptures, and vases. Despite their barren landscape outside, they maintain their opulent lifestyle. However, every time Count Axel chops off a bloom from his garden, time slows down, as they realize their privileged life is about to abruptly end. 

Although Ballard’s book isn’t strictly dystopian, its central idea—a future society created out of immense injustice or unfairness. Probably, a prevalent topic nowadays is the portrayal of a flawless and glamorous life, which is frequently a facade that only exists on social media.

Met Gala Co-Chairs

The co-chairs of this year’s Met Gala are Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Chris Hemsworth, Bad Bunny, and Roger Federer. 

Honorary chairs of the Met Gala are Jonathan Anderson, the creative director of Loewe and Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok.

With reports from Nicole Thomas

 

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