Some people love the event, while others hate its very concept. Regardless of what you think about it, if you live in a Western country, you’ve almost certainly at least heard of the Met Gala.
At its core, the Met Gala is undeniably one of the most important fashion-based events in the world, featuring high-profile celebrities and much media coverage year after year. Even if you don’t give a fig about fashion, celebrities, or anything remotely related, chances are the Met Gala will come up on your radar.
But while it is indubitably a creative and expressive event, the Met Gala is also fundamentally flawed in its concept. The glamour and 75,000 price tag for attendance create a strong sense of elitism and separation between classes that is more Victorian than progressive in vibe. Due to this, at times, it can seem as if it ought to be out of fashion. Well, this year, the Met Gala Committee’s theme and choice of dress code appear to foreshadow this possible future.
The Garden of Time
Every year, the Met Gala has both a theme and dress code for the celebrities and socialites in attendance. While the theme is the overall focus of the Met Gala and relates to the fashion exhibition, the dress code standardly receives more attention as we get to see the celebrities parade their fashion choices on the red carpet. Since the Met Gala is primarily a fashion event, both the theme and dress code are meant to reflect the fashion industry in some important way.
For 2024, the theme for the Met Gala was ‘Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion’ and the dress code was ‘The Garden of Time’ based on the 1962 story, of the same name, by J.G. Ballard.
While Vogue explained that the dress code was a nod to ‘fleeting beauty,’ as a concept in itself, the book arguably has a much deeper meaning.
The short story, The Garden of Time, is about a wealthy couple who live in a secluded villa where they have ‘the garden of time’ that grows magical flowers which can slow time down. The plot centres around a group of people who come after the couple and how the latter try to stop them, by picking the flowers. However, as they run out of flowers to pick, their pursuers begin catching up with them; signifying that their time has run out.
Considering the nature of J.G. Ballard’s work, it seems unlikely that this story was meant to have such a straightforward message. Ballard repeatedly wrote stories with themes that were dystopian, apocalyptic, and laced with social criticism.
Waking Up from the Dream
Given what we know about Ballard’s story, it seems darkly ironic that the Met Gala chose it to set the dress code, arguably implying its own imminent downfall. The irony goes further when we scrutinize the ‘fleeting beauty’ theme and the fact that the fashion industry promotes the idea of things only ever being temporary and ultimately disposable.
Practically new clothing found in landfills after having been worn an average of seven times is now the rule rather than the exception. And 26 per cent of the clothes hanging in our closets go a whole year without seeing the light of day.
Increasingly, more of us are waking up to the harm of what we’re doing and the unhealthy practices that the fashion industry promotes. Concepts such as ‘sustainability’ and ‘going green’ are gaining more adherents and these new ways of thinking are permeating the fashion world. As consumers become more ethically conscious in their choice of products and suppliers, the Met Gala and fashion houses will need to start thinking and adapting to these new concerns.
Come to think of it, ‘fleeting beauty’ was the right choice after all. This was the Met’s subconscious warning to itself: Change is Coming.
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