Every year, on the first Monday of May, the richest and most well-known celebrities pay 75,000$ for a ticket to The Met Gala. The gala is a massive fashion event, its theme changing annually based on the rotating costume collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. And, every year, I sit in my pj’s and critique the looks with my highly attuned eye for fashion.
This year’s theme was “Sleeping Beauties: Awakening Fashion”, and the dress code was “The Garden of Time”. According to Vogue AU, the theme “encourages guests at the world-famous ball to dive into fashion history, finding long-lost silhouettes and craftsmanship methods to bring back to life.”
Below I have organized my feelings about everyone’s outfits into categories. I thought people made some very… interesting choices this year. I honestly liked very few looks. So, if you love to harshly judge celebrities who - even with the coin for a ticket - still look a mess at the function; you have made it to the right place.
The aluminum foil drawer in your kitchen - These celebs and their designers were really inspired by aluminum foil. I personally feel these “beauties” could have stayed asleep.
Wrong Princess? - While many chose not to use the princess interpretation of Sleeping Beauty at all, some chose to fully jump ship and choose a different princess to dress as!
Florals? For Spring? Groundbreaking… - I wish the word garden was not in the invite so bad because so many of the looks fully relied on the presence of flowers to adhere to the theme. I’m not sure if any of these people have been to a garden before but they grow much more than just flowers. I think I have a personal vendetta with this category because I feel like these dresses all look like that one dress (below) that has been trending from Finesse for like 2 years, and I I’m tired of seeing it.
Really don’t like Nicki’s dress. I don’t think formal dresses HAVE to be long but this yellow dress being short is giving Homecoming to me. It also just feels like a dress I’ve seen a billion times before.
Prom 2024 - Not necessarily bad, but not Met Gala level good. Minimal creativity, lots of simple evening gowns.
Don’t they look like the senior couple at every high school where the guy wears a cooky prom suit and the girl chooses one color from it to match her dress? Sit with this for a moment and remember they paid 75k to wear this.
Like this feels like I could have found it in Dillard’s clearance after hoco season!
Ariana giving bride after her very anti-bridal behavior with her boyfriend Broadway Spongebob is hilarious to me.
Hopped up out the bed and turned my swag on… - Those most dedicated to the “sleeping” part of this year’s theme. Comforter sets, pajamas, etc.
Hari Nef adding a comforter to Kaia Gerber’s look… honestly puts her more on theme in H&M than Gerber in Prada.
The Good Suits - My favorite menswear beyond the plain black tux.
Me likey - Looks I loved, but are not in my top 5.
I don’t care about Ives’ outfit because black suit, but I like Getty’s dress a lot and I love the fun shoe. This would have been one of my favorites but even though I like them, the shoes throw the look for me as far as Met-ness.
I like Taylor Russell’s and Aurora James’ looks a lot because they remind me of how Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) dresses before she wears her gown. They took the plain white skirt fabric and gave it shape which I like! I wish they weren’t so similar looking.
Kloss’ look (to me) is the only one from Swarovski that can standalone as a look for the theme. (Swarovski debrief further down).
What were we going for? - These looks are just so far from theme or so odd that i don’t know where else to put them. Not objectively bad (I actually like all of these looks in general) but not what I would have worn if I were in attendance. Muddled messaging, perhaps.
This look would have been really good for the Met… in 2022 when the theme was “In America: An Anthology of Fashion.” Like a studded trench coat with fringe all over it? Very much USA not so much Garden of Time.
I love Keke Palmer and I think she looks STUNNING, I just also think she looks like a mummy and I don’t know how to feel about that!
Swarovski - Swarovski’s sparkly looks. After looking on their Instagram, I noted that all the looks designed by Swarovski are meant to represent the elements. This is on theme to me because of the nature aspect of it, but alone, each of these looks falls flat. They don’t really give theme or anything to me on their own, but they all look stunning because anything covered in thousands of crystals is going to be pretty.
Honestly, I just hate these…
I keep seeing people being super into Zendaya’s looks this year and I have to say I am extremely disappointed. I hate everything about this blue dress… the stripes, the Hobby Lobby-esque faux plants and birds on her hip, arm, and shoulder, and the makeup… just no. I guess I just wasn’t expecting her looks to be so dark and haunting. I wanted to love it because… it’s Zendaya, but there is not a single redeeming quality for this look in my opinion. It’s giving Becky-home-ecky DIYed her way to the Met.
She’s giving Heimlich from A Bug’s Life… The horizontal striping on the dress and the outer layer being a different green is very reminiscent of a caterpillar in a cocoon, which I guess is on theme!
Grease lightning!
Top 5 - These are the looks that - in my humble opinion - won the night. They were on theme, stylish, and had the umph and pizzazz that I expect from a Met Gala look.
Especially for his first Met… he ate down severely. His look is inspired by decaying over time, like roses wilting. Genius mode I fear…
I wasn’t the biggest fan of her look last year, it was just a bit too simple. But this… this tore! I love the dark brown on her and I also just like Jean Paul Gaultier, so this was a win for sure. I think she looks like a cunty tree root system and it’s giving.
First off - body tea. Secondly, I think this dress is a work of art. Tyla’s dress by Balmain is made of literal sand, and the parallel of her waist to the literal hourglass in her hand is just so good, she had to make the Top 5.
Cardi always dominates the Met. Her looks are always big and artistic, and I love the drama of this dress. I feel like she could be Maleficent, but I also feel like she could just be inevitable darkness at the end of time, I don’t know! I like that the lack of pattern gives me something to think about in terms of “what it means” or “how it’s on theme.”
This look might be my favorite simply because I think it’s campy and interesting. It’s very classic fairytale coded which i love, and I don’t know who this is honestly but her vibe suits the outfit.
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Thanks for reading and I hope we hate the same fits!
While no one should feel shame for enjoying the fashion or artistry of the Met Gala, I also want to remind you that there is a calculated genocide occurring while we focus on celebrity outfits. The night of the Gala while Western eyes turned to NYC, the Israeli occupation bombed the only place left to evacuate to in the Gaza Strip - after telling Palestinians to travel there for safety. ALL eyes on Rafah! For resources, please see my essay on Sarah Bahbah, and refer to on-ground journalists such as Bisan and Plestia, Al Jazeera news outlet, and the many Palestinian accounts on social media to stay informed.
With love, soup :)
Sources:
https://www.vogue.com.au › news › image-gallery
Pictures - https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/met-gala-2024-red-carpet-see-every-celebrity-look-outfit-and-dress
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