Making Our Way to the Met
The Met Gala is a momentous day for anyone even slightly interested in fashion, makeup, or celebrities. It is a day where people all over the world can unleash their inner fashion critic and judge outrageous, stunning, and sometimes atrocious looks of celebrities from the comfort of their homes. The theme for this year was America: A Lexicon of Fashion, and while it’s an interesting choice by Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue and head of the Met Gala, the theme had lots of potential but massively disappointed the majority of excited viewers.
The theme of the Met Gala is what makes it memorable and exciting. Clare Meighan ‘22 says, “The theme is important because if not there are gonna be the same type of dresses. It’s almost like Halloween.” The theme is what makes the Met Gala so notable; if there were no theme the event can be perceived as just another Oscars or Grammy red carpet. This year’s theme of America is quite vague in comparison to past years. 2018’s Heavenly Bodies theme restricted people to religious symbols and ethereal colors and 2019’s Camp theme forced people to be wild, ironic, and tacky. When America first comes to mind, one may think of stars and stripes, football, or barbeque. With America being the theme people could highlight American designers, pay tribute to historical figures, reference native to colonial all the way up to 90s fashion. With all these options most people decided to play it safe and wear the basic red carpet look. Many people wore gowns with references that were hard to place or slapped insensitively and rushed political statements on dresses. Vismaya Gopalan ‘23 even says “I wish I saw more representation of younger and less-known designers. Most of what I saw was works of major designers who have been in ‘control’ of the industry for a while.” Given more than sufficient time to plan, most of the looks appeared rushed and last minute. Meighan ‘22’s favorite look was Kendall Jenner who dressed in a simplistic yet stunning, sheer bedazzled gown that referenced Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady. While gorgeous, she and many others have worn very similar dresses in the past, and the reference was somewhat hard to figure out on one’s own.
Due to the underwhelming feeling of so many who were so excited to see the outfits, many people thought of all the other options that could have been done after seeing what celebrities showed up in. Looks that reference more unique things like American Girl dolls, American sitcoms, Edwardian fashion, Native representation, 50s poodle skirts, comics, or superheroes. It felt that many celebrities and designers were hesitant and reluctant to embrace the theme and have fun with it. Fashion can have such an impact especially when it is worn on influential people because it’s memorable and exciting. Let’s hope that for the next Met Gala we are blown away with the looks that designers and celebrities come up with.
