I think I rather slowly, and surprisingly to myself, have become a bit obsessed with fashion, particularly as an art form. Something that really has brought this on is the combination of actors dressing in support of other projects they’re promoting (see Margot Robbie’s looks for Barbie press and Zendaya’s for both Dune and Challengers) along with the recent Maison Margiela by Galliano Spring 2024 Show. So with that being said I wanted to try and write something about fashion and see how it goes.
Every first Monday in May The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds a gala for the years Costume Institute exhibition. The dress code or “theme” for the gala is inspired by what’s being shown at the exhibit. For this year the institute is highlighting items from their vast collection which have rarely been seen due to their delicate nature in “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” The exhibit will highlight some of the current discussions around the preservation of fashion, a debate that gained quite a bit of popularity following Kim Kardashian wearing Marilyn Monroe’s dress a few years ago to this very event. To be clear even though the exhibit’s name makes references to a Disney princess don’t expect loads of formal ball gowns for the evening. The official dress code is “The Garden of Time,” playing off of the J.G. Ballard tale. While it appears Vogue has urged their guest to play up the garden and time aspects more than the class warfare of the story (we can’t get everything we want), I do feel the fragility of life and the beauty of time passing gave us some inspiring and beautiful looks. Below I will discuss some of my personal favorite looks and how I think they utilized the theme. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments as well.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention something I noticed, a lot of designers and the hosts of the carpet were discussing the need for sustainability in fashion. I think this is a particularly great moment to highlight sustainability given that the exhibit is very much about the preservation of fashion and the detailed labour that goes into it. While fast fashion is the main culprit of the industry’s sustainability issues, it could be helped by large fashion houses creating more affordable, high quality, timeless products that are made to last.
Also I apologize for not knowing all of the designers and will try to update them if I learn who they are.
So let’s start with my personal favorites that I think followed the theme and refenced the exhibition to perfection.
The next looks have more subtle, yet still interesting interpretations of the theme and exhibition itself.
The following looks are just some that I liked, but didn’t really get their reference to the theme (they don’t have descriptions).
Finally, these are looks I thought were really lovely and fit the floral, garden theme, but for me weren’t supper interesting (they also don’t have descriptions).