Poet Amanda Gorman made quite an impression when she spoke at President Joe Biden's inauguration in January 2021.
The biggest fashion night, Met Gala 2021 will look a little different as the pandemic keeps going on but it is set to come up with more interesting social and political themes.
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual Met Gala has decided to skip the iconic red carpet rollout and celebrities’ charming poses and graceful deeds on the steps of the museum.
However, the iconic looks can be expected at ‘Intimate Gala’ in September where a two-part exhibition of Met’s Costume Institute will take place. According to the organizers, this year’s gala will be focusing on the subject matters of sociopolitical topics, gender fluidity, and body inclusivity.
The Met Gala is a highly anticipated fashion event or better known as “fashion’s biggest night out” which is also a fund-raising event for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute.
Anna Wintour, Vogue Editor-in-Chief has organized the event that typically timed this co-incident of the opening of the museum’s annual fashion exhibition. Many of the top Hollywood stars, pop icons, fashion moguls, and creative people join the event every year.
It starts with a high-profile red carpet arrival ceremony. In the past years, people have witnessed Princess Diana’s 1996 navy Dior slip dress to Rihanna’s 2015 Guo Pei yellow gown along with a massive train and many other masterpieces.
Each year the attendees are supposed to base their ‘fashion night’ outfit according to the theme of the event. For example, in 2019, the theme was “Camp: Notes on Fashion,” which was closely surrounded by the idea of “love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration,” as far Vogue reported. The guests took the opportunity and dressed in chandeliers, feathers, and wings.
“Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,” was the theme of 2018 and the people wore capes, veils, and even headpieces of the nativity scene. So it is evident that the themes are open to interpretation.
This year’s two-part exhibition of The Costume Institute will start with the theme of “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion,” on September 18th at Anna Wintour Costume Center at the Met.
The organizers are saying that the event will take place in a home-like indoor setting and each room will signify different emotions and outfits. Like the kitchen gallery will represent ‘well–being’ but on the other hand, the office will reflect ‘aspiration’, incorporated with different outfits.
For instance, the garden will portray the emotion ‘Joy’ and feature the Oscar de la Renta floral dress which Taylor Swift wore to this year’s Grammys. The porch signifies warmth and it will feature coats by the designers like André Walker.
The exhibit’s opening will take place on the 13th of September and will be co-chaired by Timothée Chalamet, Billie Eilish, Naomi Osaka, and Amanda Gorman. Though the anticipation among the followers has increased much, Vogue said, “due to pandemic guidelines, the celebrity-studded red carpet will be a smaller affair than usual.”
The second part of the exhibition will take place on 5th May 2022 along with the theme of “In America: An Anthology of Fashion.” It will focus on the aspect of fashion inclusivity. The venue will be the same but will be held in the museum’s rooms of the American wing. Each room will contain cinematic elements by American directors, focusing on the history of American fashion.
The Wendy Yu Curator in Charge of the Costume Institute, Andrew Bolton told Vogue, “Key themes will include the emergence of an identifiable American style and the rise of the named designer with an individual aesthetic vision.” The opening ceremony is scheduled for 2nd May 2022.
While talking about the theme of the gala, Bolton further said, “I think that the emphasis on conscious creativity was really consolidated during the pandemic and the social justice movements.”
He added, “And I’ve been really impressed by American designers’ responses to the social and political climate, particularly around issues of body inclusivity and gender fluidity, and I’m just finding their work very, very self-reflective. I really do believe that American fashion is undergoing a Renaissance.”
Previously, many famous designers like Angela Luna, Kerby Jean-Raymond, Victoria Beckham, and many others have raised awareness for sociopolitical issues like the refugee crisis, Black Lives Matter, AIDS, and many other topics.
Following the last year’s incident on police brutality and racial injustice, Marc Jacobs shared a series of posts denouncing racism. Black designers like Aurora James have promoted the support of black-owned brands.
The first black model to be on the cover of Vogue in 1974, Beverly Johnson wrote an ‘op-ed’ last year to The Washington Post stating, my race limited me to significantly lower compensation than my white peers.” She slammed the fashion industry and the magazine and said, “The industry was slow to include other black people in other aspects of the fashion and beauty industry.”
Wintour has reported writing emails to Vogue and supported the fact that it hasn’t taken care of its black staff well and the stories appeared quite “hurtful or intolerant.”
The usually known faces of Vogue are Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Pharrell Williams, Jared Leto, Harry Styles, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and many others. According to Vogue, around 600 people attend the event every year.
Now comes the most anticipated part of the event, which is the pocket pinch. As an invited guest, you would have to pay for nothing. But buying a ticket can cost around $30,000. And the best part is, it will take another $275,000 for tables as far Vogue’s report.
Last year’s Met Gala was postponed to 16 March at first. Then the Museum announced that the event will be temporarily closed to curb the spread of the pandemic. But later on, the event was canceled.
This year’s event is carrying a lot of hope and anticipation among fashion enthusiasts and followers. Hopefully, the pandemic won’t cause trouble.
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