Benjamin Jones
Theme revealed for 2024 Met Gala
NEW YORK – If you are trying to explain the Met Gala 2024 Themeyou can refer to the classic fable “Sleeping Beauty”.
What is the Met Gala theme this year?
This year’s Met Gala theme stems from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute’s latest exhibition, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.”
“When a piece of clothing enters our collection, its status changes irrevocably. What was once a vital part of a person’s lived experience is now an immovable ‘work of art’ that can no longer be worn, heard, touched or smelled “The exhibition strives to reanimate these works of art by reawakening their sensory abilities through a diverse range of technologies, providing visitors with sensory ‘access’ to rare historical garments and rarefied contemporary fashions,” said curator Andrew. Bolton. “By appealing to the widest possible range of human senses, the exhibition aims to reconnect with the works on display as they were originally conceived – with vibrancy, with dynamism and, ultimately, with life.”
This year’s theme goes hand in hand with a dress codenicknamed “The Garden of Time”.
The Met Gala dress code is generally interpreted rather vaguely by the guestsand is used as starting point for clothesdoing for some memorable moments on the red carpet.
What exhibition is the 2024 Met Gala theme celebrating?
“Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” is the exhibition that the Met Gala will celebrate.
The story behind the name of the exhibition has to do with the garments that will be on display. Around 250 pieces from the Costume Institute’s collection of 33,000 pieces will be shown. Many of those that will be on display are normally never shown. Some are said to be too fragile to hang for fear of disintegrating.
Instead, they will be housed in glass cases, like the legendary Sleeping Beauty.
“The Met’s groundbreaking Spring 2024 Costume Institute exhibition will push the limits of our imagination and invite us to experience the multi-sensory facets of a garment, many of which are lost when entering a museum collection as an object. Sleeping Beauties will enhance our engagement with these fashion masterpieces, evoking how they feel, move, sound, smell and interact when they are worn, ultimately offering a deeper appreciation of the integrity, beauty and artistic brilliance of the works on display “, Met Museum director Max Hollein said.
What does “The Garden of Time” have to do with Sleeping Beauty?
“Sleeping Beauty” is a classic fable about a beautiful princess who is placed in a magical sleep only to be awakened by her true love’s kiss. It is often interpreted as being about how true love will conquer all.
“The Garden of Time” is a short story by JG Ballard. The story is about a couple who live in a beautiful house.
A crowd is slowly and inevitably walking towards them, bringing destruction. “Flowers of time” grow in the couple’s garden, and each one plucked sends the crowd back in time, further away from their inevitable arrival at their home. But the garden is no longer producing new flowers, and the destruction of their beautiful home and life together is inevitable.
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
The exhibition itself, like a garden, will also be a multisensory experience, designed to stimulate all the senses. The galleries will be organized “exploring a different theme inspired by the natural world,” the Met said. For example, the floor of one gallery will be animated with snakes and the ceiling of another will be animated with birds.
“Documenting the exhibition will be a series of ‘sleeping beauties’ – garments that can no longer be worn on mannequins due to their extreme fragility – which will be displayed in glass ‘coffins’ allowing visitors to analyze their various states of deterioration. as if they were under a microscope,” said the Met.
What have been the previous Met Gala themes over the years?
The Met Gala had many memorable themes over the years. Last year’s theme paid homage to fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld.
In 2021 and 2022, “In America” The theme served as parts one and two of a retrospective of American fashion through the years.
The 2020 gala was postponed due to the pandemicbut its theme was “About time: fashion and duration”.
And in 2019, the theme was “Camp: Notes on Fashion”.
The Met Gala will be held on Monday night in New York City. Watch the special broadcast of CBS New York’s special coverage at 8 p.m.
