New York (AFP) – The brightest stars in Hollywood, music, sports, and style will hit the red carpet Monday for the Met Gala, the extravagant Manhattan charity ball that this year spotlights the intersection between fashion and art. The A-listers invited to New York’s biggest social event of the year have been asked to dress for the theme “Fashion is Art,” which dovetails with the exhibit “Costume Art” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute.
This year’s function has drawn controversy after Amazon boss Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sanchez Bezos were announced as the lead sponsors and honorary co-chairs of the gala, with some activists upset about the billionaire couple’s involvement. But for the fashionistas, the Met Gala — traditionally held on the first Monday in May — is simply one of the world’s top red carpets with blinding star power.
Tastemakers – Music mega-star Beyonce will make her first appearance at the event in a decade, serving as a co-chair of fashion’s marquee event along with tennis legend Venus Williams and Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman. The Met also announced a gala “host committee” led by Saint Laurent designer Anthony Vaccarello and actress Zoe Kravitz. It features singers Sabrina Carpenter and Doja Cat, retired ballet superstar Misty Copeland, and WNBA champion A’ja Wilson. Of course, the entire evening is overseen by Vogue’s global editorial director Anna Wintour — the ultimate tastemaker in US fashion who has helmed the event for 30 years.
The gala is a fundraiser for the Met’s Costume Institute, and this year has raised a record $42 million (after $31 million in 2025), the museum’s CEO Max Hollein told reporters early Monday. But it is also a social media extravaganza that sees stars don over-the-top looks, vying to create the greatest spectacle. Last year’s event showcased the subversive style of Black dandyism and was a rare Met Gala spotlighting men and male fashion. This year’s exhibit juxtaposes elegant fashion looks with paintings and sculpture: think a Saint Laurent design next to Van Gogh’s “Irises,” or a John Galliano gown for Maison Margiela paired with an antique statue.
“When I think about the show, if there’s one word to describe it, I suppose it would be equitability or equivalency, equivalency between artworks,” the Costume Institute’s curator Andrew Bolton told AFP. “So there’s no hierarchy between sculpture, painting, fashion, photography, and no hierarchy between bodies, between the classical body or the disabled body.”
‘Genuinely care’ – In the run-up to Monday, a campaign opposing the involvement of Bezos and his wife cropped up in New York’s streets and subways, with some calling for a boycott of an event some see as a gross display of immense wealth. Behind the campaign is a group founded in Britain called “Everyone Hates Elon” — which, a spokesperson stressed, “targets other billionaires” beyond Elon Musk, the world’s richest person.
Wintour said Monday that the couple had “shown with this event that they genuinely, genuinely care about giving back.” The Met Gala was first organized in 1948 and for decades was reserved for New York high society — until Wintour transformed the party into a high-profile catwalk for the rich and famous in the 1990s. The “Costume Art” exhibit, which opens on May 10 at the venerable museum in Manhattan, will seek to explore the “dressed body” in artworks across the centuries.
© 2024 AFP
