One of my biggest boasts is having a sister to criticize celebrity culture with. Whether it’s live-texting through the Oscars or analyzing Twitter drama, having someone with semi-similar thoughts to you makes any event 10 times more enjoyable. Streaming this year’s Met Gala with her was no different.
While sitting glued to her computer screen, my sister and I watched Anna Wintour’s approved guests parade up the stairs of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Fashion’s biggest night was in full swing. But while watching Keke Palmer interview celebrity after celebrity, I found myself questioning that claim.
The gala costs an average of $3.5 million to plan and throw every year. That figure doesn’t even account for the roughly $35,610 that might be spent on a gown for the extravagant party, or the jewelry, the hair and hotel night stays. Not to mention the about $30,000 price tag for an individual ticket.
Most celebrities get invited by designers that buy out whole tables for up to $500,000 each. Instead of appealing to their already wealthy and properly taken care of celebrity partners, these huge brands could use the money to be more transparent about their workers’ rights. According to a report by Fashion Revolution, Chanel and Versace were rated incredibly low in regards to their transparency over their working conditions.
The event is absolutely the embodiment of uber-wealthy spending habits. Although it is a fundraiser for the Costume Institute — the only Met Museum exhibit that needs to fund itself — the event could have still been successful without the extravagant waste that comes from the Met Gala.
After waiting a year and a half for this Met Gala, I would have thought that people would go all out. I mean, they did have a ton of time in quarantine to plan for it, so what gives?
My issue doesn’t just stem from the outfits themselves but from the lack of theme-following from the attendees. This year’s theme was “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion.” With the upheaval of a year that was 2020, you would think that attendees would have pulled from numerous American political, social or historical events, right?
Well, I’m here to tell you there were probably more Met Gala looks paying homage to horse girls than to America’s complex nature. So, many seasoned Met Gala attendees showed up in ensembles that fell to the glory of their past looks.
Take Kacey Musgraves, for instance. Her 2019 look designed by Jeremy Scott for Moschino had her channeling full-out Barbie doll in a leather jacket gown, a blow-dryer-shaped purse, a hot pink feather boa and platinum blonde wig, perfectly emulating that year’s theme, “Camp: Notes on Fashion.” This year, however, Kacey arrived in what she called “gala-meets-equestrian-sport,” an equestrian-inspired look by Ralph Lauren which was simply a silver floor-length skirt with a long-sleeved turtleneck, a chunky black belt and knee-high boots.
Can the look pass for the theme? Barely. More importantly, is it all that fashionable? No.
Now, I can’t say that there weren’t some looks that I just absolutely adored, like Lupita Nyong’o’s denim-inspired Versace look. It not only fit the American fashion theme but looked stunning on her. And her hair, inspired by American conceptual artist Lorna Simpson, pulled the whole look together.
I’m not saying that these looks aren’t red carpet-worthy. Just having a custom thousand dollar gown from Versace must be red carpet-worthy, but are they Met Gala worthy?
No way. Are the outfits worthy enough for all of the money spent on the event to be dubbed fashion’s biggest night? Absolutely not.
Despite the assumed thousands of dollars spent by an individual celebrity for the night, their outfits this year were not entertaining enough to warrant caring about the mysterious elitist event.
The next Met Gala will be held on its original date of the first Monday of May in 2022, and I’ll give Ms. Wintour and all of her guests one more chance to uphold the standards I know they can all meet. If not, I’m going to have to take away the event’s coveted crown of fashion’s biggest night. Not that anyone cares, but they definitely should.
