It’s finally that graceless, delicious day where everyone gets to cosplay as a fashion critic. We’ve been counting down for this and, today, consider us Suzy Menkes. This year’s Met Gala interactive exhibit was “Sleeping Beauties: Awakening Fashion”, preserving fashion’s most memorable looks in a cohesive collection of conserved pieces – from an Elizabethan bodice and Madame Vionnet dress to a Charles Frederick Worth gown.
It interrogated the ideas of time through clothing, displaying faded, weathered items as well as items that were made to ‘wilt’ (such as Loewe’s live grass coat). It was all about the senses and linked to nature, flowers, the passage of time and humanity.
The dress code theme itself was “The Garden of Time”, based off of J. G Ballard’s dystopian short story. It follows protagonist Charles Vandervel, who discovers a mysterious garden hidden within his bunker, where time flows differently, and is ultimately a metaphor for life’s fleeting nature and the inevitability of human mortality.
Scroll for our most iconic, on theme looks of the night. We were tempted to add a man (for ‘diversity’), but the girls just really delivered this year. Of course, we did expect a little bit more at times, but how can you complain when Lana Del Rey enlists as a full fashion girlie, once and for all. Argue in the comments.
10. Mindy Kaling
Now let’s hear it for the back of the dress. Mindy Kaling personified “the melting flower of time”in a blossoming avant-garde spectacle which embodied both the “garden” and the “time” aspects of the theme. Gaurav Gupta’s magic transformed the cape part of the dress into a wave of petals.
9. Emma Chamberlain
Emma Chamberlain’s gothic look combined fragility and decomposition striking in custom Jean Paul Gaultier, based on a Spring 2003 mocha coloured vintage corset.
8. Sabrina Harrison
Sabrina Harrison referenced Salvador Dalí’s 1931 “The Persistence of Memory”, wearing Chris Habana.
7. Zendaya
Zendaya’s peacock Margiela dress boasted grape vine details and artisanal birds.
6. Taylor Russell
In Taylor Russell’s long awaited debut, Jonathan Anderson’s muse wore a wooden custom Loewe bodice with a circle skirt made of a silk crêpe marocain.
5. Demi Moore
Demi Moore wore a Harris Reed extravaganza from dead stock wallpaper, paired with 10 carats of never-before-seen-jewels.
4. Harris Reed
Harris Reed wore an outfit reminiscent of Lana’s 2018 “Heavenly Bodies” Gucci look, with a patterned silk pantsuit and halo from his “Shadow Dance” collection.
3. Tyla
Tyla literally embodied the hourglass time emoji in an ephemeral, sculpting Balmain garment, paired with a matching handbag, that was one of the highlights of the night – especially as she was carried in for her entrance, by a group of tuxedoed chaperones. As her first met gala, she got 10/10. We can’t wait to see what she’ll don next year.
2. Lana Del Rey
Lana Del Rey was both on theme and indelible in an archival Alexander McQueen look. The headdress veil was placed atop a pair of deer antlers made out of thorny twigs that looked allusive to the classical Sleeping Beauty costumes. If you need a pick me up, watch this video of her accidentally poking Kim Kardashian with her headpiece.
- Mona Patel
The Indian entrepreneur made her Met debut wearing custom Iris Van Herpen couture. The kinetic flower sleeves, Indian embroidery and butterfly shaped corset metamorphosed her into an elvin alien that encapsulates the Garden of Time in a unique way.
My Goddess Complex 
Leave a comment