The ever-popular Met Gala — a fashion mainstay that serves as a crossover for the intertwined world of attention-seeking celebrity and the haute couture designs of the sartorial realm — has revealed its theme for 2024.
Organizers for “fashion’s biggest night out” say this year’s theme will be “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.”
The event has largely become a spectacle for celebrity influencers to get more eyes on their personal brands, but at its foundation, it’s meant to be a fundraising benefit for New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Vogue and Anna Wintour, who front and host the event, released this year’s theme which (maybe intentionally) has some puzzled as to how guests will interpret their latest marching orders guiding them on what to wear this year.
The event will be held, as always, on the first Monday in May, which falls on the month’s sixth day this year.
Vogue billed the event as a moment to welcome “stars, young creatives, and industry paragons.”
In recent years, the event has been a platform for politicians to make apropos statements on legislation, for reality TV stars to appropriate vintage pieces from historical figures, for many to flaunt wealth and style, and for fashion lovers to be whimsical with magical realism in the Big Apple.
In 2023, the gala honored lauded designer Karl Lagerfeld, who frequented the event at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute. Lagerfeld died in 2019 in Paris at the age of 85.
This year, Vogue announced the 2024 co-chairs — including Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez, Zendaya, Chris Hemsworth and Anna Wintour — releasing the news in a cheeky group chat-themed Instagram post.
The Met further explained the 2024 theme, writing that the idea is meant to “heighten our engagement with these masterpieces of fashion by evoking how they feel, move, sound, smell and interact when being worn, ultimately offering a deeper appreciation of the integrity, beauty and artistic brilliance of the works on display.”
The theme is meant to “explore notions of rebirth and renewal, using nature as a metaphor for the impermanence of fashion,” which may or may not clarify the idea for those outside of the fashion or art world. And maybe that’s the point.
