The biggest fashion event of the year falls on the first Monday of May. Since 1948, stars have graced the Metropolitan Museum of Art with themed looks that range from dazzling to completely jaw-dropping.
Fans will see their favorite celebrities walk the carpet of this year’s Met Gala on May 6.
Each year the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York produces an exhibit honoring a theme, person, or moment in fashion. The gala itself honors the opening of the exhibit every year by creating a dress code that alignment with its subject. This year’s exhibit is titled “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.”
The actual exhibition within the museum is centered around honoring pieces of fashion that are so old or delicate that they can never be worn again. Meaning that these masterpieces have been forever put to rest or sleep.
According to NBC News, not only is it an ode to one-of-a-kind craftsmanship, but the exhibition is divided into three sections: earth, land, and sea. Each will have unique relics dedicated to celebrating that aspect of nature, emphasizing the emotional art of design and its ties to our natural world, according to MET curator Andrew Bolton in Vogue.
Obviously, stars can’t wear pieces that have been retired from carpet couture, although Kim Kardashian has tried. That’s where the dress code differs from the theme itself. The dress code for the past several years has been created by Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour and her co-hosts. The dress code aligns with the exhibition theme but it’s never exactly the same.
This year’s is “The Garden of Time.”
The dress codes are usually very illusive and interpretable, making it so that each look can be different. Too tight of a dress code makes for a boring carpet. The dress code was inspired by J.G. Ballard’s short story by the same name, which is a science fiction story about the brevity of nature.
Online sleuths are already creeping on celebrity stylists to find hints about potential interpretations and celebrity appearances. Stylists could lean into the short story reference and make allusions to climate change, wilting flowers, or changing seasons. They could take inspiration from the exhibition theme itself, as some people have done in the past, with nods to floral fairytales. Or even dress as nature itself.
Designers including Alaia, Simone Rocha, Balenciaga, and Loewe are all rumored, or at least hoped to make high-fashion appearances on the red carpet this evening.
Of course, we can hope, pray, and predict all we want, but the intrigue of the Met Gala is nobody knows what will happen until those stars step out onto the red carpet.