Fashions mega night of the year is around the corner and the Met Gala red carpet theme has been announced along with superstars Zendaya Jennifer Lopez, Chris Hemsworth, Bad Bunny as this year co chairs.
Organizers revealed that the official dress code for even which take place on May 6 is ” The Garden of Time”. The theme takes its title from 1962 short story written by British author JG Ballard set in a garden filled with translucent time manipulating powers.
Ballard who is associated with New Wave science fiction often set his searingly relevant dystopian stories in eras of ecological apocalypse or rising dissenting technologies.
The years co chairs alongside Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour include Meta Gala debuts and mainstays. Hemsworth will make his first appearance at the occasion while Zendaya will return for the first time in many years. Honorary chairs include Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew.
The Ballardian theme accompanies The Costume Institute exhibition ” Sleeping Beauties Reawakening Fashion” which will run at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from May 10 through September 2.
The showcase consist of 250 items and garments from the Mets extensive archive various are too fragile to be staged on mannequins. The most delicate historical pieces will instead flat in suspended glass coffins like Princess Aurora in fairytale ” Sleeping Beauty if you will.
The complex conceptual nature of this year dress code stand in contrast to last year commemorative nod to Karl Lagerfelds Legacy.
The Met Gala theme often vacillates between straightforward retrospectives and more prompts and artful. One such fan was the 2018 theme of Heavenly Bodies which encourage guest to dive deep into the imagistic history of Catholicism and rich.
This year guests will have various reference points to interpret. In Ballard story Count Axel and wife are trapped in their walled garden as angry mob amasses outside their gates.
As time reversing blooms dwindles both are aware of fate that awaits them.
Out on the red carpet we see literal interpretation fo flowers with distinct stem like rods of glass and petals encompassing a crystal heart.
There is melancholic and dismal Ballard vision. Vogue instructs moody florals would not be enough so reams of black more gothic blooms.
