All We Know So Far About The 2024 Met Gala
The Met Gala began in 1948 as an annual fundraising event for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. The charity dinner was held in several rotating venues around New York City — from Central Park to the Rainbow Room — until the late 1970s when Vogue editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland took over. This was when the Gala began taking place in the Met and took a turn toward the star-studded, themed, over-the-top, invite-only fashion fest we know and love today. After fashion royalty Anna Wintour became chairwoman in the 1990s, the event skyrocketed to a full-fledged red-carpet affair with tickets costing tens of thousands of dollars each.
The theme of the Met Gala is announced at the end of the preceding year when the announcement is made for the Costume Institute's spring exhibition. The focus of the exhibition serves as the inspiration for the May Met Gala's theme. Last year's theme, for example, was the work of designer Karl Lagerfeld. This year's exhibition, it appears, is to be centered around rare archival pieces of historical fashion.
2024's Met Gala theme
The official title of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute's spring 2024 exhibition will be Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion. Its goal is to give archival garments from centuries past an opportunity to once again interact with people long after they are no longer suitable to be worn or touched. The exhibit will incorporate sensory input from soundscapes to light projection and high-tech artificial intelligence to augmented reality to allow patrons to interact with the pieces on display.
The theme of history combined with the technologically advanced ways now available to experience it could lead to a very interesting matching Met Gala theme that could be much more open to interpretation than last year's concept. In other words, we should prepare to take in a wide variety of creative interpretations of the theme from some of the most fashionable presences in the world next spring. That said, be sure to mark your calendar for May 6, 2024.
Open to interpretation
The main appeal of the Met Gala — other than the glitz and glamour that comes along with any gathering of celebrities —is the creativity exhibited by each guest's (or their designer of choice's) interpretation of the theme and how they translate that into their ensemble. Aside from raising funds and gaining publicity, everyone is there to communicate through the medium of fashion. Attempting to predict some of the theme's interpretations is one of the most fun aspects of watching the event.
It seems reasonable to expect to see more celebrities attempt to wear actual historical fashion pieces. Take Kim Kardashian's appearance at the 2022 Gala, for example. She wore an iconic dress once worn by Marilyn Monroe to wish a certain U.S. president a happy birthday. However, it's also possible that celebs and designers will seize the opportunity to incorporate technology into their pieces designed specifically for the event. Augmented reality dress, anyone? We can't wait to see what kind of fashion innovations show up.