Roses embroidered with crystals invaded the Metropolitan Museum of Art for an evening. With the “Garden of Time” as inspiration, celebrities flocked this Monday at the Met Galathe unmissable event in New York, United States, at the crossroads of fashion, popular culture and philanthropy.
France was not left out for this 2024 edition, since the most listened to French-speaking artist in the world, Aya Nakamura was invited for the first time, and presented herself wearing a shiny dress by Balmain.
After a notable presence during the 2022 edition, the successful French influencer Lena Situations was invited again this year and traveled across the Channel wearing an outfit by Schiaparelli.
High Priestess Anna Wintour
Actress Zendaya, dressed by John Galliano (Maison Margelia), appeared in a bias-cut dress in electric blue and emerald tones, veil and delicate feather on the head. Then we saw her again in another look, a dress with a long black train and a hat overflowing with roses.
Zendaya, 27, and singer Bad Bunny, 30, co-chaired the evening, along with Jennifer Lopez, whose transparent and sparkling Schiaparelli dress outlined wings, Marvel actor Chris Hemsworth and the high priestess of the The event, the editor-in-chief of Vogue, Anna Wintour.
During the evening, a few hundred pro-Palestinian demonstrators approached the famous 5th avenue where the museum stands, shouting “viva Palestina”. The police, who arrested several people, kept them at a distance behind barriers, AFP journalists noted.
“Garden of Time”
With the theme of “sleeping beauties”, and the “Garden of Time” as the dress code, an allusion to a short story by science fiction writer JG Ballard on ephemeral beauty, the creations placed the emphasis on nature.
Flowers were everywhere. Embroidered, in the shapes of ruffles, on the trains of dresses, in ornaments, we have seen them on the actress Uma Thurman, the rapper Nicki Minaj, the singers Erykah Badu, Camila Cabello.
South African singer Tyla’s strapless Balmain dress, evocative of the sands of time – right down to the hourglass accessory – was sculpted so closely to her body that she had to be carried up the steps.
A $75,000 dinner
For extravagance, we could count on Lana Del Rey, whose dark branches rising on her dress held a canopy-shaped tulle veil above her head.
Or on the rapper Cardi B, whose train required nine porters in tuxedos. She compared it to a “black rose”.
The carpet was also walked by the boss of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, whose video application ultra-popular with young people, but in the sights of the American authorities, is sponsoring the evening.
The purpose of the Met Gala is to finance the fashion department of the prestigious museum, “The Costume Institute”. According to the New York Times, a seat at this year’s dinner costs $75,000, an entire table costs $350,000, and the previous edition brought in some $22 million.
The event, which takes place on the first Monday in May and accompanies the opening of the major annual exhibition of the “Costume Institute”, unveiled to the press in the morning. This year, the Met took advantage of technology to “wake up” its “sleeping beauties”, in other words the most precious, original and sometimes fragile pieces from an extraordinary collection of 33,000 garments and accessories recounting several centuries of history of the fashion.
