Anyone who has received a wedding invitation embossed with “semiformal” understands the stress a simple dress code can create. Now imagine the invitation is from Anna Wintour at US Vogue instead of a high-school acquaintance, and you’re going to the Met Gala instead of a hotel ballroom.
That’s right, loosen your corset top and take three very deep breaths.
Gigi Hadid on the runway for Moschino in 2017 moves to the top of stylists’ moodboards for this year’s Met Gala theme.Credit: Getty
The annual event has surpassed the Oscars red carpet and the Paris Fashion Week front row as the biggest style circus. It traditionally accompanies the launch of an exhibition on the first Monday in May at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and has a dress code to match the artwork.
This year’s dress code is A Garden In Time, taken from a JG Ballard story written nearly 50 years before the dawn of Instagram. The exhibition theme is Sleeping Beauties, which explores the fragility of clothing that could break if worn.
Suddenly, semiformal sounds simple.
The Sleeping Beauties theme could be interpreted as a slight backhand with a velvet glove to Kim Kardashian, who controversially wore a dress made famous by Marilyn Monroe to the 2022 Met Gala.
“Well, that was a faux pas,” says arts adviser and fashion curator Alison Kubler.
What should celebrities wear to the Met Gala?
It’s important to acknowledge that celebrities, such as the event’s co-chairs Chris Hemsworth, Jennifer Lopez, Zendaya and Bad Bunny are not like us, doomscrolling shopping sites 48 hours before the party starts.
Jared Leto, dressed as Karl Lagerfeld’s cat Choupette at the 2023 Met Gala. Credit: Getty
“I like to think of celebrities like the ancient Greek or Hindu gods, enacting rich stories for our entertainment,” says Roger Leong, senior curator at the Powerhouse Museum. “This will be a celebrity interpretation of the theme, through the filter of designers and stylists.”
In other words, don’t be surprised if someone tries to outdo actor Jared Leto, who dressed as Karl Lagerfeld’s cat Choupette at last year’s tribute to the former Chanel creative director.
“It’s quite an intellectual theme,” says Queensland curator Kubler. The exhibition will use AI, film and scent to capture the essence of dresses too fragile to be placed on mannequins.“I fear the red carpet treatment will be less than intellectual.”
“It will be very different from what is on display. It would be wonderful if outfits could explore the social merit of clothing.”
Leong hopes red carpet choices will have a vintage feeling without cherry-picking fashion archives like Zendaya’s stylist Law Roach for her Dune 2 press tour, which included a robot suit from Thierry Mugler’s 1995 autumn/winter couture show and a Givenchy by Alexander McQueen motherboard dress from autumn/winter 1999.
“If you look at John Galliano’s couture show for Maison Margiela last season, there was a history of clothing captured in new pieces. Margiela has always understood the poetry of clothing.”
Kendall Jenner has a jump on celebrities, having worn a black lace dress from the critically acclaimed collection to the Vanity Fair Oscars party.
What will celebrities actually wear to the Met Gala?
“I’m interested to see how stylists and designers will interpret the theme,” says Australian stylist Jess Pecoraro who has worked with Jesinta Franklin, radio presenter Jackie O, model Sarah Ellen and Kate Waterhouse on red carpet looks. “I really hope we see plenty of archival pieces. I know if I was styling someone, that’s the direction I would be taking.”
Nature-inspired looks that fit the Met Gala’s sprawling garden theme from Schiaparelli and Loewe.Credit: Getty
If you’ve watched The Devil Wears Prada, you know that florals for a northern hemisphere spring are hardly groundbreaking, leaving plenty of outfits for designers to choose from.
Expect dresses borrowed from Jeremy Scott’s 2018 flower-inspired collection for Moschino, which starred supermodel Gigi Hadid dressed as a giant bouquet. In 1982, Thierry Mugler planted roots for the Moschino collection with his own range of flower dresses, while designer Daniel Roseberry arranged flowers in his dresses for Schiaparelli’s 2022 autumn/winter haute couture show.
More adventurous Jared Leto types might look to Loewe designer Jonathan Anderson’s shoes and coats sprouting grass from his spring-summer 2023 menswear show.
“Yes there will be flowers,” Kubler says. “If I was going, I would look for a piece that spoke to the fragility of clothing. I have a gold Yves Saint Laurent trench coat that leaves a trail of glitter whenever I wear it. Its limited lifespan makes it all the more valuable.”
“It says more than flowers.”
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