With crowds of Black Lives Matter protesters outside, and a vaccine mandate inside, the much-delayed Met Gala finally went ahead in New York on Monday evening. The event, usually held on the first Monday in May, was cancelled in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and rescheduled this year for the same reason.
The 2021 event was themed “American independence” and co-chaired by the singer Billie Eilish, the tennis pro Naomi Osaka, the actor Timothée Chalamet and the poet Amanda Gorman – all Gen Z darlings.
The annual fundraising event for the Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts has become simultaneously the Oscars and the Olympics of fashion. It also marks the opening of the institute’s major annual exhibition. That show, In America: A Lexicon of Fashion, is more overtly political than usual this year. Focusing on a broad-ranging selection of often-overlooked designers, its curator, Andrew Bolton, told the Guardian the exhibition “very much came out of the Black Lives Matter movement”.
Politics was overt on the red carpet too, with outfits that spoke to income and gender inequality – and even proposed some solutions.
AOC’s ‘Tax the Rich’ reveal
Typically, the politics of fashion is a subtle business, with colour or cut used to convey a message. So it was with the front of congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ dress at her first Met Gala appearance. The gown was suffragette white, with tuxedo detailing more typically seen in menswear. But when she turned around, the message was loud and clear: “Tax the Rich” printed in bold, red typeface across the entire back bodice.
The dress was designed by Aurora James, the creative director of Brother Vellis. James is a vocal supporter of, in her words, “economic justice”. In 2020, she started the 15% Pledge – a call to major retailers in the US to ensure at least 15% of their shelf space is dedicated to black-owned businesses, a campaign that Sephora, West Elm and Vogue have signed up to. On the red carpet, she told Vogue that the campaign had directed $10bn towards Black businesses to date.
But, as New York Times’ fashion editor, Vanessa Friedman, notes, the optics are complicated.
The reunion of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck has caused significant, nostalgic delight. Lopez’s Ralph Lauren outfit was also an exercise in remembrance, with a plunging neckline that harked back to her Versace Oscars dress (a look so widely sought-after that it prompted Google to invent image search) and a matching cowboy hat. Her association with matching cowboy hats predates Affleck – she wore a cream one at the 1998 VMAs, with Mark Wahlberg on her arm.
While the armchair fashion historians might praise this multitude of nods, the armchair epidemiologists will probably despair the kiss she shared with Affleck, since health advice on mask wearing suggests you should not touch the outside of them.
After taking home video of the year at the 2021 MTV Video Music awards on Sunday in a lilac half-suit half-gown, the US rapper Lil Nas X made his debut at the Met Gala with an even more elaborate show, inspired by a coterie of great pop divas.
Dressed all in gold by Versace, the performer arrived draped in a regal velvet cape (echoing Rihanna’s omelette gown from 2015, with a bit of King Henry VIII). He threw this off to reveal a reflective suit of armour beneath (Sweet Dreams-era Beyoncé, with a bit of Tin Man). Then he unclasped that to show off his final look: a crystal-studded catsuit (every popstar, at some point).
Lil Nas X told reporters on the carpet that the drawn-out show was symbolic of his “coming out of his shell” over the past year. Though show-stealing, costume changes are not an unprecedented move, with the rapper’s look being likened to Lady Gaga’s four-piece strip-down at the 2019 Met Gala.
Frank Ocean brought a new meaning to “bring your child to work day”. Accompanying him was a ghoulish robotic baby whose head appeared to move on its own accord, meeting photographers with a steely, horrifying gaze. Not since Rosemary’s have we seen a baby this devilish; its face and skin a shock of lime green. Decked out in a printed onesie, the infant – whose name is Cody – matched its father’s freshly dyed buzzcut.
The soulful softboi (Frank, not Cody) is no stranger to red-carpet absurdism. In 2019 he arrived at the otherwise colourful camp-themed Met Gala in a sober black-and-white set, drawing comparisons to valets and security guards, and immediately inciting furious debate about the definition of camp itself.
