the garden has no time (for opulence)

met gala 2024: the theme, the dress code, the protests—dystopia

the met gala is my superbowl. without fail, i will tune in every year to rate and roast our glorified court jesters over fashion choices and collaborations paid with an egregious amount of money that i cannot even fathom. i’ll review it all from the comfort of my bedroom, live-tweet, text nella, and post on my instagram story.

this year was no different. beautiful gowns (both /positive and /derogatory), anticipating whether rihanna showing up will be up in the air or not, and men who still have the gall to walk up the steps in black suits.

having seen the looks that graced our screens, i fear miss anna wintour had far too much faith in high society’s ability to dress according to interpretations that go deeper than surface level. but first, let’s remind ourselves what the met gala is even for.

the first monday of may marks the opening night of the costume institute's annual fashion exhibit. the gala acts as a fundraiser to not only have an exhibit every year, but also to pay for the research, conversation, and technology needed for fashion preservation within the museum’s archives. it is an affair woven with history.

besides celebrities and cultural icons in the fashion realm, what kind of person warrants an invitation? the forbes-certified millionaires whose lives revolve around social events and philanthropy, that’s who. take mona patel, for example—the mysterious woman that easily ranked among the list of best-dressed with her golden, mechanical iris van herpen piece styled by law roach. she’s a harvard/stanford/mit alum, entrepreneur, investor, and founder of couture for cause.

patrons of the arts, idols, image architects. an invitation to the met gala means you have $75k to spare on a ticket. plus an additional price of a couple hundred thousands for custom couture or borrowed archive looks.

you would think that fashion is delicate and temporary. sleeping beauties: reawakening fashion is dedicated to challenging that notion. the interactive exhibit is a full sensory experience that gives visitors access to rare historical garments and contemporary fashions. according to curator andrew bolton, the status of every item that enters the met’s collection is changed irrevocably. with this exhibition, we’re able to connect with clothing as their makers intended.

What was once a vital part of a person's lived experience is now a motionless 'artwork' that can no longer be worn or heard, touched, or smelled.

typically, guests are given broad creative freedom to base their styling around the exhibition. not for sleeping beauties. no, no. the official dress code given to guests back in november was the garden of time, which is inspired by a short story of the same name by j.g. ballard. my form of investigative journalism involves required reading. trust, if there are themes and motifs to find and analyze, i will promptly pick up a book. feel free to read it: here.

the short story follows count axel, his wife, mozart chiming against the walls, a villa of mellowed magnificence, and their gorgeous garden in complete bloom as an enormous army approaches slowly over the horizon. before the army can descend on them, axel plucks a six-foot glass/crystal/ice flower from the garden, which promptly flings the entire army off course and against time. the flower reverses the fruits of their labor. axel returns to his wife. they enjoy the longest evening of that summer.

they both know the garden of time is dying, trying with all their might to resist against time, and knowing it’s impossible to prevent it.

rather than preserve the beauty of the garden—or share it, at that—the couple plucks every flower till not a single petal is left. the army, expecting glamour within their reach, arrives instead to weeds flourishing where opulence once persisted. stationed amongst the ruin is the count and countess turned to statue.

the ruin, formerly a spacious villa, barely interrupted the ceaseless tide of humanity.

the garden of time explores the façade of indulging in luxury, oftentimes powered by greed, and a moving metaphor for human history. all we know is beauty and decay.

unfortunately, some celebrities took this story to mean that an excessive amount of florals would get the job done. sigh. it’s more than a missed opportunity to not play off of nature vs nurture relationship between life and destruction. how does one accept the passage of time if you’re not able to witness the beauty that was there in the before and the after?

this is why i loved the level of detail-oriented fashion from those that delivered interesting executions inspired by the text. tyla’s hourglass dress, bag, and body was a story told by time. the drama and affair of zendaya’s first and second outfit spoke to the level of dedication needed to commit to a theme in the first place—a fully bloomed flower in her own right. wisdom kaye, in collaboration with robert wun, wore a custom piece entitled “the red rose” as a symbol for deterioration and acknowledgment for how beautiful things do not last forever. bad bunny’s styling heavily reminded me of count axel, so consider that headcanon as the intended depiction. mindy kaling’s sculptural gown, designed by gaurav gupta, was called “the melting flower of time.” emma chamberlain quite literally embodied decay, almost as if she was torn out of ballard’s excerpt.

on one side, elaborate fashions and wealth were flaunted. on the other—behind the barricades and police—pro-palestine protesters were marching. i am not lost to the irony and contradictions of the gala having this theme on this year. a critique on the fall of aristocracy as we celebrate unattainable couture. it’s quite the timeless examination.

i think people miscategorize dystopia as fate society could happen rather than suffering that is based in reality that has happened. contrary to popular belief, the extreme dystopian media we’ve consumed since middle school is not just fiction. it’s not made up—imaginative what ifs. dystopia explores characteristics and phenomenon of current events and tribulations through the lens of prediction, not possibility. it’s about taking cultural trends and applying them to the future.

suzanne collins was inspired to write the hunger games after flipping through the channels on her cable tv from mindless reality tv shows to cam footage of the vietnam war. margaret atwood's the handmaid’s tale harkens slavery and the salem witch trials.

the world has real apathy for violence on black and brown bodies, but it will mimic sympathy for the white protagonists that authors inflict this same violence on within their fiction. every met gala, people say we are living in the hunger games. i scroll on twitter to see alternating images of gowns and bombs, of wealth and despair.

and when this cycle of creation and destruction is no longer a testament to time, will historians still call it dystopian? or will it just be called inevitable?

“The world is full of painful stories. Sometimes it seems as though there aren't any other kind and yet I found myself thinking how beautiful that glint of water was through the trees.”
― octavia e. butler, parable of the sower (THE dystopian book) (it takes places in 2024) (it was published in 1993) (literally read it) (i still haven’t read it)