With the “Garden of Time” as their inspiration, celebrities flocked to the Metropolitan Museum gala on Monday, New York’s must-see event at the crossroads of fashion and philanthropy.
Dark suit with highlighted seams and large hat evoking the Tudor era, the prince of reggaeton Bad Bunny set the tone, black floral bouquet in hand, when he walked the steps of the museum backing onto Central Park.
Actress Zendaya, dressed as the Puerto Rican artist 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.
American actress Zendaya arrives at the Metropolitan Museum gala in New York, May 6, 2024 / Angela Weiss / AFP
Zendaya, 27, and 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 event, Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour.
Sands of time
American actress Jennifer Lopez arrives at the Met Gala in New York, May 6, 2024 / Angela WEISS / AFP
During the evening, a few hundred pro-Palestinian demonstrators approached 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.
Behind other barriers, hundreds of fans tried to catch a glimpse of the celebrities.
American rapper Cardi B at the Metropolitan Museum gala in New York, May 6, 2024 / Dia Dipasupil / Getty/AFP
Some probably disappointed because Rihanna, one of the most anticipated, did not show up. Just like Katy Perry who posted a photo of herself doctored by artificial intelligence on the gala steps.
“I couldn’t go to the MET, I had to work,” wrote the “Firework” singer on Instagram (207 million subscribers) where she deceived many Internet users, including her own mother.
Many other celebrity deepfakes – Rihanna, Selena Gomez, etc. – have spread across social networks, this time generated by anonymous people.
With the theme of “sleeping beauties”, and the dress code of “Garden of Time”, an allusion to a short story by science fiction writer JG Ballard, 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, or Aya Nakamura, the French-speaking artist most listened to in the world who could sing during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics.
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.
TikTok and hologram
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.
American singer Lana Del Rey at the Metropolitan Museum gala in New York, May 6, 2024 / Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty/AFP
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 application, in the sights of the American authorities, is sponsoring the evening.
The purpose of the Met Gala is to fund the museum’s fashion department, “The Costume Institute”.
According to the New York Times, a seat at the dinner this year cost $75,000, an entire table cost $350,000, and the previous edition brought in some $22 million.
The event is held on the first Monday in May and accompanies the opening of the major annual exhibition of the “Costume Institute”.
This year, the Met took advantage of technology to “awaken” its “sleeping beauties”, in other words the most precious, original and sometimes fragile pieces, from a collection of 33,000 garments and accessories recounting several centuries of history of the fashion.
Like a satin silk ball gown adorned with embroidery and embellished with chiffon from the house of Worth that can no longer be put on a mannequin.
The 1887 piece is shown flat, but it has also been reconstructed in computer-generated images and comes to life again, with the ruffles deployed, in the form of a hologram.
Throughout the pieces, immersion is achieved through noises, those of an Alexander McQueen dress made entirely of shells, the sounds of which have been recreated.
Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny arrives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art gala, in New York, May 6, 2024 / Angela WEISS / AFP
The museum also collaborated with generative artificial intelligence specialist Open AI, behind ChatGPT, to allow visitors to converse with 20th-century New York socialite, Natalie Potter, on the impressive dress with a train cathedral that she wore on her wedding day, December 4, 1930.
