The 2024 edition of one of the biggest fashion events in the world was inspired by a short story by JG Ballard, mixing nature and dystopia; understand the topic!
It’s time for the biggest “costume party” of the year! The MET Gala took place today, the 6th, following the tradition of almost 30 years, in which first Monday in May (every year), the steps of the New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (“the Met”) witness a true fashion parade.
The objective of the grand event is to raise funds for the museum — in fact, the name of the event already reveals the intuition of the occasion: “Met Clothing Institute Benefit Event”.
Tickets are very expensive, but some celebrities go there for free, however, to enter you need to be invited by the organizer Anna Wintour. It is worth mentioning that those who buy tickets also need to be invited by her, but some manage to free of charge.
Every year there is a different theme, with dress codes that are followed by all guests, covering different topics. Good examples were previous editions of the event: international relations from East to West (“China: Through the Looking Glass”, 2015) or even the visual history of Catholicism (“Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination”, 2018). But what will be the theme of 2024? Check it out below:
“The Garden of Time”
Andrew Boltonchief curator of the Met’s fashion museum The Costume Institute, instructed celebrity guests to choose words from the science fiction writer JG Ballard. In February of this year, the institution revealed the 2024 theme as “The Garden of Time”, tale of Ballard, from 1962.
In “Garden of Time”, the Count Axel and his wife live in a paladina villa with a walled estate. There are also “flowers of time”, which resemble glass, sprouting across the land, while on the horizon, a crowd carrying whips approaches the count’s villa.
The protagonist harvests the head of a time flower every day, turning back time by a few hours and turning back the crowd’s advance higher and higher on the hill. However, the flowers run out at a certain point and people end up invading the wall.
What they find, on the other hand, is surprising: a villa in ruins and two stone statues in the image of the Count and Countess.
The British author, who passed away in 2009, has at the center of his works unbridled violence, the dissolution of the bourgeois psyche and the dystopian catastrophe.
This Monday’s event will accompany the main exhibition, titled “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion”, which presents pieces from the archive spanning four centuries of history. Some of the pieces cannot even be touched, as they are very delicate.
Inspirations from the pop world
This is not the first time that Ballard will be referenced in something involving the pop world, since the writer is constantly the result of inspiration for different artists (from different spheres). In fashion, many designers are based on his works, and one of them is the London designer Andrew Groves, who launched a Spring-Summer collection based on the 1997 story, titled “Cocaine Nights”.
“There’s something about Ballard that takes the normal or the everyday and makes it horrible and subversive,” he told CNN. “He was very good at identifying the dystopian elements of the 20th century.”
In the song, Ballard also has its share, as artists from many genres have dedicated album covers, song titles and even entire albums to the writer. “Drowned World/ Substitute for Love”, a 1998 song by Madonna, takes its name from the 1962 novel, while the band Joy Division was inspired by the story “Atrocity Exhibition” to create the song of the same name.
Charli XCX dedicated the cover of his album, ‘Crash’ (2022) for the artist, mixing the blood of a car accident with sexual connotations, riding on a (destroyed) car hood wearing a black bikini, also according to CNN Brasil.
The Met Gala
The event led by editor-in-chief of Vogue America and president of the Met Gala, Anna Wintour, will explore the conservation work of the pieces, matching the title of “sleeping beauties”. In total, there will be around 250 pieces that will be on view to the public, including accessories and clothing from different eras that are, in some way, related to nature.
As the entire event revolves around fashion, many designers tend to appear at the event accompanied by an artist who serves as a mannequin for the pieces, as they wear their creations.
Brazil, in fact, was already part of this list, having Anita at the ceremony for first time in 2021. She was the guest of Alexandre Birman, Brazilian shoe designer, CEO of Arezzo & Co and owner of the Reserva and Schultz brands. However, no one knows what happens inside the event, as it is prohibited to take videos and images inside the exhibition.
