Story at a glance
- The Met Gala announced it will return with a two-part event.
- The themes of the gala are “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion” and “In America: An Anthology of Fashion.”
- The last gala was held on May 2, 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic hit.
The Met Gala won’t be returning for its typical event on the first Monday of May, but it will be making a comeback this year — as well as rolling into next year — in a special two-part event.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced on Monday the Met Gala will be held in two parts: the first on Sept. 18, 2021 and the second on May 2, 2022. The themes will be “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion” and “In America: An Anthology of Fashion,” respectively.
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“Over the past year, because of the pandemic, the connections to our homes have become more emotional, as have those to our clothes. For American fashion, this has meant an increased emphasis on sentiment over practicality,” Andrew Bolton, the Wendy Yu curator in charge of The Costume Institute, said in a press release.
“Responding to this shift, Part One of the exhibition will establish a modern vocabulary of American fashion based on the expressive qualities of clothing as well as deeper associations with issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion. Part Two will further investigate the evolving language of American fashion through a series of collaborations with American film directors who will visualize the unfinished stories inherent in The Met’s period rooms.”
Part One will include period rooms holding 20th- and 21st-century pieces that will reflect the “behaviors of the imagined occupants.” The event will also feature spearheaders of American sportswear, as well as a variety of designs by contemporary designers as the sports landscape has shifted amid social change.
Part Two will highlight historical and contemporary garments from the 18th century to modern day to convey their associated stories “from the personal to the political, the stylistic to the cultural, and the aesthetic to the ideological.”
The star-studded event is a fundraiser for New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, which houses The Anna Wintour Costume Center, in honor of Vogue’s editor-in-chief, who has been chair of the gala since 1995. Attendees are to dress according to the theme.
While Wintour always chairs the gala, co-hosts are normally announced. Though the press release doesn’t mention any, media and fashion fiends online are speculating that because of the cultural theme Amanda Gorman, a poet and activist who recited a poem on oppression and social change at President Biden’s inauguration, may be one of the hosts.
The last Met Gala, held on May 6, 2019, was themed “Camp: Notes on Fashion” and co-chaired by Lady Gaga, Harry Styles, Serena Williams, and Alessandro Michele.
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