The Met Gala red carpet theme and this year’s co-chairs, Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Bad Bunny, and Chris Hemsworth, have finally been revealed. Fashion’s greatest night of the year is rapidly approaching.
The official dress code for the May 6 event is “The Garden of Time,” according to a statement sent by the organizers today. The theme gets its name from a British author’s 1962 short novel, “Time-Manipulating Flowers,” which is set, as the title implies, in a garden full of transparent flowers.
Ballard, who is strongly linked to New Wave science fiction, frequently places his eerily current dystopian tales in periods of ecological catastrophe or the emergence of disruptive technologies.
“Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion,” an exhibition by The Costume Institute, will have a Ballardian theme and be on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from May 10 to September 2. About 250 objects and outfits from the vast Met archive are on display, many of which are too delicate to be put on mannequins. Instead, the most delicate historical artifacts will be displayed flat in hanging glass coffins, resembling Princess Aurora from the classic fable “Sleeping Beauty.”
Andrew Bolton, the Wendy Yu Curator in Charge at the Costume Institute, described the exhibition to Vogue as “It is very much an ode to nature and the emotional poetics of fashion,” “One thing I hope this show will activate is that sensorial appreciation of fashion.” the host said.
Along with Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, the year’s co-chairs include both first-timers and Met Gala veterans. Zendaya will attend the event for the first time in a number of years, while Hemsworth will be making his debut. Jonathan Anderson, creative director at Loewe, and Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok, are honorary chairs.
Compared to last year’s tribute to Karl Lagerfeld’s legacy, this year’s dress code is more intricate and innovative. The Met Gala topic frequently swings between simple retrospectives and more creative, arbitrary ideas. The 2018 subject of “Heavenly Bodies,” which invited visitors to delve deeply into the rich, imagistic history of Catholicism, was one such fan favorite.
There will be an abundance of colorful points of reference for guests to interpret this year. In Ballard’s tale, a vengeful mob gathers outside the gates of Count Axel and his wife, trapping them inside their walled garden. Its time-reversing flowers are diminishing, and both know what is coming for them.
The fictitious flowers may be seen in their literal form on the red carpet, with distinct stems that resemble “rods of glass” and petals that round a “crystal heart.” However, there’s a gloomy, depressing quality to Ballard’s vision. You can anticipate mounds of black or darker, more gothic flowers because, as Vogue advises, “moody florals won’t be moody enough.”
