Best Looks From The Met Gala 2024
The Met Gala 2024 was held on the first Monday of May! See some of the best looks below.
In May of each year, The Metropolitan Museum of Art hosts The Met Gala as a museum fundraiser. It features an exhibit that coincides with the dress code theme for the evening. Based on this theme, star-studded celebrities walk the red carpet wearing outfits that showcase the creativity and skill of some of fashion’s best designers. The Met Gala 2024 exhibit theme, Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, and the dress code theme, “The Garden of Time,” inspired many memorable looks for the celebration.
Overview of The Met Gala 2024
The funds raised from The Met Gala go toward the Costume Institute of the museum. While many individuals contribute, a primary figure credited with organizing and benefitting the event is Anna Wintour. A notable figure in fashion, The Met’s press release on the event says,
“To date, the Benefit has raised more than $223.5 million for The Costume Institute under the leadership of Met Trustee Anna Wintour. Ms. Wintour, Chief Content Officer of Condé Nast and Global Editorial Director of Vogue, has been a Trustee of The Met since January 1999.”
For the 2024 event, she served as a co-chair, sporting the following floral attire:
Wintour’s look, with its floral accents, leans into the “Garden” theme. The following explains the night’s theme in more detail.
What is the Met Gala 2024 theme?
According to The Met, the Sleeping Beauties exhibit theme comes not from the fairytale but from “garments that can no longer be dressed on mannequins due to their extreme fragility.”
When an item of clothing enters the Costume Institute collection, its status is changed forever. What was once a vital part of a person’s life is now a motionless ‘artwork’ that can no longer be worn or heard, touched, or smelled. This exhibition reanimates these objects, helping us experience them as they were originally intended — with vibrancy, dynamism, and life.
The Met Museum
Lilah Ramzi’s article for Vogue further discusses the inspiration behind the exhibit and dress code theme for this year’s event.
Per the Metropolitan Museum of Art, we’re to expect a range of fashion on display, dating back to a 17th-century Elizabethan-era bodice that embodies the beauty of the natural world, its fragility, and its inevitable decay. More modern, less delicate pieces imbued with the same spirit as the spotlit fashions will be showcased alongside them and broken up into three subthemes: Land, Sea, and Sky.
Lilah Ramzi
The “Garden of Time” theme comes from a 1962 short story of the same name by J.G. Ballard. In it, Count Axel and his Countess live in a seemingly utopian world with a beautiful garden. However, Ballard weaves dystopian elements into the story through their attempt to maintain their paradise in a way that Ramzi describes as “trying to keep every grain of a fistful of sand intact in your palm.”
Essentially, Ramzi says, “Boiled down, the dress code, as well as the exhibition, is about fleeting beauty.”
So, florals, like those worn by Wintour, vintage pieces, and pieces resembling time or clocks are potential avenues of inspiration for the outfits of this year’s event.
Through The Met’s description and Ramzi’s article, it is evident that this year’s theme leaves room for interpretation. Designers and celebrities might choose to follow the exhibit’s Sleeping Beauties theme directly or lean more toward the “The Garden of Time” theme, and some might even combine elements of both into their looks.
The Met Gala 2024 celebrity hosts’ looks
Along with Wintour, the four other celebrity co-chairs each displayed a unique interpretation of the theme.
Bad Bunny
The rapper’s custom-fit ensemble, designed by Maison Margiela, turned heads as he walked the red carpet.
Zendaya
Ramzi’s article claims that “melancholic florals” are a key way to match the garden theme, and Zendaya’s first dress, designed by Maison Margiela, does this.
For her second look, the actress sported a vintage Givenchy dress that embodied the “Sleeping Beauties” element of this year’s theme:
Jennifer Lopez
The actress and singer’s gown designed by Schiaparelli was a classy take on this year’s theme with an ode to butterfly wings, seen through the neckline of the dress.
Chris Hemsworth
The actor wore an all-white suit designed by Tom Ford. He was accompanied by his wife, actress and model Elsa Pataky, who wore a gold-hued gown by the same designer.
A condensed list of celebrity attendees’ Met Gala 2024 looks
Vogue offers a complete list of the best-dressed celebrities who walked The Met Gala 2024 red carpet. Below is a short compilation of some of the evening’s standout outfits.
Nicki Minaj
Designed by Marni, the rapper’s vibrant dress resembled a garden with carefully crafted and placed flowers.
Gigi Hadid
The model’s garden-esque Thom Browne ballgown required extensive time and effort to create, but it paid off in its Met Gala debut.
Lana Del Ray
As an ode to a past collection of the late designer and a representation of attendees who did not go for a floral aesthetic, the singer wore an Alexander McQueen woodland-esque look.
Tyla
The singer’s Balmain “Sands of Time” hourglass gown brought the time aspect of the “Garden of Time” theme to life.
Ariana Grande
Similar to Zendaya, the singer sported two looks for the evening.
Her first was an ethereal gown by the designer Loewe that she wore for the red carpet, pictured above.
Then, as the designated performer for the evening, she wore a fairy-esque look designed by Maison Margiela:
Morgan Spector and Rebecca Hall
The actor’s suit, designed by Willy Chavarria, and the actress’s Danielle Frankel dress both featured the floral accent trend of the night inspired by the “Garden” theme.
Stefon Diggs
The athlete impressed in a suit designed by H&M and inspired by the Sleeping Beauties theme.
Cardi B
The rapper wore a Windowsen gown that, according to the designer, drew inspiration from the “Garden” theme, not through the flowers themselves but the soil in which they grow.
Emma Chamberlain
In a dark-hued gown, designed by Jean Paul Gaultier and Cartier, the influencer’s outfit resembled a more melancholy interpretation of this year’s theme.
Elle Fanning
Similar to the statue present at the end of Ballard’s short story, the actress’ glass-like gown, designed by Balmain and Cartier paid homage to both the “Garden” and Sleeping Beauties themes.
Keke Palmer
In a sparkling Marc Jacobs gown, the singer paid homage to the Sleeping Beauties theme.
Barry Keoghan
The actor sported a suit designed by Burberry and inspired by Count Axel, one of the main characters in Ballard’s short story.
Sabrina Carpenter
Wearing an Oscar de la Renta blue dipped gown, the singer’s look drew inspiration from Ballard’s short story. Her dress also resembled an orchid’s floral accents fitting the “Garden” theme.
For a comprehensive look into all things Met Gala 2024, visit Vogue‘s website and YouTube channel.
