Behind The Scenes: The 2024 Met Gala
Image from Vogue
The Met Gala, often described as “fashion’s biggest night”, is an event looked forward to every year by those within the fashion world. The Gala is first and foremost a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with tickets rumored to range from $20,000 to $30,000 per person. This year’s Gala opened the exhibit “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” and the dress code was based on a 1962 short story written by J. G. Ballard, titled “The Garden of Time.”
The story follows a count and countess who live in a large villa in the countryside. Every day the couple can see a ragged army of “humanity” approaching their villa from the distance. To combat this, the count plucks a crystal flower from the garden that moves time and pushes back the horde slightly. He does this every day, but there are a finite number of flowers. On the last day, as the army breaks down the wall to the garden, two stone figures that resemble the count and countess jump out of a rose bush in the garden and the thorns stop the horde.
Luke Meagher, an infamous fashion reviewer who is always quick to comment on the event, called this year’s commitment to the theme “a joke” in a dig at the half-baked attempts of many designers.
“I think both the exhibit and the dress code theme have been inspired not just by fashion conservation, but the general theme in the past decade or so of secondhand vintage and archival fashion becoming not only a trend but part of the normal wardrobe,” Meagher added.
Before the Gala, Meagher predicted that the gala would be rife with florals and clock motifs, as obvious representations of the theme taken from Ballard’s story. He also predicted that designers would go into their archives for historical materials to embody the recent explosion of pre-loved fashion.
“I know that people think the Met Gala is vapid,” Meagher said, “but it is a fundraiser whose goal is to raise funds for the continuation of the costume institute so it can care for and curate exhibits about the history of fashion,” adding that “The Met doesn’t give the costume institute any money.”
Despite the scale and popularity of the event, most people are unaware of the work that goes on behind the scenes, the hands that make each gown, or what goes on after the carpet. Designers normally purchase a table for around $250,000 and fill it with the guests they’re dressing for the event. These guests need to be vetted by Anna Wintour, the global chief content editor of Conde Nast, who has been editor-in-chief of Vogue since 1988.
This year, Michael Kors, a prominent American designer, dressed 6 celebrities for Monday’s Met Gala: Gabrielle Union, Rachel Zegler, Allison Williams, Meg Ryan, Kelsea Ballerini, and Chase Stokes. Marah Harings, one of the team of 12 tailors who worked on Kors’ collection for this year’s Met Gala arrived in New York City late Thursday evening and began work on Friday. The final dress choices weren’t solidified until the Wednesday before the event, and the team was still waiting for pieces to arrive from Italy. “One of the dress options for Meg Ryan didn’t arrive ‘til Saturday afternoon,” Harings says.
In the days leading up to the gala, the tailoring team was hard at work in the Kors offices hand-stitching hundreds of sequins and flowers, stopping for alterations after last-minute fittings. “It’s a really funny mix [of glamour and hard work] you’re in these beautiful offices right by Bryant Park, but you don’t see any of it for 15 hours a day because you’re hunched over a table.” Harings said with a chuckle.
The team had to move the whole operation to The Pierre Hotel on Sunday to be nearer to the Met and the celebrities that needed fittings. Harings describes the team’s challenges moving the heavy gowns, sewing machines, and tools to the Pierre.
Between the rain and New York Uber drives, it almost seemed impossible, but the team achieved it and worked down to the wire. “Sunday night stretched into Monday,” Harings said, “I got 3.5 maybe 4 hours of sleep, but several tailors worked straight through the night.”
The looks had to be finished by 4:30 pm as the guests needed to get ready to arrive at the Gala’s start time of 6 pm. Tailors remained on the scene in case anything went wrong. No matter how you feel about the Met Gala, there is excitement in the air watching these pieces of art crafted by hundreds of hands be born into the public. Despite the hard work, Harings details the joy the team felt watching the parade of Gala go-ers leave the hotel. “We’re standing there eating our [gifted] macrons watching these celebs walk out and all the hotel staff is so excited, everyone was so nice, and it was just so fun.”
Resources
Bonner, M., & Garcia, G. (2024, April 22). Wait, what actually happens at the Met Gala Inside? here’s what goes down. Cosmopolitan. https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a39875972/what-happens-at-met-gala-inside/
Holtermann, C. (2024, May 1). Who are the hosts of the Met Gala?. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/01/fashion/met-gala-hosts-co-chairs.html
Kallon, C. (2024, May 8). Michael Kors Collection @ 2024 met Gala with Gabrielle Union. Red Carpet Fashion Awards. https://www.redcarpet-fashionawards.com/2024/05/08/michael-kors-collection-2024-met-gala/
The pierre NY: Hotel in Upper East Side: Official website. The Pierre, a Taj Hotel, New York. (n.d.). https://www.thepierreny.com/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwu8uyBhC6ARIsAKwBGpQWg1bKJYdElaI2V2HVQTLW2kyTc2K3FKto5a5rtpk1XbbtBBWcousaAskiEALw_wcB
Vogue. (2024, May 7). Everything you need to know about the 2024 met gala. https://www.vogue.com/article/everything-to-know-met-gala
Widjojo, C., & Malach, H. (2024, May 1). History of the met gala, how it turned from fundraiser to “fashion’s biggest night”: The ticket prices, celebrities and iconic moments. WWD. https://wwd.com/feature/met-gala-history-how-it-turned-from-fundraiser-to-fashions-biggest-night-1235167840/
