Met Gala 2024: What does the theme “Sleeping Beauties: Awakening Fashion” mean?

Fashion's biggest night is just a few hours away. The Met Gala 2024 will see some of the world's hottest celebrities walk the red carpet, dressed in the best possible way. This year's Gala theme stems from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute's latest exhibition: “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” So we can expect fairytale meets couture on the red carpet at this year's Met Gala 2024.

“When a garment enters our collection, its status is irrevocably altered. What was once a vital part of a person's lived experience is now an immobile 'work of art' that can no longer be worn, heard , touched or felt The exhibition strives to reanimate these works of art by awakening their sensory capacities through a diverse range of technologies, providing visitors with sensory “access” to rare historical clothing and rarefied contemporary fashions. ” conservative Andrew Bolton told CBS News.

“By appealing to the widest possible range of human senses, the exhibition aims to reconnect with the works on display as they were originally conceived with vivacity, dynamism and ultimately life.”
The theme goes hand in hand with a dress code, nicknamed “The Garden of Time”.

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Le Jardin du Temps – Met Gala 2024 dress code

The Met Gala dress code is usually interpreted quite loosely by guests. Creative minds are full of imagination and interpret the dress code in grand costumes. Some are generally relevant while others lead to lots of conversations and even memorable red carpet moments.

What exhibition does the 2024 Met Gala theme celebrate?

“Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” is the theme that the Met Gala exhibitions will follow. The theme is inspired by the clothing on display at the Met. Approximately 250 garments will be featured from the Costume Institute's 33,000-piece collection. Most of the objects on display are usually never on display because they are too fragile and likely to collapse.

Instead, they will be placed on glass display cases, just like the legendary Sleeping Beauty.

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“The Met's innovative Costume Institute exhibition in spring 2024 will push the boundaries of our imagination and invite us to discover the multi-sensory facets of a garment, many of which are lost upon entering a museum collection as an object. Sleeping Beauties will deepen our engagement with these fashion masterpieces by evoking the way they feel, move, sound, smell and interact when worn, providing a deeper appreciation of integrity, of the beauty and artistic brilliance of the works on display,” said Max Hollein, director of the Met Museum.

What is the link between The Garden of Time and Sleeping Beauty?

Everyone knows the classic fable Sleeping Beauty, which tells the story of a beautiful princess who is sent into a magical sleep only to be awakened by the kiss of her true love, a prince charming. For centuries, the story has conveyed the message that true love conquers all.

The Garden of Time is a short story by JG Ballard. The story is about a couple living in a beautiful house.

The story shows a mob slowly and inevitably moving towards them, bringing destruction. In the couple's garden grow “flowers of time”, and each of them plucked sends the crowd back in time, further from their inevitable arrival at home. The garden eventually stops producing new flowers, and the destruction of their beautiful home and their life together is inevitable.

The exhibition itself, like a garden, promises to be a multi-sensory experience, designed to stimulate all the senses and remain true to the two fables. The galleries will be designed “to explore a different theme inspired by the natural world,” the Met said.

For example, one of the floors of a gallery space will be animated with snakes and the ceiling of another with a projection of birds.

What have been the themes of the Met Gala over the years?

The Met Gala has had many memorable themes over the years. Last year's theme paid homage to fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. In 2021 and 2022, the In America theme served as the first and second parts of a look back at American fashion throughout the years.

The 2020 gala was postponed due to the pandemic, but its theme was “About Time: Fashion and Duration.” In 2019, the theme was “Camp: Notes on Fashion.”