The Met Gala, fast fashion and Pope Francis Laudato Si

The Costume Institute Benefit, better known as the Met Gala, took place on May 6 in New York. The event has long been a stylized celebration of the sybaritic, with themes like America: A Lexicon of Fashion (2021), which showcased our own country's trends, or the strangely whimsical and fantastical Camp: Notes on Fashion (2019).

For a Catholic magazine writer (and perhaps for our readers too), nothing can compete with the 2018 theme Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination, which explored the sacred and the profane (and media coverage of the America was really quite large). But the theme of this year's gala, Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, offered attendees an opportunity to take a more environmentally friendly approach, one that could echo the pope's call François to take care of the animals. our common home. Andrew Bolton, Wendy Yu's curator in charge of the Costume Institute, told Vogue that the accompanying exhibition is largely an ode to nature and the emotional poetics of fashion.

Hundreds of celebrities came to walk on green carpet, but the dress code at The Garden of Time galas inspired fewer eco-friendly looks than I had hoped. The dress code comes from the title of a 1962 short story by JG Ballard. In the story, a wealthy royal couple enjoys the splendor of their walled estate, including a magical rose garden, until an angry mob encroaches on them. Every time the couple picks a magical rose from their garden, they travel back in time, delaying the mob's attack. But once the final rose is cut, the couple must prepare for its loss.

It was an interesting choice: the gala organizers seemed to have no problem looking at each other right in the eyes. As Ballard's short story shows, money and beauty cannot stop the destruction of the world. The galathe, the very symbol of money and beauty, has the opportunity to be a space for celebrities to make a statement that goes beyond fashion. Their choices have the potential to promote a social cause at an event that is historically a celebration of fashion and not an arena for political statements. This year's gala seemed primed for controversy, and yet none of the red carpet activism seen at other glitzy events like the Oscars was present this year.

Few events generate as much attention and pop culture frenzy. Thus, how attendees choose to interpret the gala theme has the potential to illuminate a cultural or sociopolitical theme through their attire. But most of the celebrities at Monday night's gala failed to push the fashion envelope. The golden fanfare continued and, although some participants wore vintage or recycled materials, little attention has been paid to the environmental degradation occurring in the fashion industry as a whole, most notably in the new era of fast fashion.

Fast fashion, clothing purchased cheaply and of poor quality, often under unsafe and unfair working conditions, is just one example of an industry that thrives on the economic cycle of creation and destruction, responding to market demands at the cost of the environment. Pope Francis warned against these abuses in Laudato Si. The encyclical focuses on caring for the natural environment, Our Common Home as Francis described it, as well as broader questions of the relationship between God, humans and the Earth.

Did Bolton have the encyclical in mind when he presented this year's theme? Probably not. Performing at the Met Gala can be complicated. The event is both a call for a celebration of the rich history of art and fashion and an exhibition of celebrities showing off their wealth and people who, as the encyclical says, are probably caught in a whirlwind of unnecessary purchases and expenses (No. 203). .

The fashion world is a cultural megaforce that allows billions of people to express themselves through clothing. The gala is a spectacle designed to be photographed on the museum staircase and commented on online by those with even a casual interest in haute couture.

But it is not irremediable. In a way, the existence of last night's star-studded party and its Sleeping Beauties on the carpet is a snub to the still-burgeoning world of fast fashion. Many outfits were made from natural materials and were the result of slow, meticulous craftsmanship. Some celebrities donned archival designer pieces. The challenge of waking up a Sleeping Beauty design was channeled by the model Kendall Jenner who wore an archival Givenchy dress from 1999 with a plunging neckline. Superstar and first time Zendaya, gala co-host stunned by not one but two looks on the red carpet, aligning with the evening dress code by being vintage and rare. The women wore wigs, wings and, in one case, a wet t-shirt. The men wore black tuxedos, white tuxedos, or in one case a black tuxedo with a bedazzled turnip buttonhole.

Few celebrities have taken a more sustainable route: Demi Moore sported a floral dress made from recycled wallpaper and Dear Delevingne, wore a carbon-neutral, lab-grown diamond hooded bodice. These types of looks are just one part of the future of the fashion world, a world that looks to the past to pave the way for a more sustainable path forward.

In Laudato Si, Pope Francis wrote that a constant stream of new consumer goods can confuse the heart and prevent us from cherishing every thing and every moment (No. 222). The Met Gala, when approached thoughtfully, offers us an opportunity to cherish the beauty of the world, whether it's the craftsmanship of those outfits or the art held in the museum. The event raises millions of dollars each year which benefit a cultural institution accessible to the general public. The event reminds us of how fashion, art and community intertwine to form our cultural fabric. It is therefore all the more important that we use it to promote what is good. Fashion is an expression of our soul and the way we express ourselves, but our human capacity to transform reality must unfold in accordance with God's original gift of all that is (No. 9). Fashion's ability to transform reality must be met with the hope that God's gift of all that is is more than a trend in the latest hemlines, but rather a call to change the industry for the good of our common home.

America didn't have a table at the event (even though Anna Wintour once did). tell Stephen Colbert that James Martin, SJ, was the best-dressed guest at his 2018 party), but I will continue to watch fashion's biggest night, albeit via my phone screen, every first Monday in May, with the hope that the seeds of sustainable fashion sown this year's event could gain momentum in the years to come.