The Met Gala red carpet theme is now officially revealed, and fashion’s grandest event of the year is quickly approaching. The official dress code for the May 6 event is “The Garden of Time,” according to a statement released by the organizers today.
The museum will host an exhibition titled “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” on Monday, May 6, at which time guests will be welcomed by Bad Bunny, Chris Hemsworth, Jennifer Lopez, Zendaya, and Anna Wintour of Vogue.
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.
Being strongly identified with New Wave science fiction, Ballard frequently sets his relevant dystopian stories in periods of emerging dissident technology or ecological apocalypse.
“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.”
Met Gala veterans and newcomers alike make up this year’s co-chairs, along with Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue. 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.
The Met Gala’s theme frequently swings between simple retrospectives like the 1996 celebration of Christian Dior and the 1997 theme honoring Gianni Versace.
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.
