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When Is The Next Met Gala?
While fashion’s most exclusive night is traditionally held on the first Monday of May it was hosted in September this year, a day after New York Fashion Week…
If any industry embraces the breaking of tradition with gusto it’s fashion. Never shy of experimenting with the new, the fresh and the bold reinvention is as much a part of the fabric of the ecosystem as storytelling, creativity and statement making; therefore, there was little doubt that the community would “bounce back” relatively quickly after the tremulous year that was 2020. Like so many others the industry was hit hard by the pandemic, but it pivoted its way into the era we now call new norm with virtual fashion weeks and the launching of e-commerce platforms – and part of this involved postponing one of fashion’s most exclusive events by 16 months, hosting it just a day after New York Fashion Week.
While the Met Gala is typically held on the first Monday of May in 2021 it welcomed its guests – a mixture of celebrities, industry insiders, politicians, athletes and influencers – to walk the red carpet on September 13, in honour of the launch of its new two-part exhibition In America, which will be on view to the public from September 18, 2021 through September 5, 2021. While 2021’s Met Gala coincides with the launch of Part One, In America: A Lexicon of Fashion, Part Two will be unveiled after 2022’s gala.
So… When is The Next Met Gala? And Why Are There Two Parts To The In America Exhibition?
According to Elle Magazine, the next Met Gala will be held on Monday, May 2, 2022 – just eight months after 2021’s – in celebration of In America: An Anthology of Fashion, the second part of the exhibition which will “feature women’s and men’s historical and contemporary dress dating from the 18th century to the present in vignettes installed in select period rooms,” according to a statement released by The Costume Institute.
“Fashion is both a harbinger of cultural shifts and a record of the forces, beliefs, and events that shape our lives,” notes Max Hollein, the Marina Kellen French Director of The Met. “This two-part exhibition considers how fashion reflects evolving notions of identity in America and explores a multitude of perspectives through presentations that speak with powerful immediacy to some of the complexities of history. In looking at the past through this lens, we can consider the aesthetic and cultural impact of fashion on historical aspects of American life.”
“American fashion has traditionally been described through the language of sportswear and ready-to-wear, emphasizing principles of simplicity, practicality, functionality, and egalitarianism,” says Andrew Bolton, the Wendy Yu Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute.
“Generally denied the emotional rhetoric applied to European fashion, American fashion has evolved a vernacular that tends to sit in direct opposition to that of the haute couture. Part One of In America addresses this linguistic imbalance by presenting a revised vocabulary of American fashion based on its expressive qualities. Part Two will further investigate the evolving language of American fashion through a series of collaborations with American film directors who will visualize the unfinished stories inherent in The Met’s period rooms.”
Lead image courtesy of Getty.