For the fashion forward population of the world, the Met Gala is ‘THE’ event to look out for. But it seems this year the event that sees the biggest celebrities and names in fashion put forth their vision of what the theme of the Gala is, won’t be able to strut on the red carpet. Our own Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Deepika Padukone have also joined names including Elton John, Zendaya, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Billy Bob Porter, Kim Kardashian, the Hadid sister, Gigi and Bella, Blake Lively, Jared Leto, Harry Styles, Nick Jonas, to name a few.
What made this year more special than any other was the fact that the Met was celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. However, the Met Gala will not go ahead as scheduled on May 4, 2020, due to the outbreak of COVID-19 globally. The annual red carpet event, hosted by Vogue’s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, is a celebrity-packed fundraiser for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Since 2005, the event has been held, on the first Monday in May - it also marks the launch of its spring exhibition, reports cnn.com.
This year’s exhibition, “About Time: Fashion and Duration”, is sponsored by luxury fashion label Louis Vuitton. It has been billed as a journey through the history of fashion from 1870 to the present. On Friday the Metropolitan Museum announced it would be shutting its doors temporarily, causing speculation that the gala’s organisers would follow suit. Writing on Vogue.com on Monday, Anna Wintour confirmed that the fundraiser would not be held as planned.
“Due to the unavoidable and responsible decision by the Metropolitan Museum to close its doors, About Time, and the opening night gala will be postponed to a later date,” she wrote. She added that the magazine would nonetheless be previewing the “extraordinary exhibition” in its May issue. In a statement, a museum spokesperson wrote: “The Museum will remain closed through Saturday, April 4. Additionally, the CDC advised over the weekend that there should not be any gatherings of 50 people or more for the next eight weeks. In deference to this guidance, all programs and events through May 15 will be cancelled or postponed.” This is not the first time the event has had a change of plans in its 72-year history. There have been years when the gala wasn’t held at all, most notably in 1963, following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and in 2002, following 9/11.
{{/usCountry}}“Due to the unavoidable and responsible decision by the Metropolitan Museum to close its doors, About Time, and the opening night gala will be postponed to a later date,” she wrote. She added that the magazine would nonetheless be previewing the “extraordinary exhibition” in its May issue. In a statement, a museum spokesperson wrote: “The Museum will remain closed through Saturday, April 4. Additionally, the CDC advised over the weekend that there should not be any gatherings of 50 people or more for the next eight weeks. In deference to this guidance, all programs and events through May 15 will be cancelled or postponed.” This is not the first time the event has had a change of plans in its 72-year history. There have been years when the gala wasn’t held at all, most notably in 1963, following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and in 2002, following 9/11.
{{/usCountry}}And while we may not get to see any high-octane fashion looks anytime soon, we can always take a trip down memory lane, reminiscing about some of the most noteworthy looks at the Met Gala’s red carpet.
Deepika’s Camp-y look
Jared Leto and the floating head
Lady Gaga’s theatrical Met entrance
At a press launch, for the Met’s exhibition, curator Andrew Bolton quoted Virginia Woolf in her 1928 time-travelling classic, Orlando. “For what more terrifying revelation can there be than that it is the current moment? That we survive the shock at all is only possible because the past shelters us on one side, the future on another.” These words that are more relevant now than ever would be the soundtrack for the exhibition, that is now postponed, just like the Gala.
This year’s exhibition was due to the Met’s wider 150th-anniversary celebrations. It was set to feature 160 fashion items, from the institution’s 1870 conception to the present, and was scheduled to open to the public from May 7, three days after the gala, until September 7.
With inputs from IANS
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