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What is the Met Gala?
The first Met Gala was in 1948 established by fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert (Lang 1). The first Met Gala was used as a fundraiser of the newly curated costume institute which would mark the opening of the first costume exhibit. Today, The Met Gala is known as one of the most popular events in pop culture and within celebrities.The theme is often an ode to a time in history and celebrities are challenged to dress to a modern view of the theme. (Lang 1). (Wang 1). -
The First Met Gala
The costume institute decided to have the first met gala theme, "Fashion Plate". Fashion plate refers to someone who dresses very fashionably. Every year the Met gala theme commemorates the theme of the specific years costume institute exhibit. The first Met gala was exclusive but not nearly as exclusive as it would end up being as the years went on. The first met gala would only, "have you down about 100 dollars for a ticket"(Lees 1). Now they are roughly 35,000 for a ticket. -
The Change for Met Galas
in 1972, Diana Vreeland, editor of vogue at the time, became the consultant for Costume institute encourage more exotic and extravagant exhibits and started inviting New Yorks "elite". This is when the Met started to become more elite and harder to get a ticket too. This is also when the theme became more specific and encouraged guest to dress more uniquely and pushed the ideas of fashion. -
Christian Dior 1996
Princess Diana attended her first and only Met Gala in 1996. She honored Christian Dior and wore a beautiful satin dress and even accessorized with her own taste and accessories. She was worried about the dress being too revealing but was ahead of the time with fashion trends as Chokers and her Dior bag would become very popular among the population. The lingerie inspired dress would also be very popular. A lot of guest wore more traditional Dior to honor the designer. (White1). -
Honoring America
This was the first year the Met looked into America for inspiration. Many of the guest wore outfits by American designers and obviously wore the colors of the country: red, white, and blue. This was monumental because in all of the years no one ever was inspired by America or American designers.(Lowe 1). -
CAMP
Arguably one of the most monumental themes in all of Met Gala history was CAMP. The meaning of CAMP was, "the love for the unnatural: an exaggeration. Guest were asked to be extravagant and extra. Some outfits didn't even make sense they were so out there. Some of the outfits didn't even make sense. The make you think about what you are looking at and frankly question what the theme is because of the differences in outfits. (Waxman 1). -
Conclusion
The Met Gala has changed a lot overtime. The Met Gala was not nearly as exclusive as it is now. The invites are in high demand as every A-list celebrity wants to attend. You can see through the timeline that fashion has changed and become more extravagant and avant-garde with what people wear to the Met Gala now. I believe that the Met Gala will constantly push the ideas of Fashion. (Nast 1).(Wang 1).