‘In America’: A Met Gala Digest

The theme ‘In America’ might not be everything Orlando could have been (RIP Met Gala 2020), but it’s still the biggest night of the year for fashion – fundraising for its preservation, showcasing the brightest and best, and creating widespread public excitement and conversation around fashion as an art form. Like a lot of people, I perennially wish I could attend the gala – I wish I could dress in white tie, and am brimming with ideas of how I, personally, would interpret the theme. In the spirit of that, and by way of a digest, here is the first in an annual series where I discuss how I felt about the outfits of the night, as well as give the ideas I would have taken to couturiers if I were to create an outfit for the fashion event of the year.

Celebrities who understood the assignment

The idea of America, to me, invites simultaneous engagement with and questioning of what it means to be American. What I was looking for was an acknowledgement of violence, class, race, or capitalism, alongside something truly beautiful or avant-garde. I was looking for American artists, icons, or identities to be represented in a way that would make me see them differently. What we got was a lot of generic Hollywood – Veronica Lake mixed with Ava Gardner in a way that didn’t truly engage with either, a lot of beautiful, bold reds with no thought to what that was saying (was it the flag? The blood of the Native Americans killed to found the US? An emotional response? I will never know). I was disappointed to see no revolutionary war uniforms or founding father wigs, no interaction with colonies like Puerto Rico or Guam that still do not have a vote, no references to the 20th century art greats that came out of America, no Mickey Mouse ears, and no competing interpretations of the same thing to showcase how creative minds work differently.

My winners? Rihanna remains Queen of the Met Gala, but Lil Nas X is coming for her crown. Megan Fox’s Bettie Page inspired look deserves more credit than it’s getting – every part of her outfit was a nod to the fetish model. Lili Reinhart’s state flowers was a fun and creative engagement with the theme, and Taraji P. Henson both had fun with her look and killed it. I liked aspects of Amanda Gorman’s outfit – especially her laurel crown – but I wouldn’t have known she was inspired by the Statue of Liberty if I hadn’t been told. Quannah Chasinghorse was probably the most on-theme of the night, and I wish there had been a stronger Native presence, through celebrities and designers. I’m glad the Met is inviting and supporting younger talent or people from new media (I remain thrilled to see Eugene Lee Yang everywhere, and Naomi Osaka is making a name for herself as a fashion maven as much as a tennis player), but I felt the missing presence of icons like Dolly Parton, John Waters, Jane Fonda, Cher, Madonna, and Paris Hilton. We saw from Debbie Harry how they bring it hard, and I would have loved to see them simply exist and be celebrated – and that’s in addition to missing modern celebs like Lana del Rey and Zendaya that have previously wowed at this event.

For once, this year, the men outdid the women. ASAP Rocky, Lil Nas X, Dan Levy and Lewis Hamilton all wore beautiful, creative outfits that worked with the theme in fresh ways. Timothee Chalamet wore Converse, Frank Ocean won the accessories with that baby which apparently blinked in a deeply unsettling manner, Kerby Jean-Raymond married tailoring with streetwear and won that shade of red, as well as being a contender for best look of the night. The men were cowboys where the women were Hollywood sirens, they mixed up formal dress and streetwear, and played with gender fluidity more: Kid Cudi looked all man in a skirt and makeup, Troye Sivan ‘just wanted to look hot’ in his dress, and Pete Davidson channelled Jackie O, proving that there’s no one way to abolish gender but we all benefit from it. All in all, menswear this year seemed more fun and less generic generally.

If I were the type to be invited to the Met Gala

To me, the ultimate symbol of America is Barbie. I was surprised how little homage was paid to the 12-inch icon – Carey Mulligan’s dress colour, Billie Eilish recreating her childhood favourite doll, and Kristen Stewart’s perfect hairdo were really the only flashes of her on the red carpet, and several of those had to be explained. As a dedicated Barbie fan myself (with a childhood bedroom the colour of Carey’s dress), I’d have recreated the iconic original Barbie – assuming I was some kind of influencer or model with the body type to wear a bathing suit on the red carpet. This would also have allowed me to draw on one of the trends of the night – short dresses or shorts and long overskirts, a possible homage to Mrs Maisel and Claire McCardle, or maybe just a nod to the summers we’ve lost to Covid.

This was sort-of done in 2009 for Barbie’s 50th anniversary, as she got her own show at NYFW, but it would be great fun to do the wool swimsuit, mules, and 50s sunglasses on the red carpet.

If I were myself

I would want to acknowledge the historic injustices which underpin contemporary American society whilst engaging in the beauty those eras strived for. It cannot be said enough that it is in the pursuit of beauty and luxuries like cotton and exotic dyes that the atrocities of slavery and colonisation were (and are) committed, and a Met Gala with a theme like ‘In America’ is the ideal platform to demonstrate that artistically.

I would have wanted something historic, because that’s where my own interests lie – and where the most fun is with fashion, as gowns and historical inspirations are not commonly found in streetwear. Perhaps I would have dressed in Victorian sportswear and donned archery gear a la May Welland, worn a recreation of Jackie Kennedy’s wedding gown by Ann Lowe but embroidered with the names of black people written out of history, or done a recreation of one of Janie Bryant’s impeccably researched and tailored Mad Men looks (maybe even an imitation of that Peggy meme).

Although all of these highlight the dual nature of America I would seek to capture, I would have had to go for is a Southern Belle look due to the fact that it was iconic for multiple volatile eras – both in the Antebellum south and, of course, the controversial and successful movies set then: Birth of a Nation and Gone With The Wind. Audiences have always been aware of the racism that underpins these stories, yet alongside that they were some of the only places black women saw success in Old Hollywood. I understand why people shied away from this look, however iconic – but ignoring history does not make it go away, and my aim would be to acknowledge both the surface-level beauty and the blood of black folks that went into creating it. The only way to do this would be to work with black designers, and to use only the structure of the historic costumes whilst finding some way to acknowledge slave labour and the ongoing legacy of slavery and lack of generational wealth and continued racist policies of the United States. Maybe it would have been a reference to LA gang warfare in the 1980s, to Harlem culture of the 1920s, or to the BLM movement of the current era, but my aim would have been to connect the idealised history to the less-than-ideal aspects of modern life succinctly, in a way that only art can.

On This Topic:

• Karolina Zebrowska’s annual digest of historical fashion at the Met Gala remains fun and informative.
• You want to see all the outfits for yourself.
• Look into Gone With The Wind and Disney from a perspective that acknowledges black history, in all its nuance.

To-Do:

• Do the thing I need to email to LW
• Find somewhere to walk to on the weekend
• Work out what to wear to DF

Today’s Culture:

• Claudia Rankine on Beyonce. The greatest living poet on a pop icon? Girl. Yes.
• This weekend I have eaten too much Montezuma chocolate. I am weak for fancy white chocolate – these are my all-time faves.
• Learn to be better with the power of Elle Woods, American icon. Also, watch the 2nd movie – it’s a half-hour too long with the filler that comes from that, but otherwise it’s perfect and will put you in the headspace you need.