The Met Gala - Is it really out of touch?

We’ve all seen the TikToks comparing this year’s Met Gala to the Hunger Games. Why is that? And how does the state of our world influence our perceptions of the ultra-elite.

When I was scrolling on social media this week like every Met Gala week, I saw the TikTok about the pretty dresses, the celebrity interviews, the designer drama, and the fashion faux pas.

But what was way more prominent in my feed was the montages contrasting the glitz and glamour of The Met with the destruction in war-torn Palestine and Ukraine. This and the resultant anger from users who even made a trend out of blocking attendees (#blockout2024), was so prominent that it made mainstream media.

Spencer Platt / Getty Images, Neilson Barnard/MG24 / Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue for Complex.

Is the Met Gala out of touch or a happy distraction? Why is the Met Gala even relevant in the first place? And how has social media influenced our perception and opinion of celebrities?

The Met Gala wasn’t always about famous people.

The Met Gala format that we know today wasn’t formally established until 2005. It wasn’t even called the Met Gala until 2020! It was instead called the ‘Costume Institute Gala’, a charitable event which raises annual funds for the Costume Institute, a formerly independent fashion museum that has since merged with the Metropolitan Museum of New York.

The Gala itself was conceived in response to the $150,000 sum needed to transfer the Costume Institute into the Metropolitan Museum in 1947 (which is over two million dollars in today’s money). The first gala was planned as a midnight event to ‘wine and dine’ New York’s high society to source donations on top of the $50 ticket fee. Back then the Costume Institute’s collection was purely educational nor had a theme, so no party dress code! Not remotely close to what we know as the met today. Still, this first iteration managed to raise over $350,000 and was affectionately dubbed as ‘the party of the year’.

The museum and the exhibition itself came to the fore in the 1970’s with Vogue Editor Diana Vreeland’s last-minute Balenciaga exhibition where chronology, academia and history took the back seat to creativity and visual appeal. Diana is credited as hosting the first modern Costume Institute gala in March 1973 where, with the help of Oscar De La Renta, she transformed the Gala into a celebrity event with a newfound focus on the clothes the celebrities were wearing after Cher’s semi-nude Bob Mackie gown.

via Getty Images

After the passing of Vreeland, Anna Wintour hosted the 1995 Met Gala. After initial struggles to help The Met become culturally significant, changes to the ticketing format which only allowed celebrities to be invited by designers as ambassadors in 1999, alongside the introduction of dressing to a theme and a consistent date (the first Monday of May) in 2005 created the Met Gala we know of today.

Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, with the emergence of social media and live feeds from the red carpet, the Met Gala became the pop culture event we know of today where one briefly stops to view what on earth high society thinks is trendy or fashionable.

The dichotomy between politics and pop culture.

It is this emergence of social media and ‘relatability culture’ that demonstrates the rifts between the rich and famous and their audience.

Nothing to me exemplifies that better than this year's dress code “The Garden of Time” by J.G Ballard. This short story follows a pair of reclusive aristocrats living in a palace of literature and art who attempt to hold off an advancing mob by picking magical time flowers.

Considering that there were over 1000 pro-Palestine protesters outside of the Met Gala carpet on Monday, one could say that connections can be made between the theme and reality.

Pre-social media music stars, actresses and other people of note maintained a disconnect between their public and private personas; they were idolised based on what the public could see, which was often the polar opposite of their daily lives and struggles. Think of Marilyn Monroe or Princess Diana. Celebrity culture was more exclusive and less overtly political.

Now with the introduction of the internet, it is significantly easier to ‘get famous’ and have a platform, but with that ease comes access to private lives. This, combined with our world's increasingly turbulent political landscape, creates an expectation to have an opinion on absolutely everything.

Almost every famous person has some sort of ‘cause’ or philanthropic mission or has taken part in some sort of performative activism to bridge the ever-increasing rift between their wealthy and influential status and the ordinary people who support them. Moments like this year's Met where protests happened outside the museum whilst a lavish party occurred within, show that this gap is getting wider.

Is the Met out of touch?

Whilst fashion can be seen as a form of creative escapism, it can also be a form of societal progress. The Met Gala raised $26 million (USD) this year for the Costume Department. Diversifying some of that revenue into other charitable causes that have broader social impacts, and implementing dress themes that allow designers to create for social causes important to them could make The Met more in touch with our political climate.

As it stands today, however, the Met Gala is a relic of pre-social media celebrity culture. When taken at face value it is a celebration of creativity, wealth, glamour, and the veneer of perfection that was idolised and never questioned for so many years.

As the world becomes increasingly interconnected and globalised, that veneer is tarnished and chipped by the increased obliviousness towards pressing social, political, and human issues that, at the end of the day, affect all of us.

I guess they say never meet your idols.