The Met Review
Opinion on this year’s theme, best dressed and other comments
After nearly two years, the Met Gala came back. The 2021 event was celebrated through the theme, “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion.” — one which would explore American independence with an assorted display of celebrities and others alike, dressed in their interpretation of what the timeline of American fashion has been. Something like a “how it started VS how it’s going.”
But did you see The Met Gala looks? Every year, opinions and takes fling from left to right on how celebrities missed the theme, nailed the theme, how they could have dressed more in line with the theme and so on. You know, ’twas the same for this year, even for me.
On this side, I’m hardly the stylist. You’ll almost never catch me pointing to clothes and accessories I’d put an attendee in. I’m more the person who tries to make sense of the theme in itself in parallel to what they wore.
Take my take
The looks this year were a green card to really express America’s famous line, “Land of the free, home of the brave” — and I don’t mean that in the best way.
In America: A Lexicon of Fashion yet it seemed to be a revelation of how America still lacks in fashion design but is an epicenter of the fashion industry. As I watched the red carpet, guests each made a case for what they wore and its relation to the theme. While most of it sounded well curated and cool, I couldn’t get past the fact that more and more guests were dressed in European designers.
Like fast fashion, which has quite a hold in the American industry, fashion in America is heavily adopted, relying on the thematic concepts of other cultures or on ideals like freedom, independence, patriotism, diversity and inclusion (in more recent times). When I think on it, I wonder, what is theirs? How exactly can they interpret that?
A moment of firsts
The event this year was digitally accessible — for free.
In real life, the one-person ticketed event had its guest list flowing with the country’s young and popular internet-rising gen-z stars such as Natalia Bryant, Olivia Rodrigo, as well as athletes like Simone Biles and Sha’ Carri Richardson(?).
Maybe this was an angle, a play on the newly inclusive and diverse element of the country. The kind where spending $35k for a ticket is a lot, making the list is tight but you’re stuck at cross roads because these young people are very socially relevant and we now live in a world of numbers and the internet, so how not and why not?
Others who made their debut included: Tomothee Chalamet, Amanda Gorman, Tomi Adeyemi, Naomi Osaka, Chloe & Halle, Rosalia etc. but you may know, each guest invited to attend the event is carefully chosen by Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour.
American fashion once again showed that they have to prove a point for being the loud and busy (kinda like Lagos) fashion city but when you dissect it and give it a spotlight like the MET gala, it cannot exist without the assistance of something else. I don’t know what I expected but it’s exactly what they gave me.
Let’s just get into my top 4.
Best Dressed
