As one year comes to a close, the fashion community is looking ahead to May.
The Met Gala 2024 theme has been announced, with Vogue revealing on Wednesday morning that the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute has chosen to honor vintage items with “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion,” an exhibit dedicated to 50 historically significant pieces that are too delicate to ever be worn again.
The collection will also highlight about 250 designs spanning four centuries from the museum’s permanent collection, including works by by Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent and more, according to the Met.
And vast technologies — like augmented reality, artificial intelligence and computer-generated imagery — will be incorporated into the show to “reactivate the sensory capacities of masterworks in the Museum’s collection.”
It appears visitors to the museum’s exhibit — which will run from May 10 through September, following the gala on May 6 — will enjoy a sensory experience involving the smells, sounds and textures of garments that are too fragile to be touched.
Nature will also be a focus of the exhibit, serving as “as a metaphor for the fragility and ephemerality of fashion” and helping visitors “to examine the cyclical themes of rebirth and renewal.”
The star-studded red carpet event itself will be underwritten by TikTok and Loewe — the surrealist Spanish fashion brand helmed by creative director Jonathan Anderson — in addition to Vogue publisher Condé Nast.
The hosts and dress code for next year’s Anna Wintour-helmed event have yet to be revealed; Dua Lipa, Penélope Cruz, Michaela Coel and Roger Federer served as co-chairs of the 2023 ball, which honored the legacy of the late Karl Lagerfeld.
With six months to go until the first Monday in May, it remains to be seen which celebs will be tapped to wade through the archives and deliver the ultimate fashion fantasy.
