You'd think Met Gala 2024 had it all. Huge looks and powerful outfits designed by the world's biggest fashion brands and worn by the world's most famous faces in an overwhelming tidal wave of luxurious glam.
And by that metric, Met Gala 2024 was indeed a home run, a slam dunk, a [insert additional sports metaphor here].
But pause for a sec and take a think. Some very notable names skipped this year's Met Gala — and I'm not just talking about Rihanna.
Indeed, the stuff that was missing from Met Gala 2024 was nearly as wild as the stuff that actually arrived to Met Gala 2024.
For instance, more than a few titanic fashion houses were conspicuously absent from the red carpet. Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Bottega Veneta were all MIA alongside were typical Met Gala holdouts like Hermès and CELINE.
You expect that from the latter but not so much from the former, though this certainly isn't entirely unusual, either. At Met Gala 2023, for instance, LV solely dressed then-new ambassador Jackson Wang, but that was still a pretty sizeable spotlight.
Strange that creative director Pharrell, who was only just in New York for the launch of his new Tiffany jewelry collection, didn't attend, at the very least.
Meanwhile, Gucci's high-profile 2023 Met Gala arrivals ranged from A$AP Rocky to Halle Bailey. That it didn't dress anyone this year is puzzling to say the least, though its lack of presence is likely unrelated to the financial concerns recently levied at parent company Kering.
Even still, Kering's brands were quieter than their LVMH rivals. Though Balenciaga, Saint Laurent, and Seán McGirr's Alexander McQueen landed some big-time co-signs from celebs like Lana Del Rey and Usher, LVMH's Dior, Givenchy and LOEWE were nearly omnipresent (and so was Thom Browne, BTW).
This could all be down to industry politics — Anna Wintour, for whom the Met Museum's Costume Center is named, is estimated to have final say on upwards of 80 percent of the Met Gala outfits — so not worth reading much it into it beyond face value.
However, speaking of Saint Laurent, what a coup!
The French fashion house dressed Tom Ford, of all people, whose eponymous brand suited up Hugh Jackman and 2024 Met Gala co-chair Chris Hemsworth. Tom Ford (the brand) has been headed up by longtime Ford (the man) associate Peter Hawkings since late 2023, but you'd think that Ford would still wear Ford, especially considering that he basically wore the same velvety thing he always wears.
So celebs didn't wear some of the big fashion houses and Tom Ford didn't wear Tom Ford.
That's just fashion biz for ya.
But what about the 2024 Met Gala theme, "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion?" It implied that guests would be wearing vintage designer outfits, right?
At least that'd keep in line with the recent trend of celebs and their stylists diving deep into the archives for showstopping red carpet looks.
And yet, most of the outfits on the Met Gala red carpet were brand-new custom get-ups, Sure, there were a handful of smart retro pulls and some of the designers upcycled deadstock fabric into fresh 'fits but the vibe was, mostly, newness (even if it occasionally was backwards-looking by design).
Vintage get-ups were more common at the Met Gala afterparties, really.
That also makes some sense, what with most looks being subjected to an approval process, but it also doesn't, really.
Of all the times to throw it back to the good ol' days, wouldn't this be it? It's not like there's a dearth of archival clothes out there (there was no Mugler this year, much to Fashion Twitter's chagrin).
And, to be clear, none of these quibbles affect the Met Gala's overall impact. Big night, big show, big names, big big big.
Just a couple small oddities. But maybe best to let these sleeping beauties lie.
