Every year, celebrities vie for the public’s attention at the Met Gala by striving to create the most stunning, spectacular, or surprising look — and this year’s event lived up to its hype. Organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute for their spring exhibition “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion,” the 2024 Met Gala’s theme was “The Garden of Time,” with its evocation of flowers and time promising many dazzling looks. The theme was inspired by J.G. Ballard’s short story “The Garden of Time,” which depicts an aristocrat who fends off an approaching army by destroying magical glass flowers in his garden, causing time itself to slow down. The story’s themes of ephemerality, fragility, and death of the aristocracy provided an ironic twist to this year’s event, which featured some of its most delicate, opulent, and over-the-top looks yet.
The internet likes to joke that the Met Gala’s obsession with extravagant fashion inches closer and closer to a Capitol-esque spectacle from “The Hunger Games,” and this year was no different. With outfits ranging from dark, metallic looks to lush, vernal ball gowns, this year’s Met Gala certainly evoked the series’s excessive and dystopian style.
Read on for 10 standout looks from the 2024 Met Gala:
Elle Fanning
Elle Fanning dazzled in a graceful, icy Balmain ball gown. The actress’s delicate dress appeared as though it was constructed from glass, although it was really made of resin. Gorgeous, bird-like shoulder details captured the garden-inspired elements of this year’s theme, while the look’s fragile nature and timeless beauty spoke to the glass flowers and ephemeral themes of Ballard’s story — Fanning’s designers clearly did their research.
Lana Del Rey
A talented singer beloved for her aura of mystique, Lana Del Rey’s appearance at the Met Gala aligned with the artist’s whimsical image. Her look — designed by Seán McGirr — featured a cream Alexander McQueen gown made from silk, tulle, and georgette, complete with a sheer veil draped gracefully over branches that sprouted from the singer’s head like a deer’s antlers. Del Rey looked like a dryad who stepped straight out of the woods in this mysterious, vernal look.
Bad Bunny
Bad Bunny’s quirky, Mad Hatter-esque look was more than it seemed. Swatched in a navy barathea wool jacket with visible white stitches, John Galliano’s Maison Margiela Artisanal look evoked a stylish aristocrat with eccentric touches in the large foam beret, diamond-shaped glasses, and cheeky red stripe running down the pants. The devil is in the details, though, and the symbolic bouquet that Bad Bunny held truly elevated the look. The flor de maga — the national flower of Puerto Rico — alluded to the singer’s heritage, while the flax plant — on which Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger — conjured a sense of the fantastical.
Anok Yai
Supermodel Anok Yai shone on the red carpet in a sparkling, custom-made jumpsuit featuring 98,000 Swarovski crystals. The look’s lush blue-and-green color called to mind a glittering crystal garden sculpture, complete with 200 carats of diamonds adorning her earrings, necklace, and rings. Yai’s look epitomized the elegance and creativity that every Met Gala attendee should strive to achieve.
Tyla
The second Balmain look on this list, Tyla’s mermaid sand gown was an utter showstopper. Tyla definitely read between the lines of the Met Gala theme, and the singer’s dress and accompanying handheld hourglass were a clever nod to the Ballard story’s element of time. The dress was literally sculpted out of sand — three different colors of it, plus crystal studs — and was so stiff that it required helpers to lift the singer up the stairs like a statue, a level of commitment that must be applauded.
Zendaya
Actress, singer, fashion icon, and co-chair of the Met Gala, Zendaya is rightfully held in high esteem in the entertainment industry. This year, she exceeded expectations in not one, not two, but three fabulous Met Gala looks. While all were the epitome of elegance, the first dress — part of John Galliano’s Maison Margiela Artisanal Collection — truly stole the show. In a look that bore a striking resemblance to a peacock, Zendaya donned a slim, blue-and-green gown embellished with tulle and mesh that resembled fruit, flowers, and fauna. Her second look — a magnificent black Givenchy gown and voluminous fascinator hat topped with a flower bouquet — deserves to be highlighted as well. The third look may have felt more like an afterthought, but was still a graceful addition to the event as Zendaya appeared in a pale, shimmering gown by Celia Kritharioti.
Cardi B
Donning mountains of black tulle, rapper Cardi B transformed herself into a dark and beautiful aristocrat. Created by avant-garde designer Sensen Lii for Windowsen, the enormous off-the-shoulder gown — the largest at the Met Gala this year — had a wide train and a matching black hat that evoked a British soldier’s bearskin cap or an 18th-century pouf. With its villainous glamor, this look certainly called to mind the wicked aristocracy of Ballard’s story.
Sabrina Carpenter
Sabrina Carpenter appeared to be floating on a cloud in the sleek Oscar de la Renta gown that she wore for this year’s Met Gala. The look was outfitted with a black velvet bodice and a billowing, pale blue skirt, allegedly meant to evoke a blooming orchid. The blonde starlet appeared arm-in-arm with Barry Keoghan in a dashing Burberry suit with Victorian-era embellishments. Together, they looked like they stepped straight out of “The Garden of Time” as aristocrats come-to-life.
Demi Moore
Actress Demi Moore appeared in a gorgeous Harris Reed dress that resembled the inside of a flower in a satisfying allusion to the Met Gala’s floral theme. The gown was adorned with massive pink peonies made from hand-painted silk organza and a halo of black thorns that framed the dress’s unique, heart-shaped silhouette. To top it all off, Moore debuted a magnificent necklace and earrings pair from Cartier’s high jewelry collection, featuring platinum, diamonds, and emeralds arranged to resemble dandelion seeds.
Kendall Jenner
Kendall Jenner was determined to wear vintage Alexander McQueen for the Met Gala, and after a deep dive into his Givenchy archives, her stunning find was evidently a triumph of that vision. The dark, slimming gown had not been worn before and was never even shown on the runway, making it a “sleeping beauty” in the truest sense of the word. The glittering, militaristic glamor of the model’s dress fit perfectly with Ballard’s story of aristocrats and armies.
And, of course, every Met Gala comes with a few flops as well. Read on for a few of these “honorable mentions”:
Kim Kardashian
While the metallic gray Maison Margiela dress that pop culture icon Kim Kardashion chose to don was certainly interesting, the suffocating corset and bizarre knitted shrug made for an overall odd impression. Complete with unflatteringly dyed gray hair, this look was unfortunately giving “snatched grandma.”
Amanda Seyfried
Appearing in a silver floral dress by Prada and a pop of violet lipstick, Amanda Seyfried’s look took a valiant stab at the event’s floral theme. Unfortunately, the material’s bizarre shine and ill-suited gray cap made Seyfried look more like a tinfoil robot than an elegant aristocrat from “The Garden of Time.”
Chris Hemsworth
With Chris Hemworth being one of the co-chairs of the Met Gala, one would expect creativity, innovation, and utter glamor from the Australian actor. Instead, he appeared in a plain cream Tom Ford suit. Rugged good looks unfortunately do not qualify as a fashion statement, and as beloved as the actor is, Hemsworth’s lack of imagination made this look a major disappointment.
This year’s Met Gala produced a number of fantastic looks, and the celebrities highlighted here rose to the occasion with their knowledge of high fashion and thoughtful interpretations of the event’s theme. Fans of the event were certainly sated by this year’s glamorous showing, and one can only wait to see what is next in store for future Met Galas.
—Staff writer Arielle C. Frommer can be reached at arielle.frommer@thecrimson.com.
