Met Gala 2024 Full Fashion Review (The Good, Bad & Ugly)

When the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute announced the dress code for its annual fundraiser (MET Gala), “The Garden of Time,” back in February, organisers couldn’t have predicted how prescient it would feel nearly three months later. The theme was inspired by J. G. Ballard’s 1962 short story of the same name, which tells the story of Count Axel and his wife, who live a life of leisure and beauty in a grand villa surrounded by a sprawling walled estate with a garden of crystalline flowers with glass-like stems. Beyond the villa, an encroaching mob threatens to disturb the peace, which Axel staves off by picking a time-reversing flower until none are left. The inevitably of the destruction loomed almost as large in the lead-up to Monday’s green-and-cream carpet as it did Ballard’s dystopian tale, with several external forces threatening to disrupt the proceedings. Until coming to a last-minute deal agreement, unionised Condé Nast employees were set to protest outside the event over stalled contract negotiations. While the union called off its plans, on nearby Park Avenue, there were pro-Palestine protests, which have been omnipresent on college campuses for weeks. Meanwhile, the fate of the night’s lead sponsor, TikTok, hangs in the balance after President Joe Biden signed into law legislation that would force the platform’s parent company, Bytedance, to sell it to a US-based entity or face a ban in the country. Still, despite all that threatened turmoil