Met Gala 2024 Theme Revealed: “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” Combines Art and Technology

Met Gala 2024 Theme Revealed: The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art has unveiled the theme for its 2024 spring exhibition, which will also set the tone for the upcoming Met Gala. Unlike the more straightforward themes of the past few years, which delved into Karl Lagerfeld’s career, Gilded Age glamour, and American fashion, next year’s Met Gala, scheduled for Monday, May 6, will draw from more conceptual sources, exploring the intersections of fashion history, nature, technology, and the senses.

Titled “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion,” the exhibition will run from May 10 through September 2, 2024, offering museumgoers a fresh perspective on rare “masterworks” from the Costume Institute’s collection. Cutting-edge technology, including augmented reality, artificial intelligence, X-rays, animations, and soundscapes, will transform the installations to evoke the “smells, sounds, textures, and motions” of both historical and iconic contemporary garments that can no longer be worn. The display will include a late 19th-century ball gown from the House of Worth, a World War II-era evening dress by Madeleine Vionnet, and archival pieces by designers like Elsa Schiaparelli, Christian Dior, and Alexander McQueen.

Andrew Bolton, the Institute’s curator, explained, “When an item of clothing enters our collection, its status is changed irrevocably. What was once a vital part of a person’s lived experience is now a motionless ‘artwork’ that can no longer be worn or heard, touched, or smelled. By appealing to the widest possible range of human senses, the show aims to reconnect with the works on display as they were originally intended—with vibrancy, with dynamism, and ultimately with life.”

The exhibition will unite its pieces through their connections to the natural world, exploring themes of “rebirth and renewal.” Gallery spaces will be transformed to reflect this concept, featuring elements such as flora and insects from Elizabethan-era embroidery adorning the walls, or animated snakes inspired by the neckline of an early 20th-century sequined frock coming to life on the floors.

For garments too fragile to be displayed on mannequins, they will be presented as “sleeping beauties” within glass displays resembling coffins. Microscopes will be available for close observation of their deterioration. In such cases, an illusory projection technique known as “Pepper’s ghost,” frequently used in theater, will show viewers what the fashions looked like in their prime.

As for how celebrities will interpret this more abstract and nuanced theme on the Met Gala’s red carpet, given the focus on garments that can no longer be worn, it remains to be seen. They may find inspiration in historical gowns, reinterpreting them in innovative ways. Some might explore the possibilities of technology, drawing on past examples like Karolina Kurkova’s LED-lit Marchesa gown from 2016. Alternatively, the idea of transformation, as exemplified by Blake Lively’s dramatic Statue of Liberty-inspired Ralph Lauren gown from 2022, could be a source of inspiration.

In any case, if celebrities do choose to resurrect an iconic “sleeping beauty” from the fashion archives, one can only hope they do so with the same reverence and care as the spirit of the exhibition itself.

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