Damani Eason

On Monday, September 13^th, the annual prestigious and opulent Met Gala occurred. This year’s theme was “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion” which is also synonymous with the new exhibit that is being displayed in the museum. 

 Some of the attendees were Lil Nas X, who wore three separate Versace looks, Whitney Peak, one of the stars of the “Gossip Girl” reboot, who wore Chanel  and Yara Shahidi who paid homage to Josephine Baker with her dress by Dior (insert picture).  

In her interview with VOGUE, Yara Shahidi said this is regards to her Josephine Baker inspired-dress, “ My goal was to pay homage to [a] powerhouse renegade black American artists,” she said, “ I just hope I was able to do that.”  

Other attendees were Irina Shayk who wore a dress by Moschino, the famous model Iman who wore a dress designed by Harris Reed with the help of Dolce and Gabbana and rapper Jack Harlow who wore Tommy Hilfiger.  

Jack Harlow’s Met Gala look is deep rooted into his family lineage.

In an interview with VOGUE, he explained his deep-rooted connection with Tommy Hilfiger by saying, “My whole life my grandpa told me that he and Tommy grew up on the same street and that their families knew of each other,” Harlow said. “The first time Tommy and I got on the phone I told him my grandpa’s last name and he immediately remembered and said that he could see my grandpa’s house from his front porch. Something about this connection made this whole partnership feel more organic and special.” 

Today, some might consider the Met Gala to be the “Superbowl of fashion”. However, it did not start off that way.  

In 1948, Elanor Lambert, the same women who launched New York Fashion, came up with the idea of having the Costume Institute Benefit, a dinner that took place during the early hours of the night. The reason for dinner was to raise funds for the Costume Institute with a ticket being $50  and the ability to show off the museum’s latest collections. 

During this time, the Met Gala still wasn’t what we are used to today. The Met Gala became a prestigious and high society event when one of its special consultants, Diana Vreeland took over the role from 1972-1989, when she got the likes of Pat Buckley and Jacqueline Kennedy Onasis to serve as co-chairs of the Met.  

The Met Gala truly took its form when Anne Wintour became the co-chair of the institute in 1995 and got to oversee the party that follows with it. Ever since then, the rest is well-fashion history.  

Ever since then, Anne Wintour has controlled almost every aspect of every Met Gala that has occurred; ranging from floral arrangements to who gets to sit where. Even sometimes, picking out who get to wear what.  

At this year’s Met Gala, Anne Wintour picked out the outfit for Brazilian singer Anitta  who wore a custom Donde X Revolve dress.