We’re halfway through April which means the The Costume Institute’s new show “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its most iconic celebration—the Met Gala—is nearly upon us. This year the show’s theme is a little more esoteric than usual. The “sleeping beauties” in the show’s title refer to the rich collection of gowns that have been pulled from the depths of the Costume Institute’s vast collection, many of which are being displayed for the first time. As such, “the garden of time,” this year’s official dress code, is actually pretty open-ended; think about how a garden gets its beauty from many different flowers and plants, now imagine the garden is the Met and the flowers are the attendees in looks inspired by fashion’s many historical periods. While at the same time, the garden also nods to the fact that “nature” is one of the unifying themes for the garments in the show.
But that’s not all, as Vogue’s Lilah Ramzi pointed out, the dress code itself holds a clue; “The Garden of Time,” is a short story by JG Ballard about a couple who can only preserve their utopian surroundings against an encroaching mob by picking a flower from their garden every day “until there are none left.” You can guess how it ended. That means there is a sense of destruction and decay—the inevitable effects of the passing of time.
It’s a lot, we get it, but we love to be service-y! In the spirit of community, here are 37 gowns ready for the Met Gala red carpet, no matter your personality type.