The Met Gala is the biggest fashion event of the year. Since the year 1946, the haloed event (also known as the Costume Institute Gala) has celebrated the opening of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute.
It is also a black-tie extravaganza hosted to raise money for the Costume Institute, one of the only curatorial departments at the Met that needs to fund itself. Add Anna Wintour to the mix, and you have the holy grail of sartorial events.
Every year, the event also has a theme which sets the tone, not only for the exhibit, but also is a guideline for guests on what to wear. The latter is the primary reason why the Met Gala is often called the “Super Bowl of fashion”. With high-profile celebs pushing sartorial boundaries, and the media celebrating the outfit and not the people wearing it, it is a true-blue fashion extravaganza.
So, it wasn’t really surprising to see that my Facebook timeline, Insta and Twitter feed, were all inundated with images from the Met Gala. But one image dominated and that was Priyanka Chopra’s Met Gala outing. And it should have. After all, along with Deepika Padukone and Isha Ambani, this was one of the first times we’ve had representation on the red carpet of fashion’s biggest night.
And while quarters of the international fashion police gave her look a thumbs up, calling it edgy, most of the criticism for her outfit came from back home.
While New York Times Fashion director, Vanessa Friedman, praised the Ralph Lauren gown calling it a ‘weirdly great combo’, social media users back home instantly showcased their Photoshop skills with laughter-eliciting memes. From a picnic blanket to a potato peel, and from a tent to the setting for Egypt’s pyramids, the gown has been given several avatars.
We made Peecee’s Ralph Lauren outfit a social media sensation with our many memes.
But why did we not give Priyanka’s outfit a bit more credit? The Met Gala red carpet is one where celebrities are expected to be fantastical about fashion.
It’s about making a statement, dressing to make heads turn. And Chopra’s outfit did just that.
Rei Kawakubo, the founder of Comme des Garcons, is a stalwart in the industry and the Met was celebrating her; a reticent genius who challenges fashion, playing with the assumptions people have about clothes.
Chopra may not have gone complete Comme des Garcons and got the theme pat down but she made an attempt which was praiseworthy.
The dress celebrated an iconic piece of garment, the trench coat, and gave it a twist that went beyond the realms of what we thought possible.
The jewellery was almost androgynous, the entire look one of constructed rebellion.
To be on the red carpet of an event like that wearing what many people called, a trench coat with a train, on your first Met Gala outing, takes fashion gumption. Chopra showed us what she’s made of in spades with that one move.
And I, for one, can only applaud her.
- Shirt Skirt Dress - September 1, 2017
- Dangling Dungarees - August 31, 2017
- Suited Pastel-y - August 30, 2017
