The MET Gala: Fashion, Politics, and How Do We Critique This?

The MET Gala, an annual event that the Metropolitan Museum of Art puts on to celebrate their new annual exhibit, took place on Monday night. This year’s theme was “In Americana: A Lexicon of Fashion” and provoked quite a bit of controversy with the year that we’ve had. The excitement of the MET Gala is the red carpet before the event. The MET Gala is a huge fashion event, each person invited is told to dress within the theme. Previous year’s themes have been huge hits, like the 2018 theme of “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” when we were served with the iconic look of Zendaya dressed as Joan of Arc. This year’s theme struck up quite a bit of conversation, especially some of the outfits that were attempting to make a statement. 

There were two celebrities whose clothes literally were making a statement. Cara Delevingne came dressed in a bulletproof vest that read “PEG THE PATRIARCHY.” The outfit itself was pretty, but the message seemed to be lost on a lot of people. What does she mean by peg the patriarchy? Is it meant in a literal sense? A figurative sense? One Twitter user said that “Cara Delevingne’s Met Gala outfit is a useful reminder that an aristocrat’s idea of what is ‘provocative and edgy’ is almost always going to be a little bit mortifying.” He’s right, nobody really knew what to say about it, not even Delevingne herself. When asked about her outfit she said that it was about “sticking it to the man.” Sticking what? Because the phrasing leads the reader to a very different conclusion than what was most likely intended. 

Cara Delevingne in her PEG THE PATRIARCHY outfit

The other celebrity who attempted to make a literal statement with her outfit was Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. AOC has been a very loud voice in congress for radical change and activism and was attempting to do the same with her all-white dress that had “TAX THE RICH” emblazoned across the back of it. The reactions have been mixed. A lot of the criticism comes from the fact that the MET Gala is an expensive event, tickets alone are around $30,000, but since she was attending, it would follow that she had paid for her ticket to the event. Even if she had been invited by a designer, the amount of money that was paid for her to attend makes the message feel a little tone deaf since the gala is usually only attended by the uber wealthy. The statement was an attempt at something larger than her, but it seemed to simply fall a little flat with everyone.

AOC in her TAX THE RICH dress

Looking at these two outfits, it leads you to wonder if this was the proper way to get attention and make a statement, or if clothing should be left out of activism in this way. A huge critique of both of these outfits is that they feel completely like performative activism rather than working towards a solution. The activism that both AOC and Delevingne were performing was pretty much the complete opposite of the activism that was happening outside the gala as well. Outside the gala there was a BLM protest on the street in which protesters were again brutalized and innocent people were arrested for simply being there. This was a much more active moment, rather than the passive effect of these two outfits. While AOC and Delevingne sat in a museum and enjoyed their comfort in the museum, innocent protesters were being brutalized. Across Twitter, videos and photos were shared of protesters being dragged away, but there was no mainstream media coverage of it. All of that was dedicated to the gala. 

This begs the question of where the expectation lies with celebrities and their politics. Should celebrities and other influential figures make bold, aggressive statements like the one that AOC was trying to make? Should they be as straight-forward? Or should they be more subtle like youtuber Nikkie Tutorials’ subtle nod to trans activist Marsha P. Johnson? Even the theme of the gala itself, “Americana” is confusing and difficult to navigate. What does it mean to dress as America? The theme feels as if it should pull some kind of social commentary, but what? Both Delevingne and AOC have their fair share of supporters opposing those who are more critical of them. It feels like there’s no way to go about it, there will be no pleasing everyone. Would there have been more criticism if nobody had worn anything like that? If this were a different event would these have gone over well? It’s hard to tell. The outfits from this gala have everyone’s eyes on May 2022 when the MET Gala part two is happening. The theme is the same, which leaves us to wonder if we’ll see the same confusing attempts at commentary or not.