Image: Courtesy Shutterstock
by Tamara Najia and Ornella Attias, Year 10
The Met Gala is an annual fundraising gala held for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York City. It occurs every year except for 2020: it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Gala resumed in 2021, but was held in September rather than in May of that year. In 2022, the Gala returned to holding its traditional May ceremony. We asked students for their opinions on how well the celebrities followed this year’s theme. Each year the theme changes and this year it was “Gilded Glamour” and “White Tie”. Usually the celebrities do not really follow the theme but this year, a shocking amount of celebrities did not participate in the theme.
Blake Lively in Versace
Image via Getty Images
Blake Lively is an actress most known for iconic role as Serena Van der Woodsen in the famous tv show “Gossip Girl”. Every year students are eager to see her look because she always out-shines most people with how gorgeous her looks are and how on theme they are. She has been attending the Met Gala since 2008 and is often always found on many “best dressed” lists. This year she decided to wear a beautiful gown by Versace. She also included a dramatic and stunning outfit change when she hit the middle of the met steps.
Shawn Mendes In Tommy Hilfiger
Shawn Mendes – Photo : Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
Shawn Mendes is a famous singer and songwriter most known for his songs “Senorita” and “Treat you better”. This year his outfit made by Tommy Hilfiger was perfectly on theme, some students even said “It was perfectly on theme and reminded me of Bridgerton”. For this year’s Met theme students expected elegant and sophisticated outfits and Shawn was one of the few people that respected this dress code. He has been attending the Met Gala since 2018 where he also wore a Tommy Hilfiger suit and tie. Fans say they have seen his style “evolve” and his “confidence being shown” through his style.
Cardi B in Versace
Cardi B is a famous rapper most known for her songs “Bodak Yellow” and “I like it”. This year she wore a stunning gold dress made by Versace. She has been attending the met gala since 2018 and every year she has nailed her look. Not only do the students at LGB love Cardi B in general but seeing her dress up for this event excites us. Her dress this year was made fully by hand and took 1300 hours to complete with the help of 20 people. Cardi B and Donatella Versace showed up together to the Met Gala this year and once fans saw Cardi b’s look they were left speechless.
Throughout the commentary of the viewers of the Met Gala as well as students from LGB, we concluded that most celebrities went completely out of the ballpark when it came to the theme of “Gilded Glamour”. Some of the students’ least favourite looks included Kylie Jenner, Kourtney Kardashian, and Sebastian Stan.
Kylie Jenner in Off White
Kylie Jenner got invited to her first Met Gala in 2016 and has made an appearance at the Met Gala four times since then. Every year, people seem to wait impatiently to see Kylie Jenner’s Met Gala looks. Year after year, Kylie does not disappoint any viewers…besides this year. Kylie wore a dress for the Met Gala 2022 which had people slightly confused. The dress clashed many different styles together and many people, including LGB students, agreed that her outfit this year was catastrophic. Her outfit included a wedding dress with a mesh T- shirt underneath as well as a veil attached to a baseball cap. Kylie explained that she wore the brand Off White because “Virgil and I were supposed to go to the Met together before it got postponed in 2020”, but the designer of Off White died in late 2021. Kylie also explained that she was aware that her outfit did not match the theme but since it was a tribute to Virgil Abloh, she thought it took on a greater meaning. “It is a shame that Kylie had such a beautiful meaning behind her outfit but did not produce anything glamorous this year,” expresses a year 11 student.
Kourtney Kardashian in Thom Browne
This year was Kourtney Kardashian’s first time attending the Met. Many would have thought that since it was her first time, she would have dressed to impress, but unfortunately many people were unenthusiastic by what Kourtney’s outfit had to propose. Kourtney wore the designer Thom Browne and so did her fiancé, Travis Barker. Her outfit featured unusual cuts as well as abstruse details that did not please the public. Kourtney explained that she wore the draft of her boyfriend’s outfit and described their outfits as “an extension of each other”. This means that she used his cloth scraps to make an outfit for herself. The bottom of the skirt was made with his pantskirt and her top was made from his shirt. One year 10 girl expresses her disappointment by saying “ it is quite embarrassing for Kourtney to show up to her first Met Gala wearing her boyfriend’s fabric scraps. She could have done exceedingly better.”
Sebastian Stan in Valentino
Sebastian Stan showed up to the Met Gala 2022 with an outfit that quite literally drew the public’s eye. To Sebastian his outfit might have been “Gilded Glamour ”, but to others Sebastians’s outfit, designed by Valentino, was “pepto bismol on steroids’ ‘. A student in year 11 said ” at the Met Gala this year, mostly everyone was off theme, but Sebastian chose to go above and beyond, definitely missing the bullseye.” What seemed to bother people the most was the neon pink colour of his outfit. It was completely off theme and it seemed that Sebastian had put little to no effort into making his outfit on theme.
All in all, Met Gala 2022 greatly let down the students of LGB as well as the public who were eager to see the new looks of the annual Gala. The celebrities who did stay on theme really stood out as there were not many of them. As students, we are looking forward to next year’s Met Gala to see if these celebrities can redeem themselves.
