The Met Gala: Fashion’s Super Bowl

The annual Met Gala receives global attention. Is the event a beloved, charitable tradition or an outdated, commercialized farce?

• Yesterday was the fateful first Tuesday in May, forever cursed as a day when our social media timelines are flooded with pictures from the first Monday of May - the day of the Met Gala.
• The Gala is a yearly fundraising event, organized by Vogue, to raise money for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. The cost for a single seat at the event starts at $35,000.
• Established in 1948, the event is considered one of the biggest nights of the year for fashion. After a red carpet bonanza and a flurry of pictures, the guests step inside the Met for a private event.
• Recently, the event has come under fire for being overly commercialized and celebrity driven, full of individuals who do not truly care for the Costume Institute, rather they prioritize their status.
• Indigenous model, Quannah Chasinghorse, attended her first Met Gala last year and she told the Business Insider that she felt “alone” and that “People are only there for themselves.”
• The Gala has also been criticized for being “out of touch”. This year's theme was “Gilded Glamor”, paying homage to a period of industrial prosperity in the US - during a time of crippling inflation.