Per usual, the 2021 Met Gala, an extravagant celebrity gathering to signal and fundraise for the opening of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual exhibit, was a flurry of elegance, oddities and a little bit of confusion. This year’s theme — In America: A Lexicon of Fashion — drew out style, media and political heavyweights to express their interpretation of American fashion through the years. Ranging from Yara Shahidi’s homage to Josephine Baker to Olympian Suni Lee’s gold-medal-esque gown, this year’s Gala saw brilliance coincide with beauty as attendees focused on key assets of American culture.
Embedded within the Hollywood nostalgia and athletic luxe was another quintessential component of American culture — activism. Several attendees utilized this year’s red carpet to amplify powerful political declarations. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez donned a white gown emblazoned with her signature phrase “Tax the Rich” and model Cara Delevigne proudly wore a dress across which the words “Peg the Patriarchy” were boldly written.
While some have lauded these statements as a powerful expression of principle, others have criticized them as out of touch and performative. The stark contrast between public reactions to these statements is emblematic of a larger debate about the space that activism does or should occupy in art, performances, and public forums.
Ultimately, those at the 2021 Met Gala who leveraged their outfits to make political statements epitomized the very function of art; that is, to encourage independent interpretation and spur conversation. The Met Gala is one of few fashion events that is guaranteed to generate enough publicity that the outfits worn become a dominant topic in societal discourse. Celebrity attendees may not have a moral obligation to utilize the Met Gala as a space for advocacy, but those this year who did should be applauded for encouraging observers to reevaluate their perspectives and reflect on pertinent social issues.
Fashion’s Biggest Night Out
The Met Gala is often referred to as “Fashion’s Biggest Night Out,” and for good reason. Chances are that in the days following the Met Gala, you can’t swipe for five minutes on your TikTok or Instagram feed without seeing someone analyze, review or question aMet Gala outfit. Even as early as the day after the Gala, Snapchat articles and lifestyle publications are filled with pieces asking “Who Wore it Best?” or offering various interpretations of attendees’ outfits.
It is this very publicity and the conversations it inspires that elevate the Met Gala to the storied position it holds in the fashion and media universe. Good art provokes interpretation and inquiry, and few forums exemplify this as effectively as the Met Gala. After all, the only thing more entertaining than watching celebrities wear audacious outfits is dissecting them afterward.
The Met Gala understands that fashion is an expressive art form, the purpose of which is only realized when it has a responsive and curious audience. In the same vein, those who included activism in their outfits can be credited with understanding how the Met Gala’s convergence of celebrity and art effectively guarantees an engaged audience for their advocacy,
Many have recognized the Met Gala’s fashion activists for their ingenuity and awareness. When asked about Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Tax the Rich” dress by the New York Times, former New York City Mayoral candidate Maya Wiley praised the Congresswoman’s ability to crystallize a large societal conversation. “To walk into a space that’s about art, fashion, luxury and wealth and say, ‘Here is the conversation we have to confront, but I’m going to confront it in the vernacular of the event,’ is brilliant,” says Wiley.
In the same manner that social movements capture the consciousness of a society at a given moment in time, so does art. The structure of the Met Gala lends itself to this ability, requiring designers and attendees to design their outfits around given themes that often reflect larger social phenomena. Harper’s Bazaar and Elle group fashion director Avril Mair lauds the Met Gala as “the only red carpet where directional fashion has a place, as opposed to other red carpets, which are about finding something flattering.”
Met Gala fashion is not meant to be wearable or even conventionally aesthetically pleasing. As noted by celebrity stylist Rebecca Corbin-Murray in a conversation with Harper’s Bazaar, the Met Gala is “…the culmination of a designer’s imagination… It’s a showcase for fashion in its most pure art form.” At the Met Gala, the outfits function as conduits for the expression of that artistic imagination. This, combined with the grounding of this year’s theme in American culture, makes it increasingly logical that some attendees took the opportunity to advocate for a social issue that is salient for America.
Occupying Space Through Activism
The beauty of activism is that it has no parameters. It can take the form of protest, literature, or, as we’ve begun to discuss, fashion. Andrew Bolton, the Curator in Charge of the Met’s Costume Exhibit, even grounded his vision for this year’s Met Gala in the understanding that fashion is a powerful medium for activism. He shared with Vogue that he’s “been really impressed by American designers’ responses to the social and political climate, particularly around issues of body inclusivity and gender fluidity.”
Just as activism has no specified medium, it has no designated effect. From starting conversations to creating tangible political change to illuminating marginalized perspectives, activism has manifold implications, existing anywhere and for anyone.
Critics slammed AOC’s “Tax the Rich” dress and Cara Delevigne’s “Peg the Patriarchy” outfits as superficial forms of pageantry from out-of-touch celebrities. While the Met Gala cannot be separated from its existence as a confluence of celebrity and privilege, what appears to be ignored by critics is how essential leveraging celebrity to start conversations is to driving forward tangible change.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rejoiced on her Instagram story that Google searches for “Tax the Rich” spiked after this year’s Met Gala. Faiz Shakir, the manager of Bernie Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign, confirmed the value in the eye-catching, eye-brow-raising activism in which Ocasio-Cortez participated. Shakir noted that “There’s an art to it: Politics is theater. You’re figuring out ways to animate it.” This animation can inspire constituents to generate the necessary energy to motivate politicians to address problems and create solutions, reinforcing the value of artistic activism.
It’s clear: The Met Gala positions attendees to amplify ideas or initiatives that often go ignored by society. With the world’s eyes on them, each guest makes a conscious decision about the message they want to communicate through their outfit. Every individual maintains the agency to make their message purely artistic or activist, but the efforts of those who leveraged the platform bestowed on them by the Gala to navigate the intersection between the two — to advocate for causes that matter to millions through fashion should be appreciated for starting the conversations imperative to progress.
Image by Changqing Lu is licensed under the Unsplash License.
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