Every year the lace, haute couture latex, and leather are on grand display at the Met Gala, coinciding as it does with the Metropolitan Museums’ yearly themed fashion exhibit. The celebrities surely show for this Gala as well as thousands come through the museum for months to enjoy the exhibition. As we mentioned in last week’s blog, this year’s “About Time: Fashion and Duration,” can only currently be toured virtually, and we all know that the Gala won’t be happening at all. Still, some creative fashionistas, both pros, and amateurs have taken to throwing their own festivities.
First, there was the virtual #HFMetGala2020 held by the enterprising teens of “High Fashion Twitter” (also known as hft). As an instructional pursuit begun last November, the students learned about the history of the Met Gala while posting on their experiences with what’s called “teen-centered spaces.” From this, they created wardrobe designs to show at their “hft Met Gala.”
The categories for their competition included: Photoset Creation, where the student created a photoset using images they found; the Brand Challenge, where a photoset was created using images from a specific brand’s archive; Wardrobe Styling, where the student took pictures of themselves in clothes they already owned and lastly, Illustration Expression, where photos of original or archival fashion illustration were used.
The hft can be found here.
Then there was red carpet regular (guest as well as announcer) and Broadway star/actor/singer Billy Porter teaming up with Vogue. The #metgalachallenge they created called out to posters to recreate some of the more infamous Met Gala wardrobe pieces of the past, only using items found at home. See the results here.
The 2020 Met Gala was to mark the Met’s 150th anniversary, a milestone to be sure. But these do-it-yourself Instagram and Twitter displays show that the spirit of big fashion event won’t die, even in the face of a pandemic.
