The time has finally arrived. On Nov. 7, The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced the highly anticipated theme of the 2020 Met Gala — “About Time: Fashion and Duration.”
Ever since its debut in 1995, the Met Gala has become one of the biggest and most important events in pop culture: the Oscars of the fashion world, as Vogue calls it. Organized by Vogue’s Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, the infamous gala has left the Met’s Costume Institute, designers and celebrities planning months in advanced for each year’s theme.
While it’s hard to top last year’s Met Gala, which was notably themed “Camp: Notes on Fashion” and featured co-chairs such as Lady Gaga and Harry Styles, the Met Gala’s 2020 theme, “About Time: Fashion and Duration,” is sure to feature the most creative looks that spotlight on the history of fashion in the last century.
In an article from Vogue, Andrew Bolton, the curator of the Costume Institute, says he found the inspiration for this year’s theme through the 1992 film, Orlando, which is based off of a novel by Virginia Woolf. Bolton says that the scene “in which Tilda Swinton enters the maze in an 18th century woman’s robe à la Francaise, and as she runs through it her clothes change to mid-19th century dress, and she re-emerges in 1850s England” is exactly where his original idea came from.
So how does this scene correspond to the 2020 Met Gala theme? This year’s theme isn’t just about 18th century gowns and Marie Antoinette wigs, but instead, Bolton says the theme, “About Time: Fashion and Duration” is a “re-imaging of fashion history that’s fragmented, discontinuous, and heterogeneous.” Bolton says that the goal of the Met Gala’s 2020 theme is to get us thinking differently about the history of fashion.
To help piece together the event, this year’s co-chairs include celebrities such as Emma Stone, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Louis Vuitton creative director Nicolas Ghesquière and Meryl Streep — who has never attended the Met Gala. Meryl Streep attending her first Met Gala as a co-chair? That’s the Miranda Priestly we all know and love.
The theme, which Bolton says is “nuanced” and “open-ended,” has left people wondering how the Costume Institute, designers and celebrities are going to incorporate this year’s theme. Many people have taken to Twitter to express their thoughts and ideas about next year’s theme.
While the 2020 Met Gala is still six months away, we’re excited to see one of the most important nights in fashion take on the newly announced theme, “About Time: Fashion and Duration,” on Monday, May 6.
1 Comment