Met Gala: Bright and Bawdy Attire Raise Big Bucks for Costume Institute

I have a beef with those among us who have a beef with the Met gala. A bone to pick is probably better since many of the women at the gala have that lean — banana-split-deprived lean — and hungry look. The annual gala starts the May art season in New York and raises money for the Met’s Costume Institute, the department that deals with the art history of fashion. The gala was also the opening event for the Costume Institute’s blockbuster exhibition, Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion. It’s the splashiest social event of the year.

Friends tell me they think the gala signals social collapse. “Happy to be decadent” or “depraved” or “tasteless” or “just plain weird,” the partygoers — or at least their outfits — seem to proclaim. At $75,000 a ticket, the gala entitles buyers to proclaim whatever they want, but, really, some, like J. Harrison Ghee, went for a look that’s too various. Shown too many options, Ghee was, to borrow from Oklahoma, a “girl who can’t say no.” I’m not surprised. Ghee uses he/she/they pronouns and is “nonbinary” and “pansexual.” Too much and too many.

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Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

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Met Gala

I have a beef with those among us who have a beef with the Met gala. A bone to pick is probably better since many of the women at the gala have that lean — banana-split-deprived lean — and hungry look. The annual gala starts the May art season in New York and raises money for the Met’s Costume Institute, the department that deals with the art history of fashion. The gala was also the opening event for the Costume Institute’s blockbuster exhibition, Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion. It’s the splashiest social event of the year.

Friends tell me they think the gala signals social collapse. “Happy to be decadent” or “depraved” or “tasteless” or “just plain weird,” the partygoers — or at least their outfits — seem to proclaim. At $75,000 a ticket, the gala entitles buyers to proclaim whatever they want, but, really, some, like J. Harrison Ghee, went for a look that’s too various. Shown too many options, Ghee was, to borrow from Oklahoma, a “girl who can’t say no.” I’m not surprised. Ghee uses he/she/they pronouns and is “nonbinary” and “pansexual.” Too much and too many.