The 2024 Met Gala might be six months away, but prep for fashion’s biggest night out is already well underway. On Wednesday, Vogue — whose high priestess, Anna Wintour, has co-chaired the Met Gala since 1995 — revealed the theme of next year’s bash.
The 2024 Met Gala will fête the Costume Institute’s upcoming exhibition, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” And no, the show has nothing to do with princesses trapped in an eternal slumber. According to head curator Andrew Bolton, the “Sleeping Beauties” in question are 50 garments from the Costume Institute’s permanent collection that are too fragile to ever be worn again — pretty timely, considering the .
Examples include a nearly 150-year-old ballgown by Charles Frederick Worth, widely credited as fashion’s first couturier; Christian Dior’s famous “Junon” gown from 1949 (Natalie Portman recently wore a recreation of the iconic design to the Cannes Film Festival); and a dress made of razor clams that Alexander McQueen created for his Spring/Summer 2000 collection.
These historic pieces will be exhibited alongside contemporary works by the likes of Phillip Lim, Stella McCartney, and Connor Ives, drawing a through-line between fashion’s past and present.
The show will be segmented into three zones: Land, Sea, and Sky, an “ode to nature and the emotional poetics of fashion,” .
It’s not yet clear how “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” will translate to the 2024 Met Gala dress code. , attendees were instructed to dress in honor of the , whom the Costume Institute paid memorialized with a retrospective of his life and work.
Vogue will likely announce next year’s dress code sometime in January. Given the scope of “Sleeping Beauties,” it’s safe to say that pulling a Kim Kardashian and won’t be the move.
“Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” opens at The Met Costume Institute on May 10, 2024. The 2024 is slated to take place on May 6.
