If you haven’t checked your calendar recently, just know that the end of 2019 is rapidly approaching. We still have like, 50 days left in this year, but people have started looking ahead to 2020, which makes me both excited and stressed. Oscar contender movies are coming out left and right, the Grammy nominations are getting released in a week, and today, the theme for the 2020 Met Gala was announced. It’s not as confusing as Camp was last year, but it still sounds artsy AF.
This year’s theme for the 2020 Met Gala and costume exhibition will be “About Time: Fashion And Duration,” which immediately makes me wonder…who is going to show up to this thing literally wearing a clock? My money is on Lady Gaga, but it could really be anyone. According to the Met Costume Institute, the exhibition will showcase 150 years of fashion history along a “disruptive” timeline, so I guess they’re just putting the clothes out of order? Idk, I’m definitely still gonna go. Curator Andrew Bolton said that the exhibition is “a reimagining of fashion history that’s fragmented, discontinuous, and heterogeneous.” Cool cool cool cool cool. Tell me what Rihanna’s gonna wear and then we can talk.
While the theme this year definitely isn’t as difficult to explain as Camp (Mom, stop asking me if random things are camp), I’m still not sure exactly how this theme will be interpreted. Will someone be dressed as Cogsworth from Beauty & The Beast? Will Anna Wintour do Hermione Granger cosplay and carry a time-turner? I can already picture Kim Kardashian dressed as Princess Jasmine coming inside of a gigantic hourglass, and I’m gonna be disappointed if she does anything less extra. Actually, knowing Kim, she’s just going to show up in a corset and call it “time”, but I’m really hoping for Jasmine.
The 2020 Met Gala will take place on May 4th, and this year’s co-chairs are Nicolas Ghesquière (the creative director of Louis Vuitton), Lin-Manuel Miranda, Emma Stone, Meryl Streep, and Anna Wintour. While I’m guessing this means Emma Stone will wear a boring Louis Vuitton dress like she always does, I’m intrigued by Meryl Streep’s selection. She’s not the kind of person that goes to the Met Gala every year, so I really hope she goes over-the-top for her big night. Maybe she’ll dress up as Miranda Priestly and move at a glacial pace? That would thrill me.
While we still have to wait approximately seven months to see the ~timeless~ looks at the 2020 Met Gala, we can take this time to look back at some of the most iconic Met Gala themes and looks ever. As I mentioned before, many people were confused by last year’s theme “Camp: Notes on Fashion,” but co-chair Lady Gaga obviously knew exactly what to do. Her gigantic pink dress, followed by a series of outfit reveals, were instantly iconic (and camp).
In 2018, the theme was “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,” and some of the looks were seriously stunning, While some people are determined to be boring and just look pretty, Cardi B fully went for it, despite being super pregnant at the time. It’s been almost two years, and I’m still not over that headpiece.
If anyone has made the Met Gala their bitch in the past decade, it’s Rihanna. While she sat out last year, she’s shut down the red carpet several other years with looks that only she could pull off. While her avant-garde Comme des Garçons look and her Pope couture were spectacular, my absolute favorite thing she’s worn is this stunning yellow gown by Chinese designer Guo Pei. The whole theme in 2015 was “China: Through The Looking Glass,” and Rih was one of the only stars who wore a look from an actual Chinese designer. You go, bad gal.
So yeah, there’s going to be a high bar when it comes to next year’s looks, and I really hope all these celebs don’t let me down. In the meantime, we have the whole award season’s worth of red carpets to judge appreciate fashion, and I’m so ready.
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