The (now postponed) 2020 MET Gala Theme: "Fashion and Duration"

Update: The Met Gala, usually taking place on the first Monday in May, is now postponed due to Covid-19.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute announced next year’s exhibition: “Fashion and Duration” and naturally, we can’t help to fantasize with the MET gala red carpet. Who will wear this year’s most ad-hoc look? Will Cardi shut it down again?

According to Andrew Bolton, the Metropolitan Museum’s head curator, This years theme was directly inspired by the 1992 Sally Potter film Orlando which was based on Viriginia Woolf’s Novel from the same year. There is a scene in the film where Actress Tilda Swinton is going through a maze; when she enters she is wearing a french dress from the 18th century and as she moves through the maze her clothes turn into a mid 19th century dress and she emerges in 1850.

Orlando, 1992

Orlando, 1992

This year’s theme will try to disrupt the idea that a certain era in time should be defined by its clothes and seeks to show the timelessness of clothes where there is no beginning and no end, everything is simply a “big fat medium” as Bolton describes it.

This is giving us major Salvador-Dali-meets-Elsa-Schiarapelli vibes!, anyone else?

Surreal, David Bailey, 1980Photo: Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photo © David Bailey

“Surreal Appeal” by Harpers Bazaar, Comme des Garçons Jacket and skirt, Baccarat watch and vase.

Salvador Dalí, Three Young Surrealist Women Holding in their Arms the Skins of an Orchestra, 1936. Worldwide rights © Salvador Dalí.

We cannot wait to see what the 2020 MET gala will bring so in the meantime, click on the articles below to remember the best moments of the first Monday in May.

met gala 2019 superlatives

favorite met gala red carpet moments

understanding “camp”