The 2027 gala theme and corresponding Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute exhibit has been in limbo since late August, when the proposed tribute to controversial designer John Galliano was kiboshed by backlash and donor pressure.
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tribute → correspond → backlash
Its replacement theme was announced fairly quietly Thursday morning: “extraORDINARY: Fashion and the Poetics of the Everyday.”
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theme → announce → Everyday
Capital letters included.
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letters → include → ?
Galliano, replaced by what we wear in the subway?
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we → replace → subway
It feels like a middle finger to those who objected to Wintour and Costume Institute curator Andrew Bolton’s original plan to exalt the problematic designer convicted of hate speech in France.
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who → feel → France
The new theme drew digital gasps.
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theme → draw → gasps
“Snooze fest,” and “so boring” sniped critiques under WWD’s post.
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critiques → snip → post
A comment below the New York Times’ announcement read: “Too late, the emperor has no clothes.
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emperor → read → clothes
This entire fiasco shows just how obsolete the event is.”
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event → show → ?
Is a normcore theme a sign of crisis for this once vaunted affair, a sign Anna Wintour’s supreme power in the industry has waned since a PR disaster quashed her long-cherished cause and one of her chosen favourite talents?
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disaster → wan → talents
Bolton admitted that the cancellation of the Galliano show was disappointing.
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cancellation → admit → show
“I didn’t have a plan B,” he told Vogue.
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he → have → Vogue
To the New York Times, he said the new theme “brings up ideas of value and consumption and resourcefulness and makes us question what we overlook and what we discard.
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we → say → what
The perfect white T-shirt, a pair of jeans, the Brando black leather motorcycle jacket, the business uniform, and trainers of all stripes have both rich history and pride of place in all of our lives and front halls.
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shirt → have → lives
The exhibit will include the revolutionary Perry Ellis grunge collection by Marc Jacobs in 1992, which elevated flannel to runway status, and Brooke Shields’ Calvins, the ones nothing came between.
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nothing → include → status
It will trace the rise of the puffer coat back to Charles James in the 1930s.
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It → trace → 1930s
Pieces from Undercover by Jun Takahashi’s Fall 2024 collection, which featured deconstructed sweats, will be displayed at the entrance.
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which → feature → entrance
But will this theme make for a riveting red carpet?
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theme → make → carpet
It will be certainly be a challenge for the stylists who dress the A-list guests, and a more interesting one than some themes past: Heavenly Bodies:
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who → dress → themes
The “first Monday in May” has become a calendar shorthand.
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Monday → become → May
The impact of the red-carpet images it produces has raised celebrity dressing to theatrical heights (or lows, depending on your POV): think Rihanna in Guo Pei’s yellow-trained omelette gown in 2015, Billy Porter being carried in like a Sun God on a palanquin in The Blonds in 2019, or Kim Kardashian squeezed into Marilyn Monroe’s Happy Birthday Mr. Kennedy museum piece in 2022.
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Kardashian → produce → 2022
The extravagance of the Met Gala, which is underwritten by billionaires and raises vast funds for the Costume Institute, has become polarizing in recent years.
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which → underwrite → years
Everyday dressing is the polar opposite of the Met Gala as we have known it since Wintour took it over in 1995.
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Wintour → know → 1995
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez Bezos are the gala’s controversial lead sponsors, threatening to tarnish Anna Wintour’s carefully curated legacy.
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Bezos → threaten → legacy
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez Bezos are the gala’s controversial lead sponsors, threatening to tarnish Anna Wintour’s carefully curated legacy.
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Bezos → threaten → legacy
In general, “high” fashion has become even more overpriced and inaccessible over time.
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fashion → become → time
Alongside the rise of counterculture in the ’70s, through the casual revolution of Gap khakis of the ’90s and the onslaught of athleisure in the 2000s, the luxury industry has fought back the everyday with increasingly ornate accoutrements: fantasy gowns on actresses at premieres, wait-lists and quotas for exotic-skin bags, $50-million USD diamond-encrusted bras at Victoria’s Secret shows.
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industry → fight → shows
The gap between what real people wear and what we aspire to wear widens exponentially each year.
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we → wear → what
Everyday fashion is where the rubber hits the road: any C-lister can get a stylist to sort a gown for a red carpet, but it is how you show up at Loblaws that is the true barometer of your personal style.
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that → hit → style
We have spent years obsessed with what models wear “off-duty.”
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models → spend → duty
A new generation has just discovered vintage shopping at Kensington Market.
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generation → discover → Market
The way we clothe ourselves day to day is part of a fashion dialogue carried on through time.
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we → clothe → time
Archeologists chronicle what’s left in the dust of extinguished everyday life.
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what → chronicle → life
Museums encase clothing of every era and codify them as clues of how people lived.
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people → encase → clues
Though this exhibition will no doubt be a tad rushed; curators work on longer timelines than do stylists.
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stylists → work → timelines
Well, fashion is supposed to be subversive.
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fashion → suppose → ?
To give Wintour some credit, perhaps she is playing with the idea of the red carpet itself.
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she → give → carpet
She had to respond to the backlash with a bang.
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She → have → bang
As her alter ego from The Devil Wears Prada would say, witheringly: “Groundbreaking.”
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Devil → wear → Prada
The Aporia
