The 2021 Met Gala was held on Monday, and saw several Hollywood celebrities in attendance.
The annual costume event, curated by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York, is a fundraising event that celebrates the museum’s annual fashion exhibit whose theme changes every year.
The Met Gala, which was cancelled in 2020 owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, celebrates the Costume Institute’s two part exhibition to be presented in two parts – this year, and in 2022. This year’s theme is “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion,” in view of the Costume Institute’s 75th anniversary.
While part one opens at the Anna Wintour Costume Center on September 18, 2021, and will remain on display there, the second part with the theme, “In America: An Anthology of Fashion,” opens on May 5, 2022, in the period rooms of the American Wing.
Actors like Timothee Chalamet, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Simu Liu, Kristen Stewart, Ben Affleck, Michaela Coel, Game of Thrones stars Maisie Williams, Kit Harrington, and Leslie Rose, and Gemma Chan, among others, graced the carpet at the 2021 Met Gala.
American singers and pop-stars like Justin Bieber, Billie Eilish, Lil Nas X, Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello, Rihanna, and ASAP Rocky, were also present, along with sports icons like tennis player Serena Williams, and Simone Biles, the American gymnast. Supermodels Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner also attended the event.
The inspiration for Jenner’s Givenchy outfit was Audrey Hepburn’s look in the classic film My Fair Lady. “We just did a modern take on that moment,” a person who works at Givenchy, told Vogue, and added that the dress was a connection of French couture and American culture.
One of the most iconic costumes of the evening, however, was presented by Lil Nas X, who changed three outfits while on the red carpet.
Explaining the costume’s significance while speaking to Vogue, the rapper and singer, who came out as a gay in 2019, said, “I wanted to start with royalty, or like a cloak, like we are in our shell, right? And then we break out of it a little bit more. It’s kind of like me when I got into the industry. Nobody knew who I was. And then we’ve got the armour, right? It’s like I built this shield around myself, even though I came out. And then this year, I felt like I really came out. And that’s what this represents.”
Eilish and Chalamet, along with Amanda Gorman, Naomi Osaka, served as the hosts this year. World-renowned fashion designers Anna Wintour, and Tom Ford, and Instagram head Adam Mosseri, were the honorary co-chairs of Met Gala.
Sudha Reddy, reportedly a philanthropist and wife of Hyderabad-based billionaire Megha Krishna Reddy, was the only Indian at the event. This marks her debut at the Met Gala, that has previously only seen big Indian names like Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Deepika Padukone.
Here are some red carpet looks from Met Gala 2021:
