Celebrity fashion event of the year, the Met Gala, is on the horizon, taking place on 2 May 2016 in aid of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. This year’s Gala is set to be one mammoth showcase of celebrities’ best outfits, styled to the exhibition theme ‘Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology.’ FIB are just itching to see how this futuristic-inspired theme will be interpreted by our favourite celebs.
Hosted by Vogue editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, this year’s honorary chair will be none other than Taylor Swift. (So that’s one celeb attendee we can cross off the list!). Co-hosts will include Idris Elba and Apple’s chief design officer Jonathan Ive, with other honorary chairs to include Karl Lagerfeld, Miuccia Prada, and Louis Vuitton designer Nicolas Ghesquière. Celebrities on the exclusive guest list are awarded free entry to the event, while the chance to rub shoulders and break bread with the world’s elite will cost the rest a pretty penny at over $25,000 a ticket.
Each year, clues as to who will comprise the guest list rely solely upon ferocious whisperings and tallied predictions. Past attendees and the moment’s hottest celebs are always popular guesses, with Kanye and Kim, Beyonce and Jay-Z, Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber and Gigi Hadid among those rumoured to be attending. It is with electric anticipation that we await to see who will be gracing the red carpet this time around, and more importantly, what they will be wearing.
Last year, the most memorable, daring and show-stopping looks were taken out by Rhianna, Beyonce and Sara Jessica Parker, among many others. The theme, ‘China: Through The Looking Glass,’ was honoured by Rhianna’s floor-sweeping, canary yellow ensemble by Chinese designer Guo Pei. Pei’s designs are heavily inspired by Asian culture with traces of Western influence, and she uses embroidering and painting traditions that date back thousands of years to create her masterpieces.
Beyonce left little to the imagination with a saucily revealing, 100% sheer Givenchy gown, strategically jewell-encrusted to maintain some modesty. The piece drew wide-spread divide, with many claiming that the dress was outside the realms of the theme. However, the ‘Through The Looking Glass’, or rather through the see-through dress, aspect of the theme was captured fairly successfully.
Dabbling in design herself, Sarah Jessica Parker collaborated with H&M to create a dress from partially ethically sourced materials, which embodied the theme perfectly. The garment was set off by a flaming head-dress by designer Philip Treacy. The quirky costume paid superb tribute to the spirit of the event, and she lit up the red carpet like a bonfire in the night.
With the futuristic-inspired theme, we can only imagine what head-turning, wild and marvelous ensembles we will be seeing on the red carpet this year.