Given that the red carpet was green, it wouldn't have been surprising to see the Met Gala fashion embracing sustainable practices to protect nature. Imagine this: elegant dresses and formal attire featuring the latest in sustainable fashion, all while bringing attention to the fashion industry's impact on the climate crisis, ELLE reported.
Fashion industry, known for its high resource consumption, contributes to over 8% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, making it crucial to emphasize its impact. And who could be more qualified for the task than some of the most powerful individuals in the world?
Did Camila Cabello's 'clutch bag', which was crafted from a block of ice, symbolize the melting polar ice caps and escalating sea levels, for instance? Maybe Tyla's hourglass handbag symbolized the limited time we have left to achieve net zero by 2050. Could it be that Doja Cat's Vetements wet T-shirt dress was intended to bring awareness to the amount of water needed to produce a single white T-shirt - a whopping 700 gallons? Extra credit for the mascara-covered eyes streaming with tears to depict her anguish over the ongoing exploitation of cotton farmers. I'm saying, that's what everyone was trying to achieve, correct?
Wrong. Or at least, I have found no evidence to support my take on those looks. This year’s dress code was in fact an homage to J.G. Ballard’s short story, The Garden of Time; many designers interpreted its themes of nature and decay in their creations, while simultaneously placing a higher importance on celebrities’ single-use red carpet looks than on the impact fashion has on the planet. How ironic, too, that so many attendees wore motifs that celebrated nature, like flowers, birds and insects, while the mere production of their outfits could have had a detrimental effect on the very environment they were celebrating.
Many dresses featured one of the most unsustainable red carpet mainstays - sequins - with one designer even saying that they wanted to use strong materials that would not 'wither away'. Let's not forget that sequins are plastic, so they will be littering the planet for literally thousands of years, especially since they’re so prone to falling off garments.
Animal rights activists will have been relieved to see that designer Jun Takahashi had the good sense to lose the live butterflies that originally fluttered around inside Undercover’s terrarium dresses on the catwalk in Paris, a move he has since apologised for. One of these was worn by the model Amelia Gray Hamlin last night, and another features in the Met’s Sleeping Beauties: Awakening Fashion exhibition, whose launch the event was celebrating.
Unexpectedly, only a small number of celebrities opted to wear vintage attire at the event. Jorden Bickham, stylist to Emily Ratajkowski, chose a sheer vintage gown for the red carpet - an Atelier Versace dress from 2001 - and a 1998 Givenchy dress for the after-party. Kendall Jenner displayed McQueen-era Givenchy Couture, but despite being the first to wear it, she did not support the idea of reusing outfits as a sustainable fashion practice. Indeed, Givenchy's archive of never-before-worn items had a successful debut last night: co-host Zendaya wore a vintage John Galliano for Givenchy Couture dress for the first time. It's from the spring collection of 1996, the year she was born, so it's high time someone wore it.
There were some advocates for sustainable fashion, however. Amanda Seyfried teased that she would go to the Met Gala with solar panels on her head, inspired by The Garden of Time where she saw the approaching mob as a symbol of climate change, requesting a eco-friendly dress from her stylist Elizabeth Stewart. They opted for a Prada dress made from leftover fabric from the brand's 2009 spring collection.
In the meantime, Demi Moore wore a Harris Reed dress made from recycled vintage wallpaper, while Janelle Monáe's custom Vera Wang gown had oversized sequin flowers created from repurposed plastic bottles. Charlie XCX's Marni dress may have been the most eco-friendly outfit of the evening, made from repurposed vintage T-shirts intricately sewn together and adorned with glass beads.
Just as expected of eco-advocate Stella McCartney, the core of her label's gala offerings was centered around sustainability. FKA Twigs wowed in a mix of man-made diamonds and a white cloak crafted from sustainable wool loops. Vrai grew diamonds with zero emissions, which Cara Delevingne also wore. Her jewels were made into a backless bodice with a hood and paired with a skirt made of recycled chiffon and silk.
Certainly, the Met Gala honors fashion as a form of art, and it's clear that the majority of the designs displayed were incredibly stunning. However, with the presence of numerous affluent celebrities and the event's high level of prestige, this represented a significant chance that was squandered to genuinely appreciate the beauty of nature and emphasize its susceptibility by those who are most capable of doing so, particularly considering the evening's theme.