I’m sure Vogue wasn’t intentionally going for irony here, but whew. Wade during the third year of a pandemic and some of the largest economic wealth gaps in US history? The lifestyle website Ruush hit the nail on the head with this, defining Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warne’s 1837 use of ‘the gilded age’ (they coined the phrase as the title to their novel) as ” how wealth and glamour was used to conceal the social unrest and turmoil of the era.” And really… have you ever seen a better theme for a Met ball that happened on the exact same night that a leaked Supreme Court decision signaled the soon overturn of Roe v.
Gilded can be taken in a lot of different ways, for sure, but it’s almost always tied to the sparkled ignorance (playful or otherwise) of the elite during a time of great economic inequality. This year’s gala is part two of the pandemic gala held in September, “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion,” except this time we’re focusing in on Gilded Glamour. You already know what the deal is about the Met Gala - the annual fundraiser, co-sponsored by Anna Wintour and Vogue, supporting the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Costume Institute in New York City, that also soft launch’s the Met’s annual fashion exhibit - so I want to talk a little more about this year’s theme. There is no better event suited for those skills than the annual Met Gala. The first Monday in May is traditionally one of my favorite times of the year, I have what might be considered only “a slightly better than above average” fashion sense, but I do love to sit on my couch in my pajamas and make snarky jokes in my group chat.