At Met Gala 2021, politics takes centre-stage

The Met Gala is an annual fundraiser hosted by the Costume Institute of New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is shortly called the Met. The gala, helps to fund the Institute’s exhibitions and its acquisitions of new items. Officially, it is called the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Benefit.

This year’s Met Gala, however, witnessed crowds of Black Lives Matter protesters outside, and a vaccine mandate inside. The much-delayed event finally went ahead in New York on Monday evening. Usually held on the first Monday in May, it was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic, and postponed this year for the same reason.

The theme for the event was “American independence”. The hosts included singer Billie Eilish, tennis player Naomi Osaka, actor Timothée Chalamet and poet Amanda Gorman.

The annual fundraiser also marks the opening of the institute’s major annual exhibition, In America : A Lexicon of Fashion, which was evidently more political than usual this year.

Politics showed up on the red carpet too, with celebrities like Cara Delevingne and Congress woman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who wore outfits that were message-driven and highlighted issues like income and gender inequality.