What Is the Gilded Glamour? The Theme of Met Gala 2022- Did Celebrities Do Justice to the Theme?

Photo courtesy: Tatler 

Although the rich and famous have been attending the met gala for decades now. There’s no denying that the hype around the event is largely due to social media. Met is one of the biggest fashion events of the year, in the days leading up to and following the met gala, you can find Instagram consumed with an exhausting amount of coverage and content revolving around the event.

Traditionally held on the first Monday of May aside from the 2021 event due to the pandemic. The Met Gala marks the opening of the costume institute’s annual fashion exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Commencing in 1948, the event is one of the highlights of the New York City social scene and is commonly referred to as fashion’s biggest night. 

2022 Met Gala Theme

 The 2022 Met Gala in America in an anthology of fashion is a continuation of the theme from the previous year which was “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion”. According to Vogue itself, this year’s dress code was Gilded Glamour referring to the Gilded Age in the United States – a tumultuous period that took place between the end of the American Civil War and the turn of the 20th Century. 

The Gilded Age 

During this era, the United States became more prosperous and saw unprecedented developments in industry and technology which resulted in rapid economic growth and an influx of European immigrants looking for a chance at a better life. Often glorified in modern media as a time of extraordinary wealth and opulence.

 The Gilded Age was extremely hard on the working class who endured dangerous working conditions and extremely low pay while tycoons got richer and richer, with the wealthiest one percent of American families controlling more than half of the nation’s property by 1890. During the late 1800s, America attempted to emulate European royalty and everything from architecture to art became more extravagant.

As a result, many members of American high society began to regularly travel to and from Europe bringing up and coming fashions from Paris and London and back to the US. During the late 19th Century clothing became more elaborate largely thanks to recent technological advances that allowed the fabric to be cheaper and easier to produce and women’s dresses came in a variety of colorful textiles and would be adorned with an assortment of trims like lace, embroidery, fringe, bows, and ruffles.

Women’s clothing during the Gilded Age is often associated with the bustle which created a voluminous silhouette that emphasized women’s backsides. Differing from earlier fashions of the victorian era which were more bell-shaped through the use of a hoop skirt or crinoline. 

During the gilded age, the bustle went in and out of fashion and the first bustle period or the early bustle lasted between 1868 and 1876. In 1883 the bustle made a return resulting in the second bustle period or the late bustle which had the largest and fullest derriere of the bunch and lasted until the end of the decade.  The popularity of the S shape eventually replaced the bustle period’s hourglass figure in 1892. 

The emphasized silhouette created by the bustle could be seen as an ode to fashions of the rococo period 100 years earlier which used panniers or side hoops to create its signature shape. As we’ve said before fashion is cyclical and the majority of the gilded ages' design elements followed the more is more sentiment of french royalty from the late 18th century – a period which had a similar disparity between the upper class and the working class and we all know how that turned out. Speaking of cyclical fashion you may notice that some of the trends that were popular during the gilded age made a return during the 1950s in a large part due to Dior’s new look which focused on structured silhouettes that emphasized the female form. 

Men’s Fashion During the Gilded Age

Menswear during the first half of the gilded age had a boxier silhouette but similar to women’s fashion it grew narrower over the century to emphasize a long slender frame. With the increasing popularity of outdoor activities in England during the 1860s, casual lounge suits were created as an alternative to the more formal and restrictive frock coat and men sought out a similar alternative for the formal evening tailcoat resulting in the creation of a formal lounge jacket. 

As previously mentioned wealthy people in the US attempted to emulate the monarchy and in 1866  men in New York began sporting the short lounge jacket that had become popular across the pond. There was initial resistance to the style amongst American high society but by 1888 it had become accepted as an informal evening substitute while women of the time we're able to adorn their dresses with all sorts of decorations and trims. 

Men expressed themselves in other ways experimenting with their facial hair, neckwear, and hats. In stark contrast to their slim suits and their whiskers and hats grew larger and larger leading to the Mr. Monopoly look one associate with the men of the time period.

During the panic of 1893, the worst economic depression America had seen, millions were left unemployed, homeless, and hungry and frustrations towards corporate greed exploded eventually leading to a progressive era in 1896 which brought about a period of widespread social activism and political reform that marked the eventual end of the gilded age.

Now as you know what The Gilded Glamour stands for, it’s up to you to decide that justice was done to the theme. Did the celebrities take enough thought into their dresses? Did they recognize the theme efficiently?

Written by Vanshika Rathour