The 2023 Met Gala theme will honor the life and work of a late designer. Find out who below.
BySep 30, 2022 12:44 PMTags
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Mark your calendars for the first Monday in May: The theme for the 2023 Met Gala has been revealed.
On Sept. 30, organizers of fashion's biggest night announced the upcoming theme, which will be celebrating the work of Karl Lagerfeld, the former creative director of Chanel who passed away in 2019 from complications of pancreatic cancer.
According to the Met, "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty," will "explore the artistic methodology and stylistic vocabulary of Karl Lagerfeld's designs through recurring themes across more than 65 years, from the 1950s to his final collection in 2019." The 2023 Costume Institute Benefit, also known as the Met Gala, will take place on May 1.
The upcoming exhibition will be open to the public from May 2023 to July 2023 and will feature 150 of Lagerfield's designs from his time as creative director of Chloé, Fendi, Chanel, Balmain and Patou, as well as items from his eponymous label.
Andrew Bolton, the head curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, said he became inspired after hearing Lagerfeld's design assistants pay tribute to him at his memorial service.
Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage
"I was so fascinated by how they communicated [with Lagerfeld], which was by drawings," Bolton told CNN Sept. 30. "Every single design in his life was a sketch. And when I saw the drawings, I thought, 'These are so charming, so whimsical, so impressionistic.' But what I didn't realize was that they contained really precise information—about a shoulder line or the length of a sleeve. And [his staff] knew exactly what this line meant or what that dot meant, and they could decode it."
The co-chairs of the 2023 Met Gala—which last year included Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds—have not been announced.
WHEN THE 2022 MET GALA theme, Gilded Glamour, was announced, many were left scratching their heads. The concept was so convoluted it sparked chains of social media debates of users debating what it actually constituted, it was understandable that a host of celebrity guests missed the mark [according to much of the internet, anyway] when it came to their outfits.
Now, organisers of the Met Gala — indisputably one of fashion’s biggest nights — have announced next year’s theme: celebrating the work of one of the most prolific designers of the last Century, the late Karl Lagerfeld.
On Monday May 1st, stars will descend upon the Met Museum in New York donning looks that honour the enduring legacy of the late designer who passed away in 2019.
In his illustrious career, Lagerfeld spent time as creative director at Fendi, Chloé and Chanel. Notably, he was responsible for the creation of Chanel’s signature interlocking ‘CC’ monogram. He also fulfilled stints at Balmain and Patou and, of course, founded his eponymous label.
The theme aligns with a major exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, titled “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty.” A press release from the Met revealed the show will “explore the designer’s stylistic language” through around 150 designs. The exhibition will be open to the public from early May until mid-July 2023.
Next year’s gala’s co-chairs, which last year included Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, are yet to be announced. As are the guests of the invite-only benefit, which usually costs upwards of $30,000 a head to attend.
The news of the 2023 theme follows rumours of a ‘space’ theme, a rumour that rapidly picked up traction over on TikTok earlier this year. And, given that Instagram has staked its claim as the most popular news source among young people today — with TikTok not far behind it, as per The BBC — it is of little surprise that the rumour gained mass attention, with little-to-no evidence to help decipher the depth of it’s legitimacy.
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