Met Gala 2021

Hello everyone, my name is Olivia Custodio! 

            Personally, I find the Met Gala to be very interesting. The Met Gala is an annual fundraiser for New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. The Gala this year was held this past Monday on September 13th, and the theme was 'American Independence.' I'm sure many are aware that the Met Gala had just recently occurred due to the abundance of posts across various media outlets and social media platforms. Discussions and posts about the Gala are made by various individuals from columnists writing articles to individuals posting on their personal social media accounts, including Instagram and TikTok. The basis for these posts is typically to discuss the theme and the celebrity's designer outfits. Celebrities are even put into categories based on 'best dressed' and 'worst dressed.' 

            The reason that I find the Met Gala to be extremely interesting is because of the enormous media attention the Met Gala creates in regards to celebrities' outfits. Days and even weeks after the fundraiser, many of my social media feeds are overwhelmed by posts about people rating and critiquing celebrities' outfits. This is fascinating to me because so many individuals are so concerned about the lives of celebrities and the events they attend, which in retrospect, shouldn't receive the amount of media attention it does while other more important world issues are put on the backburner. Although I do say this, I am guilty of contributing to the media attention of the Met Gala by reading, watching, and engaging with various media associated with the Met Gala.

            A few of the celebrities who received a lot of attention this year in regards to their outfit choices included Billie Eilish, who received many comments categorizing her as 'best dressed', Kim Kardashian, who received various negative critics about her outfit, and AOC, who used her dress to make a political statement. Of course, these are not the only comments made about each of these celebrities and their outfit choices, and there are opposing opinions. However, from the media I saw, these were the most popular opinions of each of these celebrities. 

Billie Eilish in Oscar de la Renta

Kim Kardashian in Balenciaga

AOC in 'Tax the Rich' dress

Comments

  1. Maddy VioliSeptember 22, 2021 at 9:49 AM

    Hey Olivia,

    I also find the Met Gala to be very interesting, I love seeing all the outfits every year and how creative people get. I also love seeing the discussions that come out of the Met Gala. After it ends people all over social media continue talking about the event for weeks after. People discuss who attended and who didn't and the best and worst outfits. This event creates so much attention on social media, it is often hard to miss during that time of year.

    Thanks,
    Maddy

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sophie MagwoodSeptember 22, 2021 at 11:07 AM

    Hi Olivia,
    Your blog post was really interesting to read!
    I agree it is incredibly fascinating to watch as our social media feeds are flooded with Met Gala related content for weeks leading up to, as well as following the event. I think the Met Gala has a-lot of mixed feedback- some individuals who feel the event is like the Oscars for fashion whereas others who feel its not worth all the hype it receives. It is also interesting how many of the outfits from the event are still talked about even years later- the impact this event and the clothing has on social media is enormous!
    - Sophie

    ReplyDelete
  3. Shanna AllimanSeptember 22, 2021 at 6:40 PM

    Hi Olivia!
    I saw your discussion post and clicked on it immediately because I am also intrigued in the Met Gala. Although I pay attention to the many different celebrities attending and their amazing outfit, to be honest, I never fully understood what the Met really was. Is it just an event to dress to impress? After reading your post you have mentioned it is a fundraiser, which makes sense. How do you think events, such as the Met, socially shape our society through social media? I think this involves the culture of social media. As you mentioned many critics took to social media very quickly with their opinions surrounding the outfits of these celebrities.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Amelia LoaderSeptember 23, 2021 at 10:40 AM

    Hi Olivia!

    I enjoyed reading your blog post- I love watching the met gala red carpet just to see how celebrities and designers create amazing costumes/outfit to match the theme. You're absolutely right in that many social talk shows like The Real, ENews, and The Social discuss the best and worst dressed on the red carpet. Just like how the acting industry has the Oscar's, the fashion industry has the Met Gala- we get to see all the designers, models, and Hollywood stars gather together to "compete" in a sense for media coverage and push the boundaries when it comes to fashion. It has become common knowledge that if you are invited to the Met Gala that you have reached A-list fame- we can see this with Vlogging and Tik Tok stars such as Emma Chamberlain and Addison Rae that attended their first Met ball this year due to their growing following and popularity in the social media world. The relationship between social media and the Met Gala continues to grow each year- thank you for sharing a great example.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Annabelle SpinaSeptember 24, 2021 at 8:58 AM

    Hi Olivia!

    Great post this week! I found it extremely interesting to read as I am a big fan of The Met Gala. I love watching each year and discussing the celebrity's outfit choices with my friends! It has become an annual tradition of ours. I enjoyed how you mentioned that the event has enormous media attention, as I think this is the part that fascinates me most. It's almost hard to believe that such a big night in the media exists just for celebrities to show off their fancy outfits. Nonetheless, I am still a massive fan of the Met Gala and get very excited each year when it comes around. Again, great post this week; I loved the topic choice!

    ReplyDelete
  6. JenniferSeptember 24, 2021 at 12:48 PM

    Hi Olivia,

    I really enjoyed reading your blog post, great job! I also find it interesting how much media attention is given to this event, it was all I saw on social media for a while and I still see some posts about it on Instagram and TikTok. It’s really interesting to see the different ways people critique the outfits - for example, I saw some people praising AOC for the political statement she made with her outfit while others bashed it because they thought it was ironic given the event she was at. The Met Gala certainly stirs up a lot of discourse both on social media and in person conversations. In conversations that I have had, the outfit that was brought up the most was Kim Kardashian’s. Most of the people I have spoken to thought it was weird but there were still a few who thought it was really cool.

    Do you think the Met Gala will continue to garner as much media attention as it currently does in the future? Perhaps in a decade from now?

    ReplyDelete

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