Tyla’s sandy gown and Zendaya’s floral dresses among the standout looks at 2024 Met Gala

Celebrities from the sports, fashion, music, politics and social media worlds ascended the steps of the US Metropolitan Museum of Art, Monday (May. 6).

The Met Gala celebrates the opening of the Costume Institute’s spring exhibition at the New York museum and is is held on the first Monday in May.

Known for some of the most risky, inventive and chic looks of the year, stars like Usher and Colman Domingo did not disappoint.

South Africa’s Tyla wore form-fitting sand to her first Met Gala. The Balmain dress caugth the eye of the Women’s Wear Daily editor.

“I don’t know if you saw, but she literally had to be picked up by different security around her and put on place on each step,” Leigh Nordstrom exclaimed.

“And that dress?  It was Oliver (Rousteing), the designer spoke with us up, and he said that [it] that was meant to look like sand, and he wanted it to be a piece that it’s going to last in a museum. You know, that could be part of an exhibit like this.”

“It looked amazing, a really interesting interpretation of the theme as well, this kind of thinking of time and as sand as a component of Sands of Time and all of that,” Nordstrom added.

The Garden of time

The official dress code this year was The Garden Of Time. The eponymous short-story by late British author JG Ballard was the inspiration for it. The castle garden which serves as a setting in the book influenced stars like Zendaya to go for floral and botanical looks. 

The “Dune” star wore two gowns on Monday. Women’s Wear Daily editor Leigh Nordstrom says her look and that of Lana Del Rey were the standouts of the night. 

The theme of the exhibition Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion refers to garments from the Costume Institute’s collection that have been “in slumber” and now will be on display.

Curator Andrew Bolton picked 250 pieces spanning four centuries.

Besides Vogue’s Anna Wintour who coordinates the event, other Gala hosts this year include Zendaya, Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez, and Chris Hemsworth – a first-time gala attendee.

The Gala started in 1948 as a society midnight supper and wasn’t even at the Met. Fast forward 70-plus years, and it’s one of the most photographed events in the world. Beyond the fashion moments, the event also raises money for the Met’s Costume Institute. Nearly $22 million was raised last year, a record for the self-funding department. And the annual spring exhibit brings hundreds of thousands of visitors to the museum as well.