Life Imitates Art: Met Gala’s Meta-Irony
Met Gala mirrors J.G. Ballard's dystopian fiction, 'Garden of Time.'

This year’s Met Gala Ballardian “Garden of Time” theme was too on the nose for many to believe that it was not intended to troll and even incite class war. Was it indeed all rage-bait, or was it just an illy-chosen but innocent ‘life imitates art’ moment?

The Met Gala is Fashion’s most coveted annual event, exclusive only to the cream of the crop of Hollywood’s celebrities. Although always lavish, the charity gala, raising money for the Costume Institute of New York, used to be more subdued and elegant.

In the past decade, however, it’s grown to become more dramatic and theatrical to the point where trolls that dwell on the Internet have been comparing the Met Gala to YA fiction book series, The Hunger Games, since 2015 on Twitter (now X) during its heyday.

Is this year’s Met Gala theme a way of the Committee trolling the masses back? In this blog essay, I will explore this question, as well as my own fascination with the Met Gala.

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As an enjoyer of art, culture, fashion, history, the social sciences, etc., I casually tune into the Met Gala every year. Normally, I take a brief glance at the looks, enjoy the memes of the ridiculous gowns made by Internet’s finest trolls, even roll my eyes at the Hunger Games comparisons, and perhaps apply the looks to real life like I had done last year with my Chanel-inspired outfit; then…I move on with my life.

This year, however, being a sucker for melancholic romances, I was especially inspired by the aesthetics of the “Garden of Time” theme; so much so that I did a self-portrait photoshoot, which are the photos I’ve carefully scattered throughout. Now, I will admit, I came up with my “Met Gala look” a few days prior to the Monday evening event and prior to reading J.G. Ballard’s short story, but can you blame me? I didn’t even realize it was based on a short story until Monday.

Thus, this outfit is my own ill-researched interpretation of the theme. All I knew was: it was dark and moody and romantic – right up my alley. Needless to say, my humble “Garden of Time” floral dress is akin to Cinderella’s, shying in comparison to the avant-garde designer gowns donned on glistening celebrities. After all, I’m an average girl, using the resources that are available to me. My point is, to whomever is reading this: Dear Reader, don’t judge me. Judge the celebrities. I digress.

But for those who ask: in my self-photoshoot (that I worked very hard on, being the wearer of multiple hats as Stylist, Photographer, Model, Writer, Publisher, etc.), I am wearing The Poet dress made by designer Selkie, lent to me via rental service Nuuly via a collaboration with the latter company. I styled this look myself just moments before I set out on this solo photoshoot venture. It all may look effortless, but every detail from: the watercolor eyeshadow look I came up with last minute (using this palette), Carnelian heart necklace to the red jade earrings to the glass of red wine to the bouquet of fresh roses I had snipped off from the community garden just moments beforehand, was thought out with utmost care and intention.

By the time I had finished my make up, accessories, getting ready, and headed out with my tote bag full of camera equipment, tripod, props, and two emotional support assistants (Madeleine Mimi & Momo Mozart), the sun was already setting to close; but I made-do with the dusk’s low light, and I think it serendipitously worked for the aesthetic: giving my pictures an eerie, melancholic feel, romanticized with my floral dress, with elements of old wine and fresh roses as embellishments.

So this was my effort to be on theme for the Met Gala’s Garden of Time, and at least I did put in effort because how am I to judge celebrity fashion sitting at home in an Adam Sandler type fit? I ought to look the part myself. Anyway, I had no idea what the Met Gala fashions on that Monday night would entail, but I was excited for it and shared my anticipation voraciously on social media a few days leading up to the event.

Come the evening of the Met Gala, after consuming my screen of dazzling displays of glamorous content, I thought that I would be even more savorily inspired by the garments, but instead, it all left a bitter and strange aftertaste. I will admit, my thoughts have unequivocally been provoked by Monday night’s highly publicized event, but it’s not in the way of deep admiration but rather out of foreboding perturbance.

To me, this year’s Met Gala felt like something out of tragic Shakespearean poetry, and for reasons deeper and darker than superficial aesthetics. 🥀

J.G. Ballard’s “Garden of Time”

The 2024 Met Gala theme directly references J.G. Ballard’s 1962 short story, “The Garden of Time. If you haven’t read the 5-page essay, you can read it for free here. In essence, Ballard tells the story of a wealthy aristocratic couple (Count Axel and his Countess) living lavish lives of beauty, art, and culture, in a villa surrounded by magical crystal time flowers. All while, there is large, distant “uncultured” mob slowly encroaching upon them. To momentarily stop the advancing throng, the couple pluck crystal “time-flowers” to reverse time, but the magic is only temporary; as the garden is dying, and there are no new flowers blooming. To prevent the mob from accessing their riches when they inevitably come to spoil them, the wealthy couple destroy everything they have. Once the mob have reached them, the couple have already turned to stone, untouchable by the masses, even at their end. No one wins, and impending doom ensues.

At first glance, the reader might sympathize with Axel and his Countess, but it is important to realize that this story gives no context. Thus, the narrator is unreliable, and we as readers really do not know who the “real” villain here is. Questions such as why the mob was coming for them are left unanswered. If anything, and to say it blankly, Count Axel could’ve done some fucked up shit to make so many people furiously angry (more on that below). Even Bach’s fugue and Dostoevsky’s beauty cannot save even the elite from their entropic destiny.

There are endless ways to interpret what the mob in Ballard’s Garden of Time may represent. At first, I interpreted the story as the dangers of mob mentality and cancel culture; but thinking about Met Gala’s Ballardian dystopia in today’s context, it is hard to ignore the level of cruel intentionality and satire behind this thematic choice.

Whatever you make of this story, I think it is peculiar that Met Gala chose a Ballardian dystopia story for their theme. I mean, they probably could have not predicted the nationwide campus protests and the ongoing genocide of Palestine a year ago, when they most likely decided on the theme, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on those intentions.

To me, it feels like after the decade-long Hunger Games comparisons, the Committee that Anna Wintour sits on throws at the masses in their faces:

“Oh you want Hunger Games? Well, how about a theme that’s actually about class and wealth disparities. An “us vs them” theme. An “eat the rich” theme. A theme about the elites and mob mentality.”

Peculiar, is it not?
Well, Wilde was right: Life imitates Art.

The extravagant and exclusive Met Gala hosting a ball on a regular Monday night, juxtaposed against the mobs of fervent protests coinciding just outside its collosal tent, the Garden of Time theme feels like an intentional scheme, as if the elites say to the masses: “We know of suffering the other world faces, yet we will stay here, hiding in our Arcadian splendor. We’d rather use up the world’s precious resources, only available for ourselves, picking sacred roses to buy us more time than deal with the travesties of common folks, even if that means impending doom that’ll end us all.” After all, in this Vogue article summarizing Ballard’s short story, the writer describes the mob as “unthinking, chaotic,” clearly to side with the aristocrats. (Are we surprised that is Vogue’s take, though?)

After discovering the deeper meaning behind Garden of Time, I have to be honest and say that I’m left disturbed. With protesting rabble right around its corner, the way this year’s Met Gala is a literal mirror reflection of Ballardian dystopia is too on the nose. Even for satire, my dark humor finds the joke waning. More-so, considering the genocide and oppression for which these mobs are protesting against, it feels insensitive and blasphemous. In fact, more than that, it feels sadistic. Could they not have chosen a theme with more class and subtlety?

It is as if the elites figuratively say: “Let Them Eat Cake!” Ironically, there is one popular influencer who said those words verbatim. That now-deleted video was the syrup-drenched cherry on top of all this disgustingly sweet Met Gala meta-irony that toppled over the mobs into a virtual blocking rampage aka “blocktine” on social media. To be the contrarian: I find Haley Kalil cosplaying as Marie Antoinette, shouting “Let Them Eat Cake” in front of a bunch of plebeians hilariously on-theme. In fact, I played devil’s advocate on her behalf because in my opinion,—and this is me putting my tin foil hat on—, someone sadistic on top (perhaps a Jeff Bezos-type) wanted Haley Kalil to say those things and to intentionally rage-bait and cause PR uproar.

I even find the blocking guillotine to be brain-rot, and perhaps this is me understanding why Vogue was described the mob as “unthinking,” jabbing at mob mentality and cancel culture.

Wait a minute–whose side am I on, anyway? I have a point, I promise. While the mobs are angrily blocking away their once-beloved celebrities, I don’t feel bitter towards the adorned attendees. Hell, the mobs act like if they weren’t invited to the Met Gala, they wouldn’t go. Well, this Writer would. My point is: if there is a Count and a Countess, then there is a King and a Queen. If there are time-flowers, then there are time-travelers.

Whether any of these glistening A-list celebrities even read Ballard’s 5-page short story, it is unclear. More likely, their manager gave them the SparkNotes version of it. Whether they are also in on the joke, or being the butt of the joke, it is ambiguous. However, the online behavior of several attending celebrities prior to the Met Gala is suspicious: Lana del Rey called one of her fans “broke” on Instagram (now proven to be fake news), Gigi Hadid flipped the bird right before hitting the green carpet, and even Hollywood’s newest starlet Sabrina Carpenter made an insensitive TikTok video that ruffled some commonfolks’ feathers.

Regardless, I think the chronically-online mob have their anger misdirected at a few vain but mostly harmless celebrities. The throng really should be mad at the Institution itself. It’s Met Gala the Institution that is playing a joke on not only the masses but also on their attendees, adorning their guests as “time-flowers,” literally buying time for the preservation of their wealth and art, making theatrical spectacle of it all.

While it’s common to know that people of extreme wealthy don’t have a moral code, this blatant display of apathy is the stuff of sadism. The “top secret” Met Gala Committee and its correspondents are just displaying their inhumanity at this point, especially considering that just steps outside the massive Met Gala tent, there are mobs of people chanting for the freedom of an entire country’s people being under brutal attack and armed massacre. Are the people on Met Gala’s committee playing a satirically sadistic joke on its participants and the masses?

As of May 16, 2024, it’s been nearly 2 weeks, and I’m already so over the Met Gala, and I’m only writing on it to finish this blog post that I started last week. However, I will admit that the week following last Monday evening, I had been quite perturbed.

As a lover of fashion, I feel conflicted. Part of me wants to believe that the irony of their illy-chosen theme was completely lost on them, and the mockery was all unintended. Further, I recognize the importance of art and culture, which is only possible when there is wealth in society.

As a dreamer, I value romanticism and even think that seeing life through rose-tinted glasses can be a strength. But, to what point is living a life of fairytale daydreams and fantasy becomes obnoxious and even sadistic?

As the rare conspiracy theorist, I’m sure this is what the institution wants. After all, here I am spending my time (as if they picked the time flowers) to dwell on this whole thing, buying them time while I distract myself in my distraught over the whole thing. It is one big sadistic PR stunt. They wanted to taunt, troll, and provoke the masses. Anger is an emotion that looms, and the satire of this year’s Met Gala will get the public talking for ages. It even feels like someone on the Committee is a subversive evil genius because whomever thought of this theme knew that this would cause uproar amongst the masses. And what would an uproar get the masses to do? Form an angry mob slowly gaining on the rich elites, inciting class war, even if its only within the digital sphere via the chronically-online digitine.

All the same time, as a logical woman, I know the Met Gala is a charity event that raises money for the New York Costume Institute, and I realize the importance of preserving historical garments, fashions, and costumes; but also as an emotional woman, I wonder: why did they choose such a fucked up, insensitive, and downright dystopian theme?

The glaring Ballardian dystopia turned reality, within the context of the Met Gala where the upper class’ display of wealth and power is juxtaposed against coinciding wars, oppression, genocides, and protests against these horrors is not lost upon me. I just want to know: what is the intent behind this thematic choice? Who are the people on the Committee choosing the theme?

While so much of the world’s humanity are suffering in devastating levels, I strongly believe humility and subtlety is needed in times like these. Regardless of whether there is genocide or not, the Met Gala would have happened, but I think the Met could have chosen a more sensitive theme, but that wouldn’t make such a dent in society, now would that?

After this year’s Met Gala, I hesitate to even tune into future events because I feel betrayed. I’ve lost respect for the institution for their intentionally crude display of wealth disparities, mocking it in the masses’ faces. While victims of the disparities continue to suffer, the elites continue on, hosting and attending beautiful balls and extravagant parties, consuming the world’s most precious resources, picking at their crystal gardens, all while mobs are forming, slowly encroaching…

When reading this story, I ask myself, whom do I relate to more? The Count and his Countess? Or to the “unthinking” mob? It’s easy to judge from the outside, but truly, do any of us want to be part of the angry mob who destroy the art, wealth, and beauty of high society? If only given two choices of either the mob or the elites, wouldn’t most of us want to be the latter choice, living lavishly in villas on the countryside, picking time-flowers, hoarding wealth? Perhaps these are silly rhetorical questions.

Whatever the reasons are for choosing such an insensitive theme, it surely has left a sour taste for many, including myself, and I am interested to see how the Met Gala will recover from such a scandal. If, next year, nothing changes, then I will be convinced that this was all too intentional.

Within the context of this year’s Met Gala, life imitates art, indeed, even if it’s meta-ironically. With the adorned stars amidst mobs of desperate protests, the publicized display of the Met Gala is mirrors the dystopia that J.G. Ballard details in his short story “The Garden of Time.” To me, it is as eerie and disturbing as it is eye-opening and thought-provoking…

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Dearest Reader, I hope you found today’s blog post enjoyable and thought-provoking. I extend to you the metaphorical rose as thanks for taking your time to visit my little corner of the Internet.

xx, vt

Selkie The Poet Dress in Puck, $398