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tirto.id - Tidak ada yang tahu pasti apa yang akan terjadi di Met Gala, acara penggalangan dana untuk The Costume Institute, bagian dari Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) New York. Acara yang juga merupakan pembuka bagi pameran kostum ini sudah diselenggarakan setiap tahun selama 70 tahun terakhir. Tamunya ialah ratusan selebritas ternama. Ketidaktahuan publik soal detail acara, salah satunya, disebabkan karena para selebritas dilarang mengunggah foto-foto acara di media sosial. Berbeda dengan Oscar, Grammy, atau momen penghargaan lain yang disiarkan langsung di televisi atau internet, Met Gala terkesan tertutup dan menjaga citra eksklusif. Setiap orang yang datang ke pesta harus membayar 30.000 dolar . Bila hendak memesan satu meja, maka orang tersebut harus membayar 275.000 dolar. Semua tamu yang diundang harus lewat persetujuan Anna Wintour, pemimpin redaksi majalah Vogue dan ketua acara Met Gala sejak tahun 1995. Anna hanya rela acaranya didatangi aktris atau model terkenal, desainer busana tersohor, pendonor acara, perwakilan label busana atau aksesori mewah yang bersedia menyumbang dana. Mereka yang hadir pun tidak memberi kesaksian tentang detail acara. Fotografer Stephen Lovekin, misalnya. Ia sempat bertugas mendokumentasikan acara. Pada The Independent , ia sebatas memberi kesan terhadap Met Gala “Di mana lagi Anda bisa melihat desainer busana bercanda dengan aktris Hollywood sementara seorang filantropis berdiri di dekat mereka? Kami terdorong untuk melihat bagaimana perilaku selebritas ketika disandingkan dengan orang-orang dari industri lain," ujar Lovekin. Situs The Cut cenderung memberitakan drama yang pernah terjadi di Met Gala, yakni saat penyumbang dana Met Gala marah ketika tahu Bella Hadid, Ruby Rose, dan Dakota Johnson merokok di kamar mandi.
Bila kejadian selebritas merokok itu berlangsung pada tahun 2013, pendonor tidak punya hak untuk marah-marah. Saat itu Met Gala mengangkat tema PUNK : Chaos to Couture . Saat itu ialah momen pertama para tamu diperbolehkan merokok di area acara. Met Gala jadi pembukaan pameran yang menampilkan 100 busana dengan gaya punk. Selain memajang baju karya desainer kelas atas seperti Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, Dolce& Gabbana; pameran ini juga memajang kaus bolong-bolong milik pemain bass Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious. “Punk menyiratkan kekacauan, anarki, dan perlawanan. Estetika tersebut nampak pada busana yang diwakili lewat sobekan, manik-manik besi, resleting, dan bros. Dalam high fashion, punk adalah antitesis couture,” demikian yang tertulis dalam pengantar pameran. Andrew Bolton kurator The Costume Institute beranggapan punk adalah pengaruh terbesar dalam fesyen. Budaya tersebut telah memberi warisan terbesar yaitu gaya dekonstruksi dan DIY ( do it yourself ). Bolton ialah sosok di balik tema-tema yang muncul di Met Gala beberapa tahun belakangan. Sebelum diangkat menjadi kurator The Costume Institute pada tahun 2015, ia ialah rekan kerja Harold Koda, mantan kurator The Costume Institute. Sejak Anna Wintour memegang jabatan di Met Gala, sebagian besar tema pameran menonjolkan penghormatan pada para desainer legendaris misalnya Alexander McQueen, Rei Kawakubo, Elsa Schiaparelli & Miuccia Prada, Christian Dior, dan Gianni Versace. Tema-tema yang membahas ragam wacana tentang fesyen, bagai selingan di antara nama-nama desainer itu. Pada tahun 2004 Met Gala memilih tema Dangerous Liasions: Fashion and Furniture in the 18th Century . New York Times menyebut pameran yang menampilkan 33 busana zaman revolusi Prancis itu serupa pameran di museum seks atau sebuah reality show neo klasik lantaran tata letak ruang pamer. Pameran tersebut menunjukkan kemiripan motif pada busana dan perlengkapan dekorasi ruang seperti sarung sofa, dinding, permukaan meja, dan hiasan patung. Hal tersebut membuat New York Times mendapat kesan bahwa orang bergantung dengan furnitur. Tiga tahun lalu, Bolton mengangkat tema China: Through The Looking Glass . Ekshibisi tersebut menampilkan 140 karya yang menyiratkan pengaruh Tiongkok terhadap mode di negara barat. Dalam pameran itu karya desainer Eropa Christian Dior yang terinspirasi dari kaligrafi Tiongkok tampil bersamaan dengan perhiasan kerajaan Tiongkok dan masyarakat Shanghai pada tahun 1920-1940an.
The Guardian melaporkan ekshibisi tersebut paling banyak didatangi pengunjung. Pihak panitia memperpanjang durasi pameran selama tiga minggu mulai dari tanggal selesai pameran yang sebelumnya sudah ditetapkan. Media tersebut menyebut banyaknya pengunjung disebabkan karena masyarakat Amerika Serikat telah menganggap Tiongkok sebagai salah satu negara penting. Tahun ini tema yang dipilih ialah Heavenly Bodies : Fashion and The Catholic Imagination . Pesta yang digelar Senin (7/5) malam nanti akan jadi pembuka pameran terbesar yang pernah dibuat The Costume Institute. Pameran bekerjasama dengan keuskupan Vatikan. Ekshibisi akan menampilkan busana rancangan desainer seperti Cristóbal Balenciaga, Jeanne Lanvin, Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier, dan Pierpaolo Piccioli; yang terinspirasi dari simbol-simbol dalam Katolik. Kali ini Wintour memaksa Bolton untuk bekerja ekstra agar bisa menampilkan koleksi busana dan aksesori milik gereja di Vatikan. Bolton mondar mandir New York – Vatikan sebanyak 10 kali dalam satu tahun terakhir. Ia menjalin relasi dengan lima orang pastur pejabat gereja dan menteri kebudayaan Vatikan supaya bisa meminjam busana pastur, mahkota yang dikenakan Paus, dan benda-benda gereja lainnya. Bolton meminjam lebih dari 40 benda yang biasa tersimpan dalam sakristi (tempat penyimpanan perlengkapan ekaristi) di sebuah gereja di Vatikan. Ketika izin didapat, Wintour bersama Donatella Versace berkunjung ke Roma menemui Kardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, Presiden Kebudayaan Vatikan untuk membicarakan pameran. Ravasi bersyukur atas gagasan pameran. Buat dia, setidaknya simbol Katolik masih bisa menyentuh orang lain.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Celebrities hit the red carpet at the Met Gala sporting outfits inspired by Catholicism
The Met Gala, the benefit event for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, is considered the highlight of New York's social calendar, attracting fashion designers and stars from around the world.
It is known for its expensive tickets, exclusive guest list, and extravagant outfits that are based around a different theme each year.
This year, the theme was Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination, which showcases how Catholicism has influenced fashion throughout history.
Celebrities hit the red carpet on Monday night, sporting papal-inspired gowns, chainmail costumes reminiscent of the Crusades and in singer Katy Perry's case - oversized angel wings.
The stories behind six of the most captivating outfits
Image copyright PA Image caption Rihanna wore a papal-inspired gown in honour of this year's theme
Image copyright PA Image caption Actress and model Olivia Munn donned a chainmail dress
Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Entrepreneur Elon Musk and his new partner, singer Grimes, made their debut as a couple. She wore a necklace based on the logo of his company, Tesla
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Emmy Award winner and Master of None actress Lena Waithe made a powerful statement with a rainbow pride cape
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Lawyer Amal Clooney, who was a co-host of this year's gala, arrived with her husband George
"Fashion and religion have long been intertwined, mutually inspiring and informing one another," curator Andrew Bolton said in a statement on The Met's website.
"Although this relationship has been complex and sometimes contested, it has produced some of the most inventive and innovative creations in the history of fashion."
Image copyright EPA Image caption Princess Beatrice attended in a purple, floor-length gown
Image copyright AFP Image caption Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, who co-chairs the event, described her dress as "Cardinal Chanel"
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Takeoff, Offset, and Quavo of American hip hop trio Migos sported vibrant tuxedos
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Frances McDormand (L), who won this year's Oscar for Best Actress for her role in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, posed with Valentino designer Pierpaolo Piccioli (C) and actress Anne Hathaway (R)
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption NFL quarterback Tom Brady and his wife, supermodel Gisele Bündchen, were seen on the red carpet
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Scandal actress Kerry Washington delighted onlookers in a gold-sequined gown
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Actress Diane Kruger wore a celestial-inspired dress with a long train and matching veil
All images subject to copyright.
It took curator Andrew Bolton several years to convince the Vatican to give its blessing to Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination, the blockbuster show at the Metropolitan Museum in New York that explores divine inspiration in fashion. One imagines Rome’s reluctance stemmed from concern that the exhibition – and particularly the opening night gala, which has become known for its outrageous outfits – would trivialise religious imagery.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rihanna’s pope at the Met Gala. Photograph: Carl Timpone/BFA/Rex/Shutterstock
It needn’t have worried. Fashion takes clothes very, very seriously. In a world in which dressing up matters and sartorial symbolism carries a very real weight, the Met Gala is the most important night of the year. Even when it looks absurd to outsiders – remember the omelette dress of 2015? – the fashion seen on the Met Gala red carpet has been considered and planned with the solemnity of a papal conclave. In their Manhattan hotel rooms, celebrities dress for this event with a level of meticulous ceremony which would befit a Sunday at St Peters.
This year’s dress code was a challenge. To succeed on this red carpet required honouring the theme of Catholicism in fashion without being seen to make fun of it. What is special about the Met red carpet – by comparison, for instance, with Cannes – is that you can’t win it just by looking good. A supermodel can wear a tight dress and high heels and sail through almost every other public occasion with flying colours, but that look is a fast track to being completely ignored at the Met. You have to dig deep for this night, because Met Gala triumph requires not just beauty but bravery and a leap of faith. The Vatican would surely approve.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sienna Miller in Louis Vuitton. Photograph: Benjamin Lozovsky/BFA/Rex/Shutterstock
The obvious link between the world presided over by Pope Francis and the one ruled by Queen Anna Wintour is that clothing delineates status. Rihanna attacked this theme with her signature fearlessness and blew everyone else out of the water. In the season of the first Millicent Fawcett statue and of a Christian Dior slogan T-shirt namechecking Linda Nochlin’s feminist essay “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists”, RiRi gave us a female pope. She wore a heavily embellished mini dress under a matching cloak, accessorised with a pointed mitre, stiletto heels and pearls strung around one ankle – because, after all, there’s not always room for a rosary in a clutch bag – all created for her by John Galliano for the house of Maison Margiela. The look was a version of an ensemble designed by Galliano during his time at Christian Dior that appeared on the catwalk in 2000 worn by a man, and is included in the Met exhibition.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Solange Knowles in Iris Van Herpen. Photograph: George Pimentel/Getty Images
But clothes are never only about power, either in fashion or in the church. Beauty as a metaphor for human goodness runs through the history of art, through religious iconography and through the way fashion worships at the altar of beauty and glamour. Katy Perry was a triumph in Versace. In a gold dress and boots, and with a 6ft white feathered wingspan, she was arguably the most breathtaking representation of the archangel Gabriel since Fra Angelico painted the Annunciation fresco in the Convent of San Marco. (And yes, I do realise how sacrilegious that is, in artistic terms.)
Sienna Miller in gold and white Louis Vuitton was also divine as another Renaissance angel on the red carpet.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Frances McDormand in a Valentino headdress. Photograph: Carlo Allegri/Reuters
The transactional business of fashion is a multimillion-pound industry precisely because it taps into powerful emotions and desires. Fashion deliberately blurs the boundaries between things that you have the power to change and the things you don’t. (You can buy the perfect party dress, but you can’t actually buy romance or joy or fun.) Religious imagery has long employed the same porous boundaries, conjuring the invisible into life. The word halo – an accessory seen last night on Solange Knowles in Iris Van Herpen and Lily Collins in Givenchy, among others – means glory. And the aesthetic of papal garments has roots in worldly power, as well as spiritual. When the Emperor Constantine moved his capital east to Constantinople and allowed the pontiffs to assume control the old capital, Rome, they incorporated some of the clothing and accessories worn by the Roman emperors who had ruled before them, the better to legitimise their power in the eyes of the people of Rome.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Alicia Vikander in Louis Vuitton. Photograph: Frazer Harrison/FilmMagic
Like all the best dress codes, the Met Gala invitation allowed for lots of individuality. Frances McDormand consolidated her role as 2018’s designated maverick by coming as “a pagan”, she said on the red carpet, in her Valentino butterfly headdress. Those actors who have pledged vows to fashion houses (or at least, signed contracts with them) showed their constancy with looks that mined clerical robes for the most this-season silhouette. A clear winner on this is the mozzetta, a short shoulder-covering robe worn by the pope and cardinals and, last night, by a very chic Alicia Vikander in Louis Vuitton. Kate Moss wore a black dress with a feathered black neckline that nodded to the dress code with a fallen-angel vibe – this was her first appearance in the US since 2009, and there was speculation that the prolonged absence was due to difficulty procuring a visa after the drug scandal of 2005 – but mainly referenced herself. Moss in a black feather trim dress, with Johnny Depp at Cannes, and a messy bun, is a late-1990s fashion reference the fashion faithful will immediately recognise.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘The theme to me is like, be yourself’: Lena Waithe arrives at the Met Gala. Photograph: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
Best red-carpet quote of the night, though, goes to the actor Lena Waithe, who wore a rainbow flag cape to spotlight the Catholic church’s complicated relationship with the LGBTQ community. “The theme to me is, like, be yourself,” she told the New York Times on the red carpet. “You were made in God’s image, right?”
