Met Gala theme 2024: All about ‘The Garden of Time’ dress code

The clock is ticking down to fashion’s biggest bash.

Set for Monday, May 6, the Met Gala is a who’s who of celebrities and style icons gathering at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to show off their sartorial interpretations of the night’s annual theme and celebrate the museum’s Costume Institute.

This year, the dress code is “The Garden of Time,” and although only time will tell what actually goes down on those famous steps, we have picked up on a few hints about what to expect.

Read on to learn more.

The Exhibition: 'Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion'

The annual charity gala, which benefits the museum’s Costume Institute, will celebrate the opening of its new exhibition, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.”

Though one might think fairy-tale heroines or glamazons in exclusive fashions, “Beauties,” in this case, refers to the designs themselves. The exhibition will explore masterworks from the museum’s collection that, in many cases, are too delicate to ever be worn again.

On display, some 250 pieces spanning four centuries will include rare garments from Elsa Schiaparelli, Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent and Hubert de Givenchy.

According to the museum, the pieces will be “visually united by iconography related to nature, which will serve as a metaphor for the fragility and ephemerality of fashion and a vehicle to examine the cyclical themes of rebirth and renewal.”

The Dress Code: 'The Garden of Time'

Sometimes it’s easy to draw a straight line from the exhibition’s theme to the dress code, which was the case in 2023, when the theme was “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,” and the dress code was simply “In Honor of Karl.” As such, attendees wore Lagerfeld creations or costumes that evoked his life and style.

But 2024’s “The Garden of Time” isn’t quite as obvious. The theme gets its name from the same-name 1962 short story by English novelist J.G. Ballard, in which a count and his wife temporarily stave off a mob by clipping a “time flower” from their garden capable of turning back the clock and reversing the horde’s progression.

Eventually, the couple run out of blooms and the mob reaches their doorstep, only to find two stone statues.

Flowers, gardens, statues: The dress code’s connection to nature and ephemeral beauty offers some guidance for attendees, but no finite direction as to how guests will each interpret and represent the theme for themselves.

The Expectations

Expect to see a lot of plants, with many rooting their looks in stunning floral-inspired designs. Vogue’s Anna Wintour, a noted lover of the floral pattern, will serve as chair (along with co-chairs Bad Bunny, Chris Hemsworth, Jennifer Lopez and Zendaya), so dressing in a favored print of the magazine icon isn’t a bad idea.

Of course, that’s not the only way to approach the dress code.

With notes of entropy threading both the exhibition’s theme and Ballard’s work, representations of destruction, fragility and decay would be just as fitting.

Perhaps the most apt interpretation of all would be a juxtaposed combination, or a surreal marriage of the two: flora and ruin, beauty and rot, civility and discord.

Then again, civilization, rebirth, death and time travel are all up for grabs, too. As far as dress codes go, this one is sure to inspire a wide range of results.

The Time and Place to Tune In

To see the highly anticipated looks, set your clock for 6 p.m. ET on Monday, when Vogue’s exclusive 2024 Met Gala livestream kicks off. The night will also be broadcast live on the publication’s TikTok and YouTube channels.

You can also just keep an eye on TODAY.com, as we’ll have the most eye-catching fashions of the night on display.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com