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Met Gala Gown
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Alanna Martine Kilkeary / Her Campus
Culture

Met Gala 2023 theme announced as “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty”

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at PSU chapter.

The theme for the biggest party in America was released on Sept. 30 as a celebration of Karl Lagerfeld who passed away in 2019.

The event takes place, as usual, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the first Monday of May. According toCNN, a press release revealed that this year’s gala will display Lagerfeld’s “stylistic language.”

We should be expecting to see pieces from Fendi, Chloé, Chanel, Balmain and Patou.

What even is the point of the Met Gala? Is it to just see celebrities decked out in designer clothes? To see who celebrities bring as dates?

The Met Gala actually raises money for the Museum’s Costume Institute, according to LX News.

As we all know, the biggest part of the event is the red carpet where we can see the outfits and hear how some celebrities wanted to execute the theme. Afterwards, there is a dinner, entertainment and of course the bathroom meet ups.

According to Emma Chamberlain in an interview for The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, “the Met Gala bathroom thing is real” and its where a lot of celebrities meet up.

Last year’s theme was “Gilded Glamour” where everyone was starstruck (as usual) by Blake Lively’s transfomative gown.

Blake Lively’s outfit at the 2022 Met Gala

The event, however, is not without its controversies. Last year’s big disputes were about one, how people never seem to get the theme right and two, Kim Kardashian wearing Marilyn Monroe’s diamond dress from when she sang “Happy Birthday, Mr President” to John F. Kennedy.

Kim Kardashian wearing Marilyn Monroe’s dress, spiking controversy

It hasn’t been a month since the announcement of the 2023 Met Gala theme and there are already disagreements across the board regarding Karl Lagerfeld himself.

A Tweet regarding dedicating the theme to Lagerfeld

At first, most news sources reporting on the theme of the gala only had good things to say about the late designer.

Regarding Lagerfeld’s sketches Andrew Bolton, the Institute’s head curator, said “These are so charming, so whimsical, so impressionistic.”

According to an article done by Refinery29, Max Hollein said Lagerfled was “one of the most captivating, prolific and recognizable forces in fashion and culture.”

So the question is, what’s the problem?

According to Refinery29, Lagerfeld carried some unpleasant opinions about sexual assault, race, sexuality and size.

  1. Lagerfeld had told Focus in 2009 that he thought Heidi Klum was “too heavy.” When topic of Chanel representing “slightly heavier models” came up, Lagerfeld called the question a “bore” and “ridiculous”
  2. In 2010 the designer had told Vice that he was against gay marriage.
  3. Finally in 2018, Lagerfeld was not afraid to share his thoughts: “If you don’t want your pants pulled about, don’t become a model! Join a nunnery, there’ll always be a place for you in the convent.”

Of course the discovery of this resulted on negative responses on social media platforms.

People reacting to the theme
Jameela Jamil reacting to the theme through Instagram

It will be interesting to see if celebrities invited to the gala will speak about this controversy in the upcoming months or if it will fade in the midst of other Hollywood drama.

Hi, my name is Ria! I'm a junior at Penn State University studying Political Science and English.