What the Met Gala 2024 theme Garden Of Time means

One of fashion's biggest nights, the annual event will once again draw top stars in one-of-a-kind pieces

A striking floral gown from spring 2024 haute couture by Giambattista Valli. Photo: Giambattista Valli

Schiaparelli autumn haute couture 2021 by Daniel Roseberry has a front made of metallic flowers. Photo: Schiaparelli

Dolce & Gabbana go floral for their spring/summer 2009 collection. Photo: Dolce & Gabbana

Robert Wun's spring 2024 haute couture dress has its own mannequin unpicking the threads holding the dress together. Photo: Robert Wun

A dress that resembles a bunch of flowers, from the autumn/winter 2020 collection by Leandro Cano. Photo: Leandro Cano

Short and sweet, a Valentino haute couture autumn 2022 dress made of giant roses. Photo: Valentino

A dress from Alexander McQueen's autumn/winter 2006 collection. Photo: Alexander McQueen

Moschino delves back in time for autumn/winter 2022 ready-to-wear, with a dress inspired by the French Queen Marie Antoinette. Photo: Moschino

The Maison Margiela spring haute couture 2024 collection by John Galliano is about decay, with pieces made from leftovers. Photo: Maison Margiela

The Spring 2024 haute couture collection for Jean Paul Gaultier by Simone Rocha blends flowers with vintage codes. Photo: Jean Paul Gaultier

Alexander McQueen, for spring/summer 2007 ready-to-wear, created this dress seemingly 'stuffed' with flowers. Photo: Alexander McQueen

A look from Valentino's spring 2024 haute couture collection. Photo: Valentino

The great and good of the fashion world will turn out dressed to the nines on Monday night for the Met Gala, one of the industry's biggest events.

Designers have been on overdrive, creating one-of-a-kind pieces for the event, while stylists pull in every favour to secure the “it” look for their celebrity clients.

The annual event is essentially a fund-raiser for the Costume Institute – the fashion and textiles arm of the Metropolitan Museum in New York – and is themed around the corresponding exhibition, for which the gala acts as the opening night.

This year, it's called The Garden of Time.

The exhibition, Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, is far from being about the Disney fairy tale – it is a more oblique discussion of the fragility of clothes, nature and ultimately life itself.

A look from Moschino autumn/winter 2022, ready-to-wear. Photo: Moschino

Drawing from the institute's huge archive, curator Andrew Boltan has unearthed pieces that stretch back decades, some even centuries, to map the passage of time.

Pieces on show will include an Elizabethan bodice from the early 1600s – almost too fragile to be handled – and an evening cape by Charles Frederick Worth from 1889, which has tulips woven into the fabric.

This year's show will be split into sections – Land, Sea and Sky – which will journey through delicate, historical items to contemporary pieces.

The burning question is, what will people wear? The most obvious route is for guests to dress for a garden party – decked in florals and trailing foliage.

Maison Margiela spring haute couture 2024, by John Galliano. Photo Maison Margiela

The last haute couture shows in Paris revealed many gala-apt pieces. Case in point is Valentino, which referenced florals as a giant ruffle top with a simple tweed pencil skirt; and Simone Rocha, the guest designer at Jean Paul Gaultier haute couture, who created an all-black look covered in tiny flowers at the end of long stems.

Elsewhere, the haute couture offering from Maison Margiela offers a darker take, with a collection that is almost troubling yet utterly beautiful – perfect, then, for this theme. Built around the undesirables of 1950s Paris nightlife, the collection is filled with vintage-looking pieces that are artfully distressed and undone, for a fragile, human feel.

For guests who want to explore the darker side of the exhibition, vintage Alexander McQueen, designed by the man himself, would also be a good place to start. With an exquisite fascination with the macabre, Lee McQueen often referenced death and decay, such as in his autumn/winter 2006 collection that featured headpieces made from dead birds.

For a prettier, more light-hearted take, the spring/summer 2009 collection by Dolce & Gabbana ended with a parade of pastel gowns smothered in fabric flowers, while the recent spring 2024 haute couture by Giambattista Valli also focused on flowers – now realised as great puffs of floral taffeta.

Those able to source vintage Christian Lacroix will be on to a winner, with the brand's rich references to historical figures such as Marie Antoinette – and her violent demise. Vivienne Westwood, too, has reworked the corsetry of old, turning it from a symbol of female restriction into a powerful statement of emancipation.

A haute couture dress inspired by flowers, by John Galliano for Christian Dior, 2010. Photo: Dior

Joining fashion editor Anna Wintour as co-chairs this year will be Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Bad Bunny and Chris Hemsworth. With Zendaya already well known for her daring dress sense, we can expect a sartorial showdown with that other fearless style maven Rihanna.

With the Diamonds singer also boasting a reputation for bringing the drama, and for making late, spectacular entrances, we are in for a treat, roses or otherwise.