Considering that the red carpet was actually green, you could have been forgiven for expecting the looks at this year’s Met Gala to follow suit and embrace the role that sustainable fashion plays in protecting nature. Picture this: gowns and suits showcasing the most innovative in responsible style whilst highlighting the impact that the fashion industry is having on the climate crisis.

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Barely-there, blink-and-you'll-miss-them dresses dominated at the 2024 Met Gala.

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As one of the world’s most resource-intensive industries - fashion is responsible for more than 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions - it would have been an important message to hammer home. And who better to do it than some of the most influential people on the planet?

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Was Camila Cabello’s 'clutch bag', which was actually made from a block of ice, a representation of the melting polar ice caps and rising sea levels, for example? Perhaps Tyla’s hourglass purse was a commentary on how time is running out for us to reach net zero by 2050. Oh - and humour me here - was Doja Cat’s Vetements wet T-shirt dress meant to draw our attention to the fact that it takes 700 gallons of water to make just one white T-shirt? Bonus points for the 'crying' mascara eyes to represent her despair at the continued exploitation of cotton farmers. I mean, that’s what they were all aiming to do, right?

camila cabello met gala 2024
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Wrong. Or at least, I have found no evidence to support my take on those looks. This year’s dress code was in fact an homage to J.G. Ballard’s short story, The Garden of Time; many designers interpreted its themes of nature and decay in their creations, while simultaneously placing a higher importance on celebrities’ single-use red carpet looks than on the impact fashion has on the planet. How ironic, too, that so many attendees wore motifs that celebrated nature, like flowers, birds and insects, while the mere production of their outfits could have had a detrimental effect on the very environment they were celebrating.

Many dresses featured one of the most unsustainable red carpet mainstays - sequins - with one designer even saying that they wanted to use strong materials that would not 'wither away'. Let's not forget that sequins are plastic, so they will be littering the planet for literally thousands of years, especially since they’re so prone to falling off garments.

Surprisingly few celebrities chose to don vintage to the occasion.

Animal rights activists will have been relieved to see that designer Jun Takahashi had the good sense to lose the live butterflies that originally fluttered around inside Undercover’s terrarium dresses on the catwalk in Paris, a move he has since apologised for. One of these was worn by the model Amelia Gray Hamlin last night, and another features in the Met’s Sleeping Beauties: Awakening Fashion exhibition, whose launch the event was celebrating.

Surprisingly few celebrities chose to don vintage to the occasion. Emily Ratajkowski’s stylist, Jorden Bickham, selected two sheer vintage gowns for her client: an Atelier Versace number from 2001 on the red carpet, followed by a 1998 Givenchy dress for the after-party. Kendall Jenner also showcased McQueen-era Givenchy Couture, though being the first person to ever wear it, wasn’t championing the slow fashion ethos of rewearing outfits. In fact, Givenchy’s never-worn-before archive had a good outing last night: the event’s co-host Zendaya took a vintage John Galliano for Givenchy Couture gown for its first ever outing. It was from the spring 1996 collection, the year that she was born, so it’s about time that someone actually wore it.

kendall jenner met gala 2024
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There were a handful of sustainable fashion champions, though. Amanda Seyfried had originally joked that she would only attend the Met Gala if she was wearing solar panels on her head after reading The Garden of Time and telling her stylist, Elizabeth Stewart, that she had interpreted the encroaching mob in the story as representing climate change, and that she wanted a sustainable dress. They settled for a Prada gown crafted from deadstock fabric from the fashion house’s 2009 spring collection.

amanda seyfried met gala 2024
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Meanwhile, Demi Moore’s Harris Reed dress was an upcycling dream, constructed from repurposed vintage wallpaper, and Janelle Monáe’s custom Vera Wang gown featured large sequin flowers that were made from recycled plastic bottles. Charlie XCX’s Marni gown was perhaps the most sustainable look of the night, being beautifully constructed from worn-out vintage T-shirts which were patchworked together and embellished with glass beads.

met gala 2024
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And as you would expect from eco-pioneer Stella McCartney, her label’s gala offerings had sustainability at their core. FKA Twigs dazzled in a smattering of lab-grown diamonds and a cream cloak made from loops of sustainably-sourced wool. The diamonds, grown by Vrai using zero-emissions, were also sported by Cara Delevingne, whose jewels were fashioned into a hooded backless bodice and teamed with a recycled chiffon and silk skirt.

Of course, the Met Gala celebrates fashion as an art form, and most of the creations on show were undoubtedly incredibly beautiful. But given the number of wealthy celebrities attending and the extremely high profile of the event, this was a huge missed opportunity to truly celebrate the wonders of nature and highlight its vulnerability by those with the most means to do so, especially given the theme of the night.


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