I look forward to the first Monday in May every year. The language of floral ensures the spring season is in full bloom and so it was echoed throughout this year's Met Gala along with no shortage of drama from style to hair to makeup. But it wasn't just about this season's flowers... 

Let's better explore the genius theme and dress code of the 2024 Met Gala "The Garden of Time" while understanding its coordinated effort with The Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion - The Metropolitan Museum of Art (metmuseum.org) which concentrated on the delicately fragile garments in the archives of the Costume Institute that cannot be displayed upright or at all due to their frail existence but are now lying in glass cases or showcased via video patiently waiting to be "kissed back to life" or somehow recreated parallel to the infamous classic fairytale Sleeping Beauty. Forget Prince Charming, what girl wouldn't want to be revived with vintage haute couture?!

What each fashion house presented on the first Monday in May 2024 was simply extraordinary in creativity, design, silhouette, fabric, texture and exhibition in the form of "The Garden of Time." "The Garden of Time" is a short story written in 1962 by J.G. Ballard "in which Count Axel and his wife live and listen to Mozart in a magnificent villa, surrounded by a garden of crystal flowers, as an angry and unruly army advances upon them. To keep the “approaching rabble” at bay, Axel must turn back time by plucking the flowers, one by one, until they are all gone, and there is no time left." (Quote from Literary Hub). 

Year after year I am enamored with each designer's thought process behind their creations and how they could possibly impress from the previous year, but they always do!  Here how each designer interpreted "The Garden of Time" short story is beyond brilliant imagination! Below are a few of my favorites that feature very different artistic visions that create a major Met Gala impact.

Perhaps because I am a Virgo (an earth sign) what Olivier Rousteing, Creative Director of Balmain, created with his sand sculpture gown is the showstopper for me! Tyla is simply the belle of the ball in this gown and carrying the sands of time is the icing on the cake.

Nicole Kidman is simply stunning in a recreation of Cristóbal Balenciaga’s Spring 1951 collection. As the Spanish designer reminded the world decades ago “a couturier must be an architect for design, a sculptor for shape, a painter for color, a musician for harmony, and a philosopher for temperance.”

Chloé It Girl Sienna Miller is always elegant and beautiful in boho chic. This flowing lace look can be translated in so many ways. Be sure to keep your eye out for Chloé 2024 Fall and Winter runway collections so appropriately named "Intuition." These collections are something to behold in beauty and design. The preview took my breath away!

The inspiration drawn from these stunning looks...

“Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman.” Coco Chanel

For more Met Gala 2024 celebrity style and to choose your favorites: See the Best Dressed Celebrities at Met Gala 2024 | Vogue.