What to Expect From the 2024 "Sleeping Beauties" Met Gala

Hurray! Hurray! It’s time to talk about the first Monday in May! 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute announced the official theme for its upcoming exhibition and 2024 Met Gala: “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” While this might sound like you need to don your best Aurora costume, the theme runs much deeper than fairytale stories. The exhibit, which is sponsored by TikTok and Loewe this year, will open after the Met Gala celebration on May 6th, 2024.

The Costume Institute’s 2024 exhibition will focus on fashion pieces that have been lying dormant or forgotten from over 400 years of history. The goal is to bring new light to historical pieces, from 17th-century English Elizabethan bodices to 21st-century pieces produced by designers such as Phillip Lim, Stella McCartney, and Conor Ives. The exhibition will also feature archival works from industry giants like Elsa Schiaparelli, Christian Dior, Hubert de Givenchy, and Yves Saint Laurent.

Approximately 250 pieces from the Costume Institute's permanent collection, many of which are rarely available to the public, will be displayed in new, multisensory ways. The focus of the curation aims to elucidate our understanding of the natural world through the design of clothing and textiles. Over a dozen unique fashions too fragile to be worn will also be on display, including a silk satin ball gown made by American couturier Charles Frederick Work in 1877. 

While the guest list for the Met Gala has yet to be confirmed, we expect to see the usual red carpet queens like Lil Nas X, Jennifer Lopez, Dua Lipa, and Zendaya. The official dress code for the Met Gala has yet to be announced, but we expect to see some spectacular archive recreations that tie into the Sleeping Beauty theme.

Our predictions? A transformational dress on Blake Lively that turns her from something of the past into something ethereal or Jared Leto in a succubus costume. There's a chance Sarah Jessica Parker will pay homage to her dear friend, the late Alexander McQueen, in a reworked take on his iconic monarch butterfly dress, which you might recall Elizabeth Banks wearing in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. And perhaps Kim Kardashian will borrow yet another fragile fashion relic (remember her nod to Marilyn Monroe in 2022?) for the evening.

“Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” aims to deepen the connection to the fashion masterpieces of yesteryear by evoking the aspects of touch, movement, sound, and smell. The exhibition will run at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from May 10–September 2, 2024. It will be launched to the public following its shining star event, the Met Gala.

Keep this article bookmarked, as we'll be updating it as more info on the 2024 Met Gala is announced.