These words may typically bear negative connotations, but such wasnt the case at the Met on Monday.
Time doesnt just grow and enrich; it also erodes.
It moves ahead but, universally, it reverses the course of immaculateness.
Photo: Getty Images
It renders the initially pristine ultimately imperfect.
And when it came to representing decay, designers let their imaginations run romantically wild.
Kylie Minogue, for example, wore a form-fitting floor-length dress from Diesel by Glenn Martens.
Kylie Minogue on the 2024 Met Gala red carpet.
Its dissolved through time, Martens told me on the carpet.
As if Kylie was sleeping for millions of years, and the garment has disintegrated around her body.
And yet, even then she shines.
Wisdom Kaye on the 2024 Met Gala red carpet.
Minogue echoed Martenss sentiment: Its kind of an anti-gown, in that sense.
Kylie Minogue on the 2024 Met Gala red carpet.
Mindy Kaling arrived in a sculpted, pale taupe Gaurav Gupta dress.
She said: I want you to know, this dress has a name.
Its called the melting flower of time.
She highlighted the voluminous structure on its back, meant to evoke a wilting bloom.
(Well, that, or a T-shirt reduced to tatters by constant rewashing.)
The fashion influencer Wisdom Kaye struck a higher-drama level of decomposition.
He wore an extra-long vermillion red tailcoat from Robert Wun with a matching hat.
Wisdom Kaye on the 2024 Met Gala red carpet.
While Lee McQueens original look featured theatrical antlers, Del Rays version boasted dead branches.
Del Rey acknowledged as much when she told reporters that it all felt light as air.
