The Met Gala just celebrated yet another glamorous, excessive fashion event, a real-life example of a bonfire of the vanities, for our delight now in 2025. In its theme and purpose, the Met Gala never fails to prove just how vapid and narcissistic Hollywood and New York's entertainment elite really are. Monday night's extravaganza was no exception.
This year's theme was "Superfine: Tailoring black Style," inspired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute exhibit of the same name. Emma Chamberlain, Zendaya, and Teyana Taylor donned elegant looks featuring men's suiting and tailoring. Rihanna showed off her new baby bump in a surprise reveal. I have no problem with this. I love a good theme. (Not all looks were gorgeous, either.)
But in a year when President Donald Trump won an election against a black woman and has moved to erase wokeism across federally funded organizations—because they diminish an environment of meritocracy—it's obvious the Met Gala leaned into a potentially controversial theme on purpose. Black fashion, just months after a black woman's failed bid for president? I'm surprised Met Gala creators would be so on the nose. Kamala Harris even attended the event.
Actor and singer Audra McDonald leaned into the theme in an on-the-carpet interview. She told Variety, "It's about time" the Met Gala honored black creativity with its theme: "When we were taken from our Motherland, that's all we had. From that we survived and thrived," she said. I'm guessing she's thriving just fine with a net worth of approximately $8 million. Good on her; we love a confident woman. But I confess I don't understand the tendency to claim victimhood while attending such an ostentatious event.
Before the event, the theme worried observers. Fans and critics voiced concern on social media that the theme allowed attendees to be unintentionally offensive. Sure enough, as predicted, actor Sydney Sweeney was blasted online for her outfit choice, referencing Kim Novak, a white woman. Sweeney is set to play Novak in a forthcoming film, "Scandalous!," featuring her love affair with Sammy Davis Jr., during the 1950s.
Whispers of cultural appropriation have abounded. It's a wonder that Met Gala creators chose a fashion theme that would court controversy. Perhaps this was to deflect from their own opulence and irrelevance?
The Met Gala theme aside, the event is a growing display of pretentious drivel. At its heart, the event is traditionally a fundraiser. For young actors? For Hollywood's homeless? Of course not. The Met Gala raises money for itself: the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. And this year, it set a record, raising $31 million.
Private fundraisers are fine, of course. In fact, I'd prefer this to organizations begging for federal funds, ripped from the hands of generous taxpayers. However, the event's cost shows just how out of touch the entertainment industry has become with real-life problems and real-life people. Ironic, since the entire entertainment community is chock-full of liberals who offered their full-fledged support of Harris's presidency and love to lecture the rest of America on how to vote and how to live. Why don't they lead the way with their generosity?
A table for 10 for the evening costs $350,000, the price of a modest home. More than 11,500 homes burned down in Los Angeles during the Pacific Palisades fires in January. Thanks to LA's awful bureaucracy, only four permits for rebuilds have been issued. But I'm betting a few million could help rebuild the homes of the people who lived there and who weren't Hollywood's elite with a second home in another state and a hefty bank account to boot.
Hollywood has a notorious homeless problem plaguing the very city where billion-dollar films are made. One night's revenue from the Met Gala could dent the issue, especially if it were spent with intention.
The Met Gala has an opportunity to do good with its influence, wealth, and fundraising abilities, but it doesn't. On top of it, this year, it chose a theme that seemed to court controversy in the name of fashion, dividing Americans. At the Met Gala, Hollywood and New York's entertainment elite prove they're not just vapid and ostentatious for fun; they're selfish and hypocritical, too.
