The Fist Monday in May has become synonymous with opulence and high fashion. It is the Oscars of the fashion world where the crème de la crème of film, music, sports and, most importantly, fashion gather for the opening of the new exhibition of the Costume Institute. This year would have marked the Metropolitan Museum of Arts’ 150th anniversary and for this reason the Institute’s curator Andrew Bolton decided to celebrate it with the exhibition “About Time: Fashion and Duration”.
Unfortunately, due to Covid-19 the 2020 Met Gala got postponed indefinitely, but 11 girls from hf Twitter (high fashion Twitter) came to save the day. They created an online version of the Met Gala on Twitter even before the IRL event got cancelled. But because of it, the hf Met Gala gained so much notoriety that news outlets like The New York Times and Vogue US reported it and helping change the lives of both the coordinators and the participants.
Time has been key aspect of the Costume Institute ever since its inception in the 1920s. In those years two women named Irene Lewisohn, a theatre producer, and Aline Bernstein, a stage designer, came to the conclusion that there was a need for sources of inspiration for fellow theatre designers so they began collecting stage costumes and clothing. By 1946 the collection had grown to about 8000 pieces and officially joined the Metropolitan Museum of Arts as the Costume Institute with the ethos of showing clothes as beauty and as parts of the embellishments of life.
However, the Met Gala as we know it today came to be thanks to the renowned publicist Eleanor Lambert, the legendary editor in chief of Vogue US Diana Vreeland and the current editor in chief of Vogue US Anna Wintour. For the 2020 gala, curator Andrew Bolton decided to celebrate time by exhibiting costumes dating back to 1870 up until 2020 to show how the designer across different decades have always taken inspiration from the previous ones and from the Costume Institute itself, realising the dream Irene Lewisohn and Aline Bernstein harboured a century ago.
hf Met Gala: how it all started
However, there’s a legacy of exclusivity and elitism surrounding the Met Gala. While this has helped maintain its aura of mystery, 11 hf Twitter girls decided to abolish it (all their names can be found at the end of the article). I spoke to the girl who put the hf Met Gala together, Aria Olson (@pughatory), 20 from Kansas City, Missouri.
Although Aria says that she didn’t come up with the idea of a Twitter Met Gala as the idea has been circulating on Twitter for a few years, she is the one who finally made it happen. She believes that no one actually did it because of the difficulty of putting it all together but it was inevitable that it would have taken place at some point. “If I hadn’t actually started it someone would have eventually in some form or another,” she says. “The community had always been going on and on about what they would wear to the Met Gala so the interest and need has always been there. It was just a matter of somebody organising it. Luckily that’s the part that I find fun.” Aria also unveiled that there will “definitely be another hf Met Gala next year!” She confessed that there are a lot of things that they were not able to achieve this year and she hopes to make them come true for the next hf gala.
The main aim of the hf Met Gala was to make it as inclusive as possible. Aria and many of the people who are passionate about fashion know there is an elitism that runs through the industry which finds its way into everyday conversations about fashion. “Fashion is often seen as a surface level industry with no depth that at the same time manages to be a sort of bourgeois institution and it’s not kind to those looking to get into it. When I started out it was difficult to find information and it was easy to feel excluded. Despite the industry being basically entirely subjective, there’s still an idea that there is a right and wrong way to how fashion should be consumed. It leads to a lot of posturing and bullshit and no actual meaning.” She continues, “To create something like a random Twitter event that would break down that wall and truly celebrate fashion as a creative art form allows for a removal of this barrier and for people to actually themselves.”
As Alejandra Beltránò (@wrkhs), one of the coordinators of the hf Met Gala) says, hf Twitter is the most authentic platform for fashion because it is based on knowledge and not imagery but it’s still easy to feel excluded from fashion itself. Which is why the high numbers in participants and the diverse demographic became so important for the hf Met Gala and a sign of its success.
The guests
Maria Fernanda Lara (@maflara_), a 19-year-old from Mexico City, is one of the many people who took part to the hf Met Gala. She ‘arrived’ at the Met Gala in one of her creations, a dress completely made out of upcycled denim jeans. To her the Met Gala has always been the dreamiest event in fashion for which anyone would kill to be invited to. “Fashion has always been very elitist. It is pretty hard to climb the ladder to success,” says Maria. “When I saw they were making this version where anyone could attend I definitely wanted to be a part of it.” Emily Tonelli (@vivelaurent) is another participant who decided to show off her talent because of the inclusivity of the event. Emily is a 24-year-old from the US studying Egyptology at Université de Strasbourg. She took the hf Met Gala as the perfect opportunity to see whether her headpieces are as good as she thinks they are. “The hf Met Gala has given a chance for creators like me, who are otherwise not noticed, to show their work,” says Emily. “Moreover, the hf Met Gala really exemplifies how creative the community is” she concludes.
The hf Met Gala wasn’t only an occasion for people who are into fashion to show their creative side to the community but also to send a message to the elites of fashion. Like Maria said the hf Twitter community has always been segregated from the fashion industry for speaking the truth about designers and the system that rule fashion. Reclaiming the most elite event as theirs represented a big step and opened a debate about the inclusivity of fashion and how it should change as a whole, especially towards a sustainable future.
In fact, the coordinators of the hf Met Gala put a lot of emphasis on the sustainability for the event. The reasons were mainly two, as Aria says. Firstly, one not to expose people to Covid-19, and secondly to go against the influencer and Instagram culture which has lulled us into a mindset of wanting a new outfit for each photo which only leads to waste. “Urging people to not purchase new items helps breaking this mindset. If you’re not allowed to buy new clothes for a photo you have to look at what you have and what you can do with it,” states Aria. She believes that once you start it gets easier and it becomes an automatic way of thinking and acting. Maria and Emily are only two examples of the many people who created sustainable looks for the hf Met Gala.
For her denim dress Maria was inspired by the Tristan Tzara Dadaism manifesto which explores a movement inspired by nothing and argues for nothing as the total value of art. “I used denim trousers because they are one of the most durable fabrics and jeans are a key piece in fashion history since it’s belonged to all social classes. On the other hand, because of its durability, denim is pretty hard to manipulate as it is quite thick. Using this material was a big challenge for me and I honestly never thought the final garment would have looked exactly like the initial design I drew,” she says. Maria sometimes feels guilty about being into fashion because she is aware of the industry’s issues with sustainability which is a subject she deeply cares about, “I know it is harming our environment.” Maria continues, “My way to reduce the impact my work has on the environment is by using recycled pieces and giving them a second life instead of throwing them away.”
Emily created a headpiece made with pearls inspired by Dalí and Schiaparelli for the hf Met Gala which had a lot of success. To her sustainability is just as important as it is to Maria and Aria. “Once the markets open and I am more comfortable being in public settings I will go to flea markets around Strasbourg to find vintage pearls,” says Emily. She also sews using upcycled clothes and fabric. “I think that if you have the means to thrift and to sew, using second-hand fabric and clothing is something that you have to do”. In her opinion the fashion industry needs to start using new and more sustainable methods of showing their collections. “For example,” she says, “I really loved the way Maison Schiapraelli showed us their Fall 2020 Couture collection in print form from their sketches.” Emily wishes to see more fashion houses upcycling materials or see smaller designers who are making an effort towards a sustainable fashion world being given the recognition they deserve, as it might prompt the bigger houses to follow their steps. Maria chimes in by saying that, while brands should make the bigger change, the consumers should also change their mindset in order to be more conscious about the brands they buy into, “The real change can only be achieved is we all work together for it.”
A new era of fashion
Aria believes that this period in time is perfect for a big shift within the fashion industry. “Covid-19 has really forced the industry to reconsider how they’ve traditionally operated. Without such a major disrupter it would be difficult for the industry as a whole to embrace or even consider changing how it works, but necessity is the mother of innovation,” explains Aria. “This is the perfect time for big fashion companies to really alter their approach to issues like sustainability, activism and brand message because customers are demanding it and they are increasingly interested in a brand’s stance on social and political issues,” she continues. “If we’re going to be giving our money to someone, we want to know that our values align with theirs. There’s been a disconnect between industry and customer and I think that the voices the industry needs to be listening to should be more diverse. The brands that will survive are the brands that can accept and leverage that.”
With such intelligent, motivated and strong-willed girls leading the conversation on the fashion industry, sustainability and inclusivity on Twitter it seems logical to think that Alejandra is right when she says that the future of fashion is hf Twitter. These girls are not afraid to raise their voices and to advocate for changes in the ethics of fashion and sustainability may that be through Twitter threads or through global events like the hf Met Gala.
The other 10 creators of the hf Met Gala are:
Jana Dragićević (@yohjiyamamotoes), 15 from Belgrade, Serbia
Chloe Kennedy (@LeoInLaurent), 19 from Houston, Texas
Margaux Merz (@thegirlinmiumiu), 19 from Ann Arbor, Michigan
Perla Montan (@perlamontan), 19 from Massachusetts and currently studying in Paris
Raebele (@infurgadiso), 18 from the Philippines
Rebeca Spitz (@richcitypretty), 20 from Washington, D.C.
Samantha Haran (@DECOUTURIZE), 21 from Queensland, Australia
Senam Attipoe (@pyer_princess), 20 from Elkridge, Maryland
Sofía Abadi (@SAINTLIAR), 21 from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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