CounterPunch.org The Gilded Glamour Met Gala Was a Fantasia of Inequality

“When you heard that the theme was ‘Gilded Glamour,’ what did that mean to you?”

“I honestly didn’t really think about it,” Kourtney Kardashian laughed in response to red carpet correspondent Lala Anthony, looking down at her Thom Browne ensemble.

Regardless of Kardashian’s forethought, her presence was perfectly pertinent to this week’s Met Gala. The first Monday in May was the 74th annual fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, which produces fashion exhibits in concert with publisher Condé Nast’s Vogue magazine.

Over the years, the New York City event has garnered hundreds of millions of dollars for the museum, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in “media impact value” each time. One of the most coveted, expensive invitations in town – tables cost several hundred thousand dollars – the Gala’s red carpet is reputation-making and prestige-vaunting, graced by everyone from billionaires like Elon Musk to nepotism babies like Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz and rising stars across all creative industries.

To commemorate the second exhibit in a two-part celebration of American fashion, Vogue’s head honcho Anna Wintour prescribed the “Gilded Glamour” theme, askingattendees “to embody the grandeur — and perhaps the dichotomy — of Gilded Age New York.” The magazine characterized the period as “one of unprecedented prosperity, cultural change, and industrialization, when both skyscrapers and fortunes seemingly arose overnight” – yet made little mention of how Gilded Age glitz veiled rampant destitution.

The booming, speculative economy and its bosses’ greed forced millions of new immigrants and people of color into grueling work to survive. The first Gilded Agewas our country’s most unequal period – until now.

There were other ways to engage with the theme beyond becoming or deflecting it.

Some celebrities attempted to honor the under-recognized labor of immigrants and people of color during the period. Sound of Metal star Riz Ahmed wore a utilitarian set by 4S Designs, “an homage to the immigrant workers who kept the Gilded Age golden.” Sex and the City icon Sarah Jessica Parker wore a Christopher John Rodgers gown inspired by the oeuvre of “unsung” black seamstress Elizabeth Keckley, who designed for first lady Mary Todd Lincoln. And Bring It On actress Gabrielle Union pointed out her rubied hairpins, representing the “blood spilled” by people of color “during the accumulation of gross wealth by a few during the Gilded Age.”

Then, there were the celebrities who weighed in on the climate crisis, accelerated by the fashion industry. UN research estimates that fashion is responsible for an estimated tenth of global carbon emissions and fifth of global wastewater, as well as millions of tons of textile and garment waste. So former partners Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello opted for entirely upcycled designs by Tommy Hilfiger and Prabal Gurung, respectively. Her sustainable outfit, Cabello argued, harnessed the “innovation” and “ingenuity” of the “materialistic” era to address “today’s challenges.”

A Gen Z climate activist, Xiye Bastida, even accompanied comedian Amy Schumer to the gala, wearing Gabriela Hearst – though red carpet interviews consigned Bastida to vague mentions of how “climate justice” deserved airtime in the exclusive space while Schumer goofed off for the cameras.

Heralding “inclusivity” as a hallmark of the era seemed to be gala attendees’ preferred way to broach the complicated theme. Gossip Girl star Blake Lively dressed as an oxidizing, Versace-rendered Statue of Liberty, whose bejeweled tiara represented “inclusivity, welcomeness, and freedom.” Billionaire and newly minted Twitter owner Elon Musk, in white tie, promised to make the platform as “inclusive as possible” to improve users’ lives.

To its workers, event sponsor Condé Nast has always undervalued the inclusivity that Met Gala guests were keen to emphasize. And during the event, the publisher had its employees work unpaid and uncredited extra hours to publish around-the-clock media coverage. That’s in part because, as Vogue Copy Director Grace Edquist attests, staffers “constantly feel at risk and in the dark, fearing for our jobs.”

In response to their company’s practice of “leveraging its prestige to overwork and underpay its employees,” Condé Nast workers joined to form a union across the publisher’s brands. The New Yorker magazine unionized first, winning a first agreement in June 2021 that included more equitable wages and raises, along with journalistic protections. Pitchfork, WIRED, and Ars Technica followed suit, until workers across the company banded together with the New York News Guild, which represents other publications across the city. The union, announced in late March, is still seeking recognition.