What is the 2024 Met Gala theme? "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion," explained

What to expect at the 2024 Met Gala

NEW YORK - If you're trying to explain the 2024 Met Gala theme, you can look to the classic fable, "Sleeping Beauty." 

What is the Met Gala theme this year?

The theme of this year's Met Gala stems from the latest exhibition by the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion." 

"When an item of clothing enters our collection, its status is changed irrevocably. What was once a vital part of a person's lived experience is now a motionless 'artwork' that can no longer be worn or heard, touched, or smelled. The exhibition endeavors to reanimate these artworks by re-awakening their sensory capacities through a diverse range of technologies, affording visitors sensorial 'access' to rare historical garments and rarefied contemporary fashions," curator Andrew Bolton said. "By appealing to the widest possible range of human senses, the show aims to reconnect with the works on display as they were originally intended—with vibrancy, with dynamism, and ultimately with life."    

This year's theme goes hand-in-hand with a dress code, dubbed "The Garden of Time." 

The Met Gala's dress code is usually quite loosely interpreted by guests, and is used as a jumping off point for outfits, making for some memorable red carpet moments. 

What exhibition is the 2024 Met Gala theme celebrating?

"Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion" is the exhibit the Met Gala will be celebrating. 

The story behind the exhibit's name has to do with the garments that will be on display. Roughly 250 garments will be shown from the Costume Institute's collection of 33,000 pieces. Many of the ones that will be on display are typically never shown. Some are said to be too fragile to hang, for fear of them falling apart. 

Instead, they will lie in glass cases, like the fabled Sleeping Beauty. 

"The Met's innovative spring 2024 Costume Institute exhibition will push the boundaries of our imagination and invite us to experience the multisensory facets of a garment, many of which get lost when entering a museum collection as an object. Sleeping Beauties will heighten our engagement with these masterpieces of fashion by evoking how they feel, move, sound, smell and interact when being worn, ultimately offering a deeper appreciation of the integrity, beauty and artistic brilliance of the works on display," Met Museum Director Max Hollein said.    

What does "The Garden of Time" have to do with Sleeping Beauty?

"Sleeping Beauty" is a classic fable of a beautiful princess who is sent into a magical sleep only to be reawakened by the kiss of her true love. It is frequently interpreted as being about how true love will conquer all. 

"The Garden of Time" is a short story by J.G Ballard. The story concerns a couple living in a beautiful home. 

A mob is slowly making its way inevitably toward them, bringing destruction. In the couple's garden grow "time flowers," and each one that is plucked sends the mob back in time, further away from their inevitable arrival at their home. But the garden is no longer growing new flowers, and the destruction of their exquisite home and life together is inevitable. 

The exhibition itself, like a garden, will also be a multisensory experience, designed to stimulate all the senses. The galleries will be arranged "exploring a different theme inspired by the natural world," the Met said. As an example, the floors of one gallery space will be animated with snakes, and the ceiling of another with a projection of birds. 

"Punctuating the exhibition will be a series of 'sleeping beauties'—garments that can no longer be dressed on mannequins due to their extreme fragility—that will be displayed in glass 'coffins' allowing visitors to analyze their various states of deterioration as if under a microscope," the Met said. 

What were past Met Gala themes through the years?

The Met Gala has had many memorable themes over the years. Last year's theme honored fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld.

In 2021 and 2022, the "In America" theme served as parts one and two of a look back at American fashion through the years.

The 2020 gala was postponed due to the pandemic, but its theme was "About Time: Fashion and Duration." 

And in 2019, the theme was "Camp: Notes on Fashion." 

The Met Gala will be held Monday night in New York City. Watch CBS New York's special coverage streaming at 8 p.m.

Jesse Zanger

Jesse Zanger is the managing editor of CBSNewYork.com. Jesse has previously worked for the Fox News Channel and Spectrum News NY1. He covers regional news around the Tri-State Area, with a particular focus on breaking news and extreme weather.