Week 1: Laying the Groundwork

Classwork

Creating my Wix Website

In order to prepare for the upcoming term, I created a blog feature immediately on my WIX website for implementing critical analysis on my IFP throughout the term and stylised it to fit with the brand identity of my website.

5 Slides / 5 Minutes Feedback

My key feedback from the ‘5 Slides / 5 Minutes’ conversation encouraged me to look at contacts I had made at the Met Museum on a visit to the ‘Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty’ exhibition like Jessica Sewell (Chief Development Officer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art) on the New York trip in 2023 for a potential interview. Over the next few weeks, I will aim to reach out to a multitude of people to feature in my IFP.

Video Masterclass with Dan Fernbach

Additionally during Week 1’s lectures, in a video masterclass with Dan Fernbach, video doesn’t necessarily apply to my project but it did make me think about incorporating video in a different way. The thought process being at the Graduate Exhibition, having the livestream of the Met Gala playing in the background to show audiences what the content of the book will entail to draw in viewers to read the book itself. 

Beyond Fashion Exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery

Date: 26 June 2024

The ‘Beyond Fashion’ exhibition is about “the visions of artists and image-makers who experiment with aesthetics to create narratives that reach further than fashion” (Saatchi Gallery, 2024). The introductory wall didactic continued, “at the heart of this exhibition is beauty. But beauty is not a fixed concept. Rather it is one that is in a constant state of flux, and photographers are endlessly creative in exploring its possibilities” (Saatchi Gallery, 2024). 

The exhibition introduced me to more prolific fashion photographers such as Scott Schuman and Ben Watts that I could look to, to see if they had done any Met Gala coverage that can be included in my publication, whether big names or on the rise. The exhibition relates to my previous research project, as the introduction states, “traditionally, these images would have appeared on the glossy cover of a magazine… but increasingly these images are seen on screens and consumed digitally” (Saatchi Gallery, 2024). However, arguably going to the exhibition to see the pieces in their physical form is a method of entertainment which goes against this idea.

My project covers the Met Gala, an aspirational and idealistic display of wealth on the red carpet. The exhibition states fashion photography has contributed to the image of alluring beauty ideals, “typically taken the form of the slim, young, luminous, strong and ethereal female body” which is showcased within this setting (Saatchi Gallery, 2024). 

Another key theme in the exhibition was fantasy and extravagant stagings, the wall didactics stating “it would be a mistake to think of photography as being a faithful recording of reality”, which is precisely what the Met Gala is - a fantasy and a dream (Saatchi Gallery, 2024). For contrast, the exhibition also showcased photographers who specialise in realism.  

The exhibition as a whole also helped me understand the importance of using quality images on quality paper within my coffee table book.

(Saatchi Gallery, 2024)

Independent Study

Creating a Module Checklist

In order to fully understand the requirements of this project, I created a comprehensive checklist of the requirements for this project in order to ensure I will fulfil all learning objectives of the brief for the best possible outcome. This will allow me to stay on track, check off completed tasks and stay organised from the offset.

Calendar

Watching the Met Gala Livestream

(Vogue, 2024)

During my IRP, I watched the livestream in realtime of the Met Gala. Noting key looks from Zendaya in Maison Margiela, Gigi Hadid in Thom Browne, Cardi B in Window Sen, Tyla in Balmain, Mona Patel in Iris Van Herpen, Kendall Jenner in archival Givenchy by Alexander McQueen, Harris Reed in their own designs and the Swarovski entourage. Key developments I saw were Stella McCartney dressing her guests in lab-grown diamonds in a stride for sustainability.

During the mass of content, I collected as much as possible in a saved folder on Instagram and Pinterest for the imagery to be continually added to and used at a later date for an image catalogue (that will be fully referenced) to have at hand when compiling the publication.

Watching ‘The First Monday of May’ (Rossi, 2016)

As I begin to immerse myself further into the world of the Met Gala, I decided to watch The First Monday of May and make notes of my observations. I was unable to take screenshots of interesting shots in the film such as seating charts. The notes taken are in chronological order to the flow of the film: 

• Anna Wintour (Editor-in-Chief of American Vogue Chief Content Officer of Condé Nast) “the met stairs, the famous red carpet has grown in spectacle over the years. It’s a kind of theatre. Fashion can create a dream, create a fantasy, but there may be questions as to whether fashion belongs in a museum like the Met”

• The Met’s costume institute houses the largest collection of fashion in the world. Every year they create a major exhibition opening on the first Monday in May

• Andrew Bolton (Curator, The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art) believes there are people who still dismiss art as fashion 

• Thomas Campbell (Director, The Metropolitan Museum of Art) “looked down on, costume fashion being one example”

• “Fashion is still considered something in the female domain”

• Alexander McQueen is a key designer in the origin of the Met Gala being the phenomenon it is, working with themes of beauty and terror within his works. The ‘Savage Beauty’ exhibition at the Met redefined fashion in the museum space in critics' eyes.

• The film highlights the happenings of the 2015 Met Gala: China: Through the Looking Glass. The exhibition is in collaboration with the Met and the Asian Institute of Art and “how Western fashion designers look to China for inspiration”

• “Fashion is easier to understand than language itself”

• Interviews with John Galliano “the fantasy world that I create has escaped from me”

• “The costume institute and Vogue have a long history” funds are raised for the institute with one large party annually, “the party supports our operating budget for the entire year”

• “The gala was the invention of a small group of fashion professionals, it was relatively small but the department itself is very small”

• “$120million for our department alone” thanks to Anna Wintour’s contributions 

• André Leon Talley (Contributing Editor, Vogue) “Since Anna Wintour has taken over the Met ball, it has become the Super Bowl of social fashion events”

• Interesting segments: guest list, seating charts (have they sat next to each other before at other events?), Anna’s reputation, conversations on table cloths

• “Pop and fine art meet in the metropolitan museum”

• “You can have an acting icon, next to musical icon, next to a political icon, it’s like a giant aquarium on that night” - Baz Luhrmann

• “What Anna has done is understood that high fashion, the most extraordinary expression of this media, paired with celebrity becomes something bigger than both. That is what happens on the red carpet”

• “Each celebrity has been chosen to wear a gown by a designer”

• Riccardo Tisci (Artistic Director, Givenchy) “it’s the only red carpet I do, each designer bring his own muse… you bring the person that most represents your aesthetic”

• Troublemakers are often not invited back

• ‘In the Mood for Love’ is a big source of inspiration for Western designers. Wong Kar Wai (Film Director) was then an artistic director for the exhibition “I don’t think this show will have a linear narrative, now the structure of the show is more like a Chinese garden, you have an entrance but then you’re free to walk”

• The exhibition sparked concerns about colonialism, orientalism, interpreted as being racist and misunderstood by the West as Asian culture is often packaged as one singular identity.

• The largest exhibition they have done

• Political hurdles of bringing Western fashion into a Chinese galleries leading to misrepresentation of Chinese culture

• Curators must make sure the Chinese objects and intellectual content are not overshadowed or demeaned by the exhibition design

• I did not like the dragons on arrival design idea for the red carpet. However I really liked the mock up designs of the entrance. 

• “The complexity of the subject matter itself requires delicate handling so we’re not misunderstood”

• The Met and Vogue travelled to Beijing to promote the exhibition 

• Andrew Bolton predicts it will be a controversial exhibition 

• “Try not to make the show too busy, seeing too much is seeing nothing”

• Focus is on the history of China as opposed to modern China

• Regarding an interview “she was really politicising it, the idea of the West just plundering the East for inspiration”

• Guo Pei (designer featured)

• Jean Paul Gaultier “fashion is supposed to represent what’s happening in society, politically, economically” 

• Rihanna's performance budget was in the hundred thousands

• “In the world we work in you need the mix of art and commerce… too much of one or the other would not work, they have to exist hand in hand”

• There is an equal weight of pressure on the exhibition itself and the gala

• The creation and installation of the exhibition

• “The whole idea with the Met is it’s not a commercial consideration, it’s a cultural consideration” 

• 250,000 roses used in the installation at the Met entrance 

• The film showed the chaos of the red carpet which all viewers traditionally see online before the exhibition itself is open to the public.

• It also showcased attendees interpretation of the them

• Additionally, the film showed the celebrities inside the Met which is something the general public never usually gets to see and their reactions to the exhibition 

• Rihanna wearing Guo Pei was the nights showstopper where she later performed at the event reception

• 800,000 people visited the exhibition, the 5th most visited exhibition in the Met’s history

• The Met Gala raised a record of $12.5 million for the museum

(Rossi, 2016)

Reading ‘The Garden of Time’ by JG Ballard

Furthermore, I read ‘The Garden of Time’ by JG Ballard to understand the intricacies of this year's theme. I annotated my connections and immediate thoughts.

(Ballard, 1962)

• Readers and therefore designers are able to interpret what a time flower looks like. I saw this clearly with Swarovski’s interpretation.

• Flowers are associated with female treasures, therefore a time flower could be an archival piece altering time to be present in another era (e.g. 2024) or anything the designer believes is valuable.

• Arguably the count and countess of the villa are interpretations of the attendees of the Met Gala in the modern day. The villa could be seen as The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

• The story could be interpreted in countless ways, even audiences deconstructing popular culture ideals by becoming more media literate in the context of the social phenomenon that is the Met. The story could also symbolise humanity’s effect on the environment through impacts such as climate change and deforestation.

• Time has been a recurring theme at the Met Gala. For example, 2024 co-chair host Zendaya's 2019 outfit, styled and orchestrated thoughtfully by Law Roach, symbolised the end of her Disney era. Her Cinderella-inspired look referencing one of Disney’s biggest entities, magically transformed by fairy godmother Roach’s wand represented her rise to high-fashion stardom and the beginning of a new chapter in her career.

• The overall story depicts the colourful contrast of the wealthy’s fruitful lives versus the darker realities of the planet.

Key Takeaways

• Contextualising myself with the background knowledge of the Met Gala and this year's theme was essential for setting the tone for the beginning of my IFP. Knowing the story of ‘The Garden of Time’ can help give the outfits meaning. This has enhanced my reading comprehension and decoding skills mostly.

• Familiarising myself with all the content I had allocated myself took more time than anticipated so I must try to stick to the calendar timeline as closely as possible. Time management will be a key component moving forward. 

• I have also begun to think about how my exhibition will be designed, contributing towards my creative direction skills.

Reference List

• Ballard, J. G. (1962). The Garden of Time. London: Fourth Estate Publishing

• Rossi, A. (2016). The First Monday of May [DVD Film]. New York: Magnolia Pictures

• Saatchi Gallery (2024). Beyond Fashion Exhibition, London [Wall Didactic]. ‘Beyond Fashion’ exhibition. London: The Saatchi Gallery, 26 June 2024.

• Vogue. (2024). Live at Met Gala 2024 With Vogue [YouTube Video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGVq7J5_sTk [Accessed 27 June 2024].