The smug self-satisfaction of the Met Gala
Oscar Wilde said, of the death of Little Nell in The Old Curiosity Shop, that ‘you would have to have a heart of stone to read...without laughing.’ It was hard not to feel the same way today, as pictures of last night’s Met Gala were released to a curious international public. The point of the event, where tickets sell for a suitably jaw-dropping $30,000, is nominally to raise money for selected good causes, and to mark the opening of the museum’s major costume exhibition. Yet every year, the invited celebrities become more absurd, and their outfits more demonstrative and performative.
