Metropolitan Museum of Art - metmuseum.org

By: Manuela Pacheco (Grade 4)

Do you like the Met Gala? Even if you don’t, I’m sure you’ve at least heard about it. The Met Gala is a gigantic ceremony that promotes fashion. This is a fundraiser event and all the money collected goes to a really important institution that preserves fashion from the 1400s to nowadays. Regardless of that, it has some really big issues. Have you ever thought of how much money is spent in it? Or how much trash it produces? Or even how elitist it is? That is what I’m here to talk about.

Each year the Met Gala raises around 10 million dollars, and it all goes to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. However, it costs over 3,5 million to throw it. Besides, thousands of dollars are also spent in the production of the dresses that celebrities wear. Even though many guests don’t actually purchase their outfits, a huge investment goes into making them and a lot of trash is produced along the way.

That’s our next topic: trash. The clothes that the stars wear to attend the Met Gala have to be a statement and, let’s be honest, they’re never ever gonna wear them again. And that has an environmental impact. Although there are some celebrities that care about sustainable fashion, this is still a pretty new topic and most of the guests just let those dresses sit in their huge closets, collecting dust. Besides, there are also all the decorations from the party itself, that are discarded right after.

There is also another problem with this event: a ticket can cost up to $35,000 and a table costs between $200,000 and $300,000. But don’t think you can buy a ticket without Anna Wintour’s approval. She is the host of the Met Gala and she gets to judge who is relevant enough to come to this party. If you stop to think about it, you can probably count on your fingers the amount of African celebrities at the ceremony. Only two people from Brazil got to go this year. The chances that non-American and non-European stars have of going to this event are really not equal.

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