On Monday (6th May), fashion paid tribute to the natural world at the glitziest event on the fashion calendar - the Met Gala. Although the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual celebration honoured the Costume Institute’s Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion exhibition, the dress code was “The Garden of Time”. Referencing J.G. Ballard’s short story of the same name, guests were invited to embrace the ethereal theme. As expected, many donned creations drawn from the natural world, sparking a thousand “Florals for spring? Groundbreaking” memes.
Less explicit references to Ballard’s 1962 tale could be glimpsed in the futuristic designs that championed the natural world in more opaque ways, namely through sustainable practices and emerging technologies. The latter was a literary trope of the English novelist, who explored sci-fi and dystopia in his writing decades before we’d ever watched Black Mirror.
