Culture

Decoding The Met Ball Fashion Robots: The Pop Culture Behind The Outfits

We try to figure out the genesis behind the Met Ball 'fashion'.

by Sinead Stubbins  3 May 2016

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The Met Ball is an annual fundraising gala in which Anna Wintour invites the trendiest celebrities of the year to attend, then charges them about $10,000 for a ticket. It’s always interesting because there is a lot of pressure on these celebrities to look fashion forward and strange enough that they impress Anna and get invited back, but not so strange that someone makes a meme about them. It is a fine line.

“Impress me or perish.”

Famous, beautiful people make mistakes, just like you! So when they’re told that the theme of the event this year is ‘Manus x Machina’ and that they have to dress technology-y, they panic. You have to look simultaneously futuristic and cutting edge, but also pretty, because it’s a very fancy event.

Judging by some of the looks this year, a bunch of famouses just looked at the Sci-Fi/Fantasy tab on iTunes and tried desperately to recreate whatever tech-y character they saw first. Lest you be left out of the internet conversation, here is a guess at their thought processes:

RoboCop + Star Wars Episode II: Attack of The Clones + Gigi Hadid telling him that he’s not allowed to dress full robot = Zayn Malik

The Fifth Element + Jenny Humphrey from Gossip Girl (maybe she got lost on iTunes) + Anna Wintour telling her that she needed to change her look = Taylor Swift

Metropolis + White Walkers from Game of Thrones + the god-given confidence that allows you to wear jeans to the Met Gala = Kim and Kanye

Pan’s Labyrinth + Fawkes the phoenix from Harry Potter + being mad that people in America still don’t know who she is = Rita Ora

Zorro + Geordi from Star Trek + wanting to start a hat trend like Pharrell, but ultimately just being bad at clothes = Will.I.Am

The Hunger Games + Maleficent + someone who keeps telling her that her wigs are really good, mostly to amuse themselves = Katy Perry

Pris from Blade Runner + Tomb Raider + tears of her enemies = Beyonce´

Cinderella the animated movie + Cinderella the live-action movie + the advent of electricity = Clare Danes

 A Clockwork Orange + nightmares = Jared Leto

Rich people, huh?

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