All This Fashion

Fashion is having a moment.

While we appreciate that for some, fashion is always having a moment, we are of course talking about the Met Gala and The Devil Wears Prada 2.

On the surface, these two cultural moments should be - at least to a large extent - about what is being worn. 

In the case of the Met Gala, that included Heidi Klum dressing like a statue, María Zardoya posing with a haunted doll, Madonna looking like she’d come as ChatGPT’s hackneyed version of an Edward Scissorhands / Pirates of the Caribbean Halloween costume, and Katy Perry donning an astronaut-inspired mask like she didn’t get enough stick for that whole thing already.

In the case of The Devil Wears Prada 2, it included a collection that wouldn’t have looked out of place at Zara. Sorry, Zara.

But the reaction to both events has eschewed the fashion for something far less glamorous - tech billionaires.

You don’t have to go far to find myriad critiques along these lines. Backrow described tech billionaires as The Devil Wears Prada 2’s new villain (that’s not a spoiler, other than spoiling the fact that the plot and script are as predictable as florals for Spring). 

They also declared the Met Gala is now the Tech Gala after Jeff Bezos became its biggest funder, a fact which led to the ‘Ball Without Billionaires’ protest.

Tech moguls are an often deserving target. But they’re also a lazy one. Having a Silicon Valley bro as a villain is like choosing a Russian antagonist fifty years ago. No one’s leaving the cinema, but it’s hardly pushing the boundaries. As for the Met Gala, it’s simply the latest example of the pre-eminent industry of the day funding culture. Where do people think the Rockefeller Centre got its name?

The Met Gala and The Devil Wears Prada 2 may have been disappointments for fashion. But they were also let downs for critical voices.