NEW YORK, May 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Met Gala 2024 is a fundraising benefit for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City that is held every year on the first Monday in May. The 2024 Met Gala took place on Monday, May 6 celebrating the Costume Institute’s new exhibition, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.”

This year’s Met Gala theme is based on J.G. Ballard’s short story ‘The Garden of Time’. Chief Creative Officer, Daniel Lee, was inspired by the central motif of the story’s flora and its connection with British culture. Since his first collection, flowers have been incorporated into his designs and campaigns – such as roses, daisies and daffodils.

Flora is a key feature in the Met Gala designs. Fabrics are delicately shaped to reflect the flower patterns we see in ‘The Garden of Time’. Pastels and gold tones reflect the softness of petals. Each piece is crafted by hand.

BARRY KEOGHAN
Barry’s designs are rooted in traditional tailoring, combining Savile Row-inspired elements with Victorian-era flourishes to reflect the character of Count Axel in the story. Each piece is handmade in Italy.

BRIGHT
Referencing the theme of royalty in the story, Bright’s designs draw inspiration from traditional British nobility. The jacket is detailed with bullion floral embroidery, which is applied by hand using a process that takes more than 100 hours.

CHIOMA NNADI
Linking the story’s central motif to Burberry’s British heritage, Chioma’s dress features a floral pattern inspired by typical English garden flowers. The pattern is formed from thousands of crystal embellishments.

HE CONG
The gold studding on He’s dress is inspired by delicate flower petals and the intricate patterns found in nature.

JODIE TURNER-SMITH
Phantom tulle is layered over a crystal pearl mesh underdress to reference the delicate nature of the flower, while embroidery of British garden flowers – like daisies – links the story to Burberry’s British heritage.

The dress features approximately 150,000 crystal pearl embellishments and a six-metre train.

LEWIS HAMILTON
Lewis’s embroidered coat reflects the language of flowers in Black history, and is embroidered with periwinkles (for endurance), yucca (for eternity and protecting restless spirits), daffodils (known as ‘pass-along’ flowers for their hardiness) and cedar branches (for everlasting life).

It is inspired by the story of John Ystumllyn, one of Britain’s first Black gardeners, and features a quote taken from ‘The Gardener’ poem by Alex Wharton.

Twenty people have been hand-embroidering for two weeks before the finishing touches were painted by hand in New York this weekend.

LILY DONALDSON
Lily’s dress pays homage to the crystal floral motif in the story with fringing and a long train. The fringing is created by embroidering sequins onto thousands of threads, which are then hand-applied to the dress – a process that took weeks to complete.

The dress also takes inspiration from the Winter 2024 collection which had roots in the outdoors and the evolution of time.

LITTLE SIMZ
The leather trench coat for Little Simz features floral macramé embroidery symbolising the floral motifs in ‘The Garden of Time’. It is crafted from soft saddle leather.

The trousers and the Rocking Horse bag are detailed with the same floral motif to complement the trench coat.

NAOMI CAMPBELL
Designed using a process that takes more than 200 hours, Naomi’s dress is defined by its sequin- embellished fringing. It features between 500,000 and 1,000,000 straight fringes that have been hand- embroidered with approximately 50,000 sequins.

ROBERTO BOLLE
Roberto’s look references one of the story’s main characters, Count Axel, with sharp, tailored elements synonymous with royalty and tradition.

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Media contact: Press.Office@burberry.com