Meta Gala 2024 & The Dahomean Garden of Time

I generally don’t keep up with the annual Met Gala, but my wife brought something to my attention that made me want to look at it a little closer.

She said that the theme for this year’s gala was The Garden of Time  (1962), a short story that she read that was written by novelist James Graham Ballard (November 15, 1930 – April 19, 2009). It’s just six pages, and I’ve included it for your reading pleasure here.

Released the same year of the infamous Cuban Missile Crisis, the story tells an almost cryptic tale about Time, Change, and the futility in thwarting either of the two. I won’t share any more details about the story because I’d like for you to have the benefit of reading it for yourself. That being said, it strongly resembles a familiar tale out of the storied history of West Africa.

In my book Da Homey in Modern Dahomey I wrote about the French invasion of Dahomey and the actions of the last Dahomean King Behanzin. It’s definitely a highlight of the book considering the broader diasporic significance explained therein. Dahomey, which is now Benin, is the home of Vodun culture, and the people there have a vast knowledge about magic and sorcery.

I don’t think too many people really consider how much high fashion is a tool of human manipulation through the use of enchantment. One of the definitions of “enchantment” is “the state of being under a magical spell.” The Met Gala is a major platform for high fashion designers as celebrities—especially women—bring attention to their fashion houses based on how the celebrities rock their distinct designs.

This year’s clothing exhibition was called “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” Why it was given that name will be clear when you read The Garden of Time.

My question to you is, who is the King Behanzin or the Count Axel of our time? Is it New Yorkers working through a purported migrant crisis? Is it the homo sapiens contending with Artificial Intelligence? Maybe it’s the so-called Power Elite staving off an invasion by extraterrestrials who’ve set their travel coordinates for a pebble in the dark sea of space called Earth. Somewhere a cicada is reading this post and shaking its head because we have no clue what is about to come.

High fashion has long been a luxury of the privileged class, which makes the Met Gala’s Garden of Time theme very ironic to say the least. I say this because since the Great Pandemic, luxury fashion has seen a dramatic fall in its popularity among urban youth who once magnified its cultural capital through the influences of Diddy and Jay-Z who both seem to be having a Count Axel moment at this time.

These legacy brands have been sustained for decades by a community of faith that’s damn near religious.

Young people of all ethnicities are moving towards defining their own style and are leaning away from the established fashion houses of Europe in pursuit of their own decentralized magic.

The implications for the old guard of the fashion industry are as cold as stone.