The Met Gala is an annual fundraising event for the Metropolitan Museum of Arts Costume Institute in New York City. The Met Gala was created to help raise money for the newly founded Costume Institute as well as a way to mark the opening of the annual exhibit.  This event has been held every year since 1948. The iconic and famous themes such as Camp: Notes on Fashion with Lady Gaga’s four-layered outfit and Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and The Catholic Imagination. This year the theme for the gala was In America: a Lexicon of Fashion. Many of these looks did fit the theme but surprisingly some do not look like it. 

There are two outfits in particular that stood out from the crowd. These two outfits were worn by Quannah Chasinghorse and Niki de Jagers. Quannah’s outfit was dedicated to Indigenous culture and Niki’s was dedicated to Marsha P. Johnson. The first outfit represented indigenous culture by using some of her grandmother’s turquoise throughout it. Nikkietutorials, a trans makeup artist, dedicated her outfit to Marsha P Johnson who organized the stonewall match which was one of the first lgbtq+ rights protests.

Quannah is a 19 year old model that provides much needed representation of Indigenous people and their culture. This year’s Met gala was her first, she showed up in a golf lamé dress with chain accents from Dundas x Revolve American Dream Collection. The cape she wore also gave the illusion of wings. Tabitha Simons who helped style her outfit said “It’s almost as if she has just flown down from the heavens’ ‘. It was important to her team to represent Indeginous culture. Quannah’s goal in this outfit was to show people that the land they are on is stolen native land which needs to be recognized. That goal was accomplished by putting on turquoise jewelry from her grandmother. This turquoise was to show and tribute how she’s connected to the Navajo tribe. Her outfit perfectly showed America and how it was formed on Indigenous land as well as how we should start appreciating her culture.

Now onto Niki de Jager’s first Met gala outfit and experience. Makeup youtuber Nikkietutorials attended her first Met Gala this year and dedicated her dress to Marsha P. Johnson. Marsha P. Johnson was a trans woman who held the stone wall march protest to speak up about LGBT+ injustices. Marsha was a constant leader for many LGBTQ+ protests and was seen as a beacon of hope for people around her. The reason why Niki dedicated her outfit to Marsha is because Niki herself is also a trans woman. On January 13, 2020 Niki came out as a trans woman. On January 13, 2020 she decided to come out with a video about coming out as trans to create a fresh start. Nikki looked up toMarsha as a trans woman. The flower crown she  wore was reminiscent of Marsha’s iconic flower crown seen in many photos The dress also included a sash with Marsha’s motto “Pay it no mind” which stood for the P. in Marsha P. Johnson. Her outfit fit the theme since she was paying tribute to a woman in America who helped fight for equal rights to the LGBTQ+ community. 

          These two outfits were considered some of the best that fit the theme due to their appreciation towards people or cultures that have helped America. These two who showed  appreciation for America and showed some of America’s history through fashion. The Met Gala 2021 had many disappointing, surprising and confusing outfits to fit a  “confusing” theme.