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"Florals? For spring? Groundbreaking."—one can imagine Anna Wintour herself uttering those words as a throng of floral-clad outfits paraded themselves in, one after another, into the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was the first Monday in May, also known as the Met Gala, and Wintour assumed her longtime role as co-chair. She was joined by Met Gala 2024 co-chairs Jennifer Lopez, Zendaya, Chris Hemsworth, and Bad Bunny. Honorary chairs for this year's edition were Loewe's Jonathan Anderson, and Shou Chew, chief executive of TikTok.

The annual benefit celebrated the opening of the latest seasonal exhibition, Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, where around 250 objects spanning four decades are on display. Each fashion object features a relation to nature, serving as a metaphor for the fragility and ephemerality of fashion. As an extension of this time travel of fashion through a nature-centric lens, the theme of Met Gala 2024 was "The Garden of Time". While the title immediately conjures up images of flora and fauna, in actuality, it's quite a broad theme.

"The Garden of Time" is a reference to a 1962 short story of the same name by J.G. Ballard. It tells a story of Count Axel and his wife live in a villa surrounded by a garden of crystal, time flowers. In order to escape an approaching angry mob, the count began plucking off the flowers one by one to travel back in time, until there were none left and they both succumbed to their inevitable downfall.

Yes, it is somewhat of an irony that the story's narrative inspired the dress code for this year's Met Gala—a benefit attended by modern-day aristocrats.

Looking into the source material, the theme leaves room for interpretation. Sure, the florals and anything else garden-related are a given, but manners of aristocratic dress were also options. And due to the time-travelling nature of the story, there's also no fixed period to be restricted by. First-time attendees (and the first K-pop group in history to attend the Met Gala) Stray Kids wore custom Tommy Hilfiger suiting in the brand's signature hues with subtle floral and botanical details, while Barry Keoghan stunned in a velvet Burberry suit that was a nod to period dressing.

Others took on the story's more nuanced theme of doom and destruction. Wisdom Kaye's Robert Wun ensemble was the perfect manifestation of destroyed beauty with its burnt edges; Bad Bunny's Maison Margiela suit featured loose topstitching that were irregularly done; and Dan Levy's Loewe fit beautifully interpreted the theme with a floral suiting that graduated into darkness.

View our picks of the best menswear looks at Met Gala 2024 in the gallery below.

Bad Bunny in MAISON MARGIELA. (GETTY IMAGES)
Christian Cowan and Sam Smith both in CHRISTIAN COWAN. (GETTY IMAGES)
Barry Keoghan in BURBERRY. (BURBERRY)
Usher in ALEXANDER MCQUEEN. (GETTY IMAGES)
Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin. (GETTY IMAGES)
Jon Batiste. (GETTY IMAGES)
Donald Glover in SAINT LAURENT. (SAINT LAURENT)
Harris Dickinson in PRADA. (GETTY IMAGES)
(GETTY IMAGES)
Leon Bridges in WILLY CHAVARRIA. (GETTY IMAGES)
Jeremy Strong in LORO PIANA. (GETTY IMAGES)
Gabrielle Union, and Dwyane Wade in VERSACE. (GETTY IMAGES)
Sebastian Stan. (GETTY IMAGES)
Troye Sivan in PRADA. (GETTY IMAGES)
Alex Edelman in S.S.DALEY. (GETTY IMAGES)
Adam Mosseri in TANNER FLETCHER, and Monica Mosseri. (GETTY IMAGES)
Mike Faist in LOEWE. (GETTY IMAGES)
Cole Escola in THOM BROWNE. (GETTY IMAGES)
Derek McLane. (GETTY IMAGES)
Tom Ford in SAINT LAURENT. (GETTY IMAGES)
Laufey and Prabal Gurung. (GETTY IMAGES)
Jeff Goldblum in PRADA. (GETTY IMAGES)
Alton Mason in THOM BROWNE. (GETTY IMAGES)
Lewis Hamilton in BURBERRY. (BURBERRY)
Michael Shannon in BALENCIAGA. (BALENCIAGA)
Eddie Redmayne in STEVE O SMITH. (GETTY IMAGES)
Bright in BURBERRY. (BURBERRY)
Jazz Charton, and Kieran Culkin in KIDSUPER. (GETTY IMAGES)
Jaden Smith in THOM BROWNE. (GETTY IMAGES)
Dan Levy in LOEWE. (GETTY IMAGES)
Steven Yeun in THOM BROWNE. (GETTY IMAGES)
Alex Sharp in BALMAIN. (GETTY IMAGES)
Jonathan Bailey in LOEWE. (GETTY IMAGES)
Damiano David in DIESEL. (GETTY IMAGES)
Reece Feldman in THOM BROWNE. (GETTY IMAGES)
Jonathan Groff in SIMONE ROCHA. (GETTY IMAGES)
Ed Sheeran in STELLA MCCARTNEY. (GETTY IMAGES)
Adrien Brody in MAISON MARGIELA, and Georgina Chapman. (GETTY IMAGES)
Lil Nas X in LUAR. (GETTY IMAGES)
Josh O'Connor in LOEWE. (GETTY IMAGES)
Jamie Dornan in LOEWE. (GETTY IMAGES)
Jordan Roth in VALENTINO. (GETTY IMAGES)
Omar Apollo in LOEWE. (GETTY IMAGES)
Taika Waititi in MARNI, and Rita Ora. (GETTY IMAGES)
Ben Simmons in THOM BROWNE. (GETTY IMAGES)
Gustav Magnar Witzoe in VERSACE. (GETTY IMAGES)
Stray Kids in TOMMY HILFIGER. (GETTY IMAGES)
Stray Kids in TOMMY HILFIGER. (GETTY IMAGES)
Jeremy Pope in TANNER FLETCHER. (GETTY IMAGES)
Wisdom Kaye in ROBERT WUN. (GETTY IMAGES)

On the first Monday of May, celebrities, socialites and fashion tastemakers descend upon the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for the Met Gala. The idea is this: attending A-listers are required to dress to the theme of the Costume Institute at the Met’s accompanying exhibition, which the night is ostensibly a fundraising event for. Some basically ignore the prompt. Others take the opportunity to wear a statement-making suit; something a little jazzy. A special few make headlines with an out-there outfit that lives long in the memory.

As well as being one of the biggest social events on the calendar, it’s also one of the few that allows its guests to get really creative with their outfits. Over the years, we've seen fully masked, Dementor-esque dresses, metallic armour and even a hamburger walk the red carpet, but amidst the madness, there's always a selection of great formalwear on show. To give you a hint of what to expect on today's carpet, we’ve rounded up the best-dressed men in Met Gala history.

1

Chiwetel Ejiofor

Year: 2019

Theme: Camp: Notes on Fashion

2

Harry Styles

Year: 2019

Theme: Camp: Notes on Fashion

3

The Weeknd

Year: 2017

Theme: Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between

4

Sebastian Stan

Year: 2022

Theme: In America: An Anthology of Fashion

5

Colin Farrell

Year: 2016

Theme: Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology

6

Robert Pattinson

Year: 2015

Theme: China: Through the Looking Glass

7

Mark Ronson

Year: 2015

Theme: China: Through the Looking Glass

8

Jay-Z

Year: 2014

Theme: Charles James: Beyond Fashion

9

Timothée Chalamet

Year: 2021

Theme: In America: A Lexicon of Fashion

10

ASAP Rocky

Year: 2021

Theme: In America: A Lexicon of Fashion

11

Ryan Reynolds

Year: 2014

Theme: Charles James: Beyond Fashion

12

Kyle MacLachlan

Year: 1996

Theme: Christian Dior

13

Tom Ford

Year: 2012

Theme: Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations

14

Jude Law

Year: 2010

Theme: American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity

15

Adrien Brody

Year: 2003

Theme: Goddess: The Classical Mode

16

Alexander McQueen

Year: 2006

Theme: AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion

17

Idris Elba

Year: 2016

Theme: Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology

18

Pharrell Williams

Year: 2018

Theme: Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination

Originally published on Esquire US

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