The Garden of Time by J. G. Ballard – A Guide to Met Gala 2024 Theme because It’s Based on a Book

The 2024 Met Gala is based The Garden of Time by J. G. Ballard. I’m still processing the Met Gala 2024 looks which was held on Monday, May 6, 2024. And as a literary lover, when I found out this year’s Met gala theme is going to be based on a book I was really excited. And I’m happy to announce it met my expectations.

Because I did some digging beforehand so I could understand the theme while enjoying and analyzing the outfits and the whole theme. And I also decided to make it into a guide!! So here’s everything I found.

*Important : I don’t own all the pictures used in this post or on my edits, so I always mention the source and credits as all the rights go to respective owners. But I only claim the editing so please contact me if you have any problem. Thank you.

Images via Goodreads/Wikipedia/Vouge Magazine

About the J.G. Ballard :

James Graham Ballard aka J.G. Ballard was a British author, novelist, journalist, and short story writer. He was born on November 15, 1930 in Shanghai, China, where he lived his entire childhood until his family got sent to a camp by the Japanese during World War II and spent 4 years there. And some of the experiences of that time influenced heavily in his writing later in life. But the novelist is mostly known for his works of hypothetical fiction, dystopia and science fiction.

As he wrote stories about strange and not-so-nice worlds. He liked to talk about how technology, buying stuff, and how we feel in our heads affect us. One of his best-known books is “Empire of the Sun,” which is kind of like a true story about his life during a big war in Shanghai and it also got a screen adaptation by Warner bros in 1987. Another one, “Crash,” is famous for talking about how people can get turned on by car crashes, which was shocking to some people.

He has also predicted some great 21st century things in his short stories. Such as, modern electronic devices, vlogging, cyber crimes and more.

One of his short stories is called “The Garden of Time by J. G. Ballard” Which happens to be the theme of Met Gala 2024, shows how he liked mixing normal things with strange ideas to make the stories more creative and interesting. That also made people think differently about certain things. After writing and inspiring people for 50 years he passed away on April 19, 2009 after a long battle with Prostate cancer. But his stories still impact people.

About the The Garden of Time by J. G. Ballard :

“The Garden of Time” by J.G. Ballard is a 5 to 7 page short story from the collections of “The Complete Short Stories Series’ by J. G. Ballard. (I had to add this in the beginning because I like a lot of people who wondered why everyone is calling it a short story when it’s a huge book.) But it’s a short story about a couple, Count Axel and his loving wife who live in a splendid villa alone in a peaceful unnamed country.

They enjoy each other’s company surrounded by all things they love, books, music, arts and more while growing their beautiful garden and the mysterious time flowers. As perfect and peaceful their life seems to be they are surrounded by an angry army of a menacing mob who are approaching them. But to keep the enemies at bay and themselves safe the count Axel uses the time flower. By plucking each stem of the time flowers, time redeems back and the army goes back to where they were and buys them time to survive being safe and sound.

Eventually, they run out of the time flowers as they discover fresh flowers have stopped blooming. As the final flower is ready to be plucked and use its power of time one last time, the couple realize their time is running out and the end is near.
So, when the mob and the army arrive at the villa finally they can’t find the couple but a statue similar to them.

Met Gala’24 Dress Code/Theme – The Garden of Time

I had some questions before and after the met. One of them were how its gonna work as there were two themes it was a bit confusing too. And it took me a while to understand how the theme actually worked. So basically the red carpet is based on the short story and main met exhibition is named “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” and The Garden of Time was mentioned to be main theme which was a short story by J. G. Ballard.

So long story short :

• Red Carpet = Garden of Time
• Met exhibition = Sleeping Beauties.

“In February, the Met revealed Ballard’s 1962 short story “The Garden of Time” as the forthcoming red carpet theme. It will accompany the main exhibition, titled “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” featuring pieces from the Costume Institute archive that span four centuries. Many of the garments are so delicate, they can no longer be touched – let alone worn – without proper conservation equipment.” via CNN Style.

Images via Instagram/Cosmopolitan/Elle/Vouge Magazine/Billboard/ Harper’s Bazar

Outfit Details and How it Matches the Theme

Most of the outfits had the themes hints in the details. Although I had a hard time understanding a few. So I picked some of my favorites for this part

• Anna Wintour – Starting with the main force of the Met Gala since 1999 and CEO of Vogue Anna Wintour wore a beautiful black Loewe coat with red and yellow flowers designed by Jonathan Anderson for Loewe. It matched the whole theme and aesthetic of the event because of the flowers.
• Alia Bhatt – My most favorite from this year, Alia Bhatt wore a Sabyasachi Saree representing India and South Asia. The outfit was a Hand crafted custom made mint-green saree with hand embroidered florals, sequins, semi-precious stones and beads. The color pallete, floral designs and the crystal stones resemble the time flower of the story and the whole garden of time theme. And the outfit itself describes time, as Aliaa shared “There is nothing more timeless than a saree”via Vogue.
• Zendaya – After not being present for half a decade at the Met Gala, Zendaya thought it would be nice to surprise with two outfits. For the first one, she wore a gown, which was reminiscent of a peacock with its deep blue and green hues, and paid dramatic homage to the red carpet theme “The Garden of Time.” Adorned with metallic birds, berries, and vines, it was completed with an imposing feather headpiece nestled in a hand-painted forest-green beret crafted by Stephen Jones.
• Tyla – How does a gown made of sand match the theme? Well tyla made her debut with a sand gown holding an hourglass for her met gala debut. The hourglass makes sense for the time aspect. But the gown definitely hints at the statues of the story.
• Lewis Hamilton – The formula one style icon, at least I think Lewis is the most stylish f1 driver no hate, custom all-black Burberry.
• Lana Del Rey – as a Lana fan I feel like all her songs fit the theme of garden of time and she definitely served this look. Wearing a bespoke beige gown, crafted by Seán McGirr for Alexander McQueen, featured a one-shoulder design adorned with what seemed to be branches cascading down the entire bodice with a veil attached with a headpiece. Which could be both the statue and the branches for the garden.
• Stray Kid – Lastly, The k-pop band not only made their debut but also stunned the audience with their iconic looks. Wearing custom-designed Tommy Hilfiger bespoke overcoat suits, the 8 members also made history with their debut as the first ever k-pop group to attend the event together. And all of the suits were Tommy Hilfiger signature colors, (red, white, and blue). I have not yet found any specific details but to match the outfit with the story id say they would be perfect for the mob army.

Debut Couples :

• Dove Cameron & Damiano – Dove and Damiano, as much as their name sounds good together they also looked stunning as they made their appearance together. Doves floral gown matches the theme of garden of time as the whole dress felt like a garden and Damiano’s black lace cut outs looked timeless paired up together.
• Chris Hemsworth & Elsa Pataky – one of my favorites couple making their debut with the perfect colors is the highlight of this year for me. Chris Hemsworth wore a three-piece, cream colored Tom Ford suit and his wife wore a long-sleeved golden gown with golden jewelry and a crown by Tom Ford which resembles a lot to the statue of the couple by the end of garden of time story.
• Barry Keoghan & Sabrina Carpenter – Also my new favorite couple or the espresso couple. Sabrina wore a beautiful black-bodice ball gown with a blue pastel and white skirt by Oscar de la Renta with a 60s hollywood look. And Barry Keoghan wore a custom made olive-colored velvet jacket, black pinstripe wool waistcoat, ruffled silk poplin shirt, and tailored trousers with three omega watches.

Images via Instagram/Vouge Magazine/Billboard

My Favorite Met Gala Outfits & Looks :

I have added most of my favorites on Outfits and how it matches. But here are more I really liked.

• Alia Bhatt
• Lewis Hamilton
• Dove Cameron & Damiano
• Barry Keoghan & Sabrina Carpenter

Books like The Garden of Time by J. G. Ballard :

None of my contents will ever be completed without having a book recs without it. And I absolutely loved the theme so much I started looking up for book recs. Here are some I really love, found and planning to read soon.

• The Hunger Games
• The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy
• The Folk of the Air series, by Holly Black
• The Architect of Song, by A.G Howard
• The Finisher (Dark Verse, #4)
• The Tarkhanov Empire
• Anne with an E
• Pride & Prejudice
• Little Women
• Emily Wildes Encyclopedia of Faeries
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
• Willa of the Wood, by Robert Beatty.
• The Book of Pearl, by Timothée de Fombelle.
• Story bound,by Marissa Burt
• Divine Rivals
• What Once Was Mine, by Liz Braswell.
• Three Dark Crowns, by Kendare Blake

I’m currently reading The Tarkhanov Empire Series by Bree Porter. You can get the updates and reviews on my Goodreads.