The MET Gala Selfie: There’s A Method To The Madness

Grainy, slightly off-centre and hot chaos personified–that’s the iconic MET Gala selfie for you. How I wish the people who designed the cream-hued tile bathrooms at the Metropolitan Museum of Art knew how much of a cult following the walls possess, both on Pinterest boards and style accounts. It could easily be said that the MET Gala is a breeding ground for pop culture gems to be looked at, and savoured in the years to come. But what’s the big fuss around it with everyone scrolling to the nines, at home, and in yesterday’s pyjamas whilst being unhealthily invested in it all? Yeah me too.

For starters, the FOMO of not being there is brutal, my friend. No invite? Rude. Now what about the outfit I had in mind, dripping in rose-cut Swarovski crystals sourced from Hill Road? Waste. And it’s not just the allure of the steps, aka the red-carpet, mind you. The real party is metres away, in the bathroom stalls and the insides of the grand museum–legendary reunions, stellar performances and so much more.

Like imagine Prabal Gurung, Deepika Padukone and Emily Ratajkowski cooped up in a corner posing together for their varied fanbases to break the internet. Actually don’t imagine, because a picture like that already exists, all thanks to Gurung’s timely feistiness. This is the appeal of it all. Blame it on dysfunctional parasocial relationships all you want, but this one-sided exchange keeps us fed–you literally cannot disagree.

Fashion girl Alexa Chung, known to document the inside scenes of some of the biggest fashion weeks and invite-only events is no stranger to whipping out her phone (or sometimes a film camera) for the perfect mirror selfie. There are gangs that stay together and then there are surprise formations that send voracious consumers of pop-culture into a tizzy. Lil Nas scoring a selfie with Jack Harlow, Billie Eilish, Timothée Chalamet and 1000 more celebrities is only proof that he’s god’s favourite. And as Gen Z as Gen Z can get.

This micro-relatability one finds in such selfies that show how even a celebrity with a following of millions will literally SCRAPE the steps to hound their celebrity of choice for a hazy snap, is just plain funny. They’re just like us, in this pyramid. Maybe placed slightly higher, but equally prying. A personal favourite is when models gang up–some popular, some uber-niche and then present to you a platter of killer jawlines and spectacular angles. Mainstream Hollywood could never. Head over to the comment sections to find an Ashley (age 62) from Delaware asking for the top-right model’s @. “She looks just like my grand-daughter,” she comments. It’s too cute. 

Amidst this mélange of imperfect and god-like angles showdown, we’re met with an evident realisation–that unplanned, unscripted moments still trump the picture-perfect ones. Most people don’t want a Getty-like curation, the phone-shot stuff carries far more weight and imbues a touch incredibly personal, that well-paid photographers struggle to capture. Even half of it. With all due respect to the hard-work they put in, this just serves as a joyous reminder to take the chill pill in this hyper-manicured world. Where every moment is rehearsed. Every still recreated. Yes, the imperfect MET Gala selfie and musing about it for this story just took a turn and made me fall in love more with the bad angle selfies that end up in my phone’s deleted gallery. Guess it’s time to recover them now.

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