By saying nothing as the world burns, the Met Gala shows we’re still living in a gilded age

Most attendees avoided a full embrace of the theme, or an interesting subversion of it - they showed up in dresses that looked lovely and uneventful

Amid a global economic downturn and worsening inflation in America, critics had described the theme for this year's Met Gala - Gilded Glamour and White Tie - as out of touch".

Though one might argue it was incredibly apt; poverty was rife in late-19th century New York, even while elites on the Upper East Side continued to hold patriarch balls", in order to create a circle of elite New Yorkers at the top of the city's social hierarchy", as Sven Beckert wrote in his 2003 book The Monied Metropolis.