The great and good of the fashion world will turn out dressed to the nines on Monday night for the Met Gala, one of the industry's biggest events.
Designers have been on overdrive, creating one-of-a-kind pieces for the event, while stylists pull in every favour to secure the “it” look for their celebrity clients.
The annual event is essentially a fund-raiser for the Costume Institute – the fashion and textiles arm of the Metropolitan Museum in New York – and is themed around the corresponding exhibition, for which the gala acts as the opening night.
This year, it's called The Garden of Time.
The exhibition, Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, is far from being about the Disney fairy tale – it is a more oblique discussion of the fragility of clothes, nature and ultimately life itself.
Drawing from the institute's huge archive, curator Andrew Boltan has unearthed pieces that stretch back decades, some even centuries, to map the passage of time.
Pieces on show will include an Elizabethan bodice from the early 1600s – almost too fragile to be handled – and an evening cape by Charles Frederick Worth from 1889, which has tulips woven into the fabric.
This year's show will be split into sections – Land, Sea and Sky – which will journey through delicate, historical items to contemporary pieces.
The burning question is, what will people wear? The most obvious route is for guests to dress for a garden party – decked in florals and trailing foliage.
The last haute couture shows in Paris revealed many gala-apt pieces. Case in point is Valentino, which referenced florals as a giant ruffle top with a simple tweed pencil skirt; and Simone Rocha, the guest designer at Jean Paul Gaultier haute couture, who created an all-black look covered in tiny flowers at the end of long stems.
Elsewhere, the haute couture offering from Maison Margiela offers a darker take, with a collection that is almost troubling yet utterly beautiful – perfect, then, for this theme. Built around the undesirables of 1950s Paris nightlife, the collection is filled with vintage-looking pieces that are artfully distressed and undone, for a fragile, human feel.
For guests who want to explore the darker side of the exhibition, vintage Alexander McQueen, designed by the man himself, would also be a good place to start. With an exquisite fascination with the macabre, Lee McQueen often referenced death and decay, such as in his autumn/winter 2006 collection that featured headpieces made from dead birds.
For a prettier, more light-hearted take, the spring/summer 2009 collection by Dolce & Gabbana ended with a parade of pastel gowns smothered in fabric flowers, while the recent spring 2024 haute couture by Giambattista Valli also focused on flowers – now realised as great puffs of floral taffeta.
Those able to source vintage Christian Lacroix will be on to a winner, with the brand's rich references to historical figures such as Marie Antoinette – and her violent demise. Vivienne Westwood, too, has reworked the corsetry of old, turning it from a symbol of female restriction into a powerful statement of emancipation.
Joining fashion editor Anna Wintour as co-chairs this year will be Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Bad Bunny and Chris Hemsworth. With Zendaya already well known for her daring dress sense, we can expect a sartorial showdown with that other fearless style maven Rihanna.
With the Diamonds singer also boasting a reputation for bringing the drama, and for making late, spectacular entrances, we are in for a treat, roses or otherwise.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Dubai World Cup factbox
Most wins by a trainer: Godolphin’s Saeed bin Suroor(9)
Most wins by a jockey: Jerry Bailey(4)
Most wins by an owner: Godolphin(9)
Most wins by a horse: Godolphin’s Thunder Snow(2)
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Zayed Sustainability Prize
hall of shame
SUNDERLAND 2002-03
No one has ended a Premier League season quite like Sunderland. They lost each of their final 15 games, taking no points after January. They ended up with 19 in total, sacking managers Peter Reid and Howard Wilkinson and losing 3-1 to Charlton when they scored three own goals in eight minutes.
SUNDERLAND 2005-06
Until Derby came along, Sunderland’s total of 15 points was the Premier League’s record low. They made it until May and their final home game before winning at the Stadium of Light while they lost a joint record 29 of their 38 league games.
HUDDERSFIELD 2018-19
Joined Derby as the only team to be relegated in March. No striker scored until January, while only two players got more assists than goalkeeper Jonas Lossl. The mid-season appointment Jan Siewert was to end his time as Huddersfield manager with a 5.3 per cent win rate.
ASTON VILLA 2015-16
Perhaps the most inexplicably bad season, considering they signed Idrissa Gueye and Adama Traore and still only got 17 points. Villa won their first league game, but none of the next 19. They ended an abominable campaign by taking one point from the last 39 available.
FULHAM 2018-19
Terrible in different ways. Fulham’s total of 26 points is not among the lowest ever but they contrived to get relegated after spending over £100 million (Dh457m) in the transfer market. Much of it went on defenders but they only kept two clean sheets in their first 33 games.
LA LIGA: Sporting Gijon, 13 points in 1997-98.
BUNDESLIGA: Tasmania Berlin, 10 points in 1965-66
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Match info
Uefa Nations League A Group 4
England 2 (Lingard 78', Kane 85')
Croatia 1 (Kramaric 57')
Man of the match: Harry Kane (England)
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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UAE cricketers abroad
Sid Jhurani is not the first cricketer from the UAE to go to the UK to try his luck.
Rameez Shahzad Played alongside Ben Stokes and Liam Plunkett in Durham while he was studying there. He also played club cricket as an overseas professional, but his time in the UK stunted his UAE career. The batsman went a decade without playing for the national team.
Yodhin Punja The seam bowler was named in the UAE’s extended World Cup squad in 2015 despite being just 15 at the time. He made his senior UAE debut aged 16, and subsequently took up a scholarship at Claremont High School in the south of England.
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3. Hajj
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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How to get there
Emirates (www.emirates.com) flies directly to Hanoi, Vietnam, with fares starting from around Dh2,725 return, while Etihad (www.etihad.com) fares cost about Dh2,213 return with a stop. Chuong is 25 kilometres south of Hanoi.
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