Met Gala Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion with My MFA Graduation Outfit

Normally, I like to reserve the fun, day-to-day things like outfit roundups for my personal blog, but I am making an exception because the Met Gala happened this week and I just graduated with my Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing this past weekend. When I think of the two together, I came up with the idea to break down my graduation outfit, especially since I believe the story behind my outfit fits in so well with this year's Met Gala theme.

Here's me smiling on the night of graduation after the ceremony.

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Breaking Down the Theme of "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion"

For 2024, the Met Gala theme is "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion." It sounds like a bunch of jargon, but from the interpretations I have heard, this is what I understand it to be: Similar to how Aurora fell asleep and woke up to be a princess years later, the fashion at this year's Met Gala is meant to take inspiration from looks that have been in the archives and forgotten. By bringing them back, this theme is meant to highlight how fashion is supposed to be timeless.

This is an idea that I love, because I don't have enough money to follow the trends all of the time. I have a dislike for how social media and consumer culture have led us to this place where it isn't cool to re-wear clothes or how things go out of fashion so quickly. I am the person who will only go shopping for a special occasion, so I will fully embrace the idea that fashion is timeless.

A photo of me in 2021, when I took my original undergraduate photos.

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My "Garden of Time"

So the official Met Gala theme is "Garden of Time," but the accompanying museum exhibit is called "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion." My Garden of Time consists of a dress I also wore to my high school graduation, a graduation cap that I had designed for my undergraduate graduation, and a brand-new pair of shoes.

My Fashionable B. Darlin Dress From High School Graduation

I was so surprised I still fit this dress, because I don't fit a lot of the clothes that I wore in high school (I have put on weight as life progressed). On the morning of the graduation for my MFA, I went through my closet and pulled every dress that fit within the range of the color scheme that I wanted for this graduation, and when I saw the dress, I was more drawn to it than my other dresses. I literally thought, "Well, if this dress fits, this is the one I'm wearing."

This photo from my high school graduation was one that I was able to pull from Facebook.

It was the first thing I tried, and of course it fit, otherwise I wouldn't be talking about it now.

Going back in time a little, I bought it for my high school graduation. My graduation gown at the time was white, and I needed to find a dress that would not show through the gown. Shopping the clearance rack at Macy's or Dillards, I found this dress for about twenty dollars. The twenty dollars went a long way, because I am now wearing the dress again nine years later, accomplishing the dream that high school Kristi only let herself imagine. I thought it was very significant that I could wear this dress to both of these milestones in my life, which might be why I was so drawn to the idea of re-wearing this dress.

Reawakening My Custom Undergraduate Cap Designed by @Crafted_by_Alexandria

The story goes that I graduated with a dual degree when I finished my undergraduate career in the height of 2020. Since there didn't seem to be a chance that I would be walking across a stage, I ordered two caps and a single gown from Amazon. My friend Alex is in the crafting business, so I asked her to help me design one cap for each of my degrees.

With the way this semester was wrapping up, I knew I didn't have time to design another cap for graduation. Before it even became an issue, I decided to just reuse one of my old ones (don't come for me Heff Jones, I still rented everything else). You might think that I picked the writing one, but I actually picked the other one because it was the cap that didn't list the year I originally graduated on it. I also think that it is more applicable, because now I can figure out what the next step of my life is. My psychology cap is inspired by Tangled, one of my favorite Disney movies.

My graduate cap has the quote "Onto my new dream" from Disney's Tangled movie. I thought this was apt as a psychology major. Now that I've achieved this dream, it is onto the next one for me.

Having Met My Brand New Shoes from Artelier Nicole Miller

You might have noticed that my outfit might have come together at the last minute. If you haven't, here is what will put it together for you: I got my shoes as a gift on the day of graduation.

That's right. I tried on the dress the morning of, and my mother-in-law came over with a gift for me. In it was the box of shoes that I wore to graduation. "I saw these and they made me think of you," is what she had said. And everything magically fell together, like a fairy tale.

This one is a little blurry, but one of my colleagues were kind enough to snap this photo of me walking across stage. I don't have many photos of the shoes I wore.

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And I thought this whole thing was very symbolic. I received new shoes as I was walking into a new future for my life that I hadn't imagined before. I was wearing the cap that represented an alternative life that I had dreamed for myself. And at the end of the day, the thing that I wanted since I was in high school was the thing that has led me to where I am today, as one of the happiest college graduates ever (at least, I believe I am).

And in this position, the world is truly my oyster. I can't wait to see where life takes me next.

This was the photo taken of me after everyone had given me some flowers and told me to stand and smile.