The Met Gala is a charity event for the Costume Institute

The argument

The Met Gala at its core is a massive charity event. That is not an incidental feature but its formal identity: the event is properly entitled the Costume Institute Gala, or the Costume Institute Benefit, and all proceeds from it go to New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. Criticism of the Gala as an ostentatious display generally treats the spectacle as the point and the fundraising as decoration, when the relationship is the other way round — the spectacle is what makes the fundraising possible on this scale. The sums involved show why that matters. Since the beginning of Anna Wintour's role as co-chair of the Gala, she has helped to raise an estimated 200 million dollars for the Costume Institute, and each year the Gala raises six to seven figures. As such, the event has consistently been the Institute's largest source of annual funding for many years. An institution that depends on a single evening for the bulk of its yearly income cannot treat that evening as a vanity: the money goes towards maintaining the Institute's vast fashion collection, and chiefly towards hosting the spring exhibition at the museum — conservation and public exhibition, which are the ordinary work of any museum. The charitable dimension extends beyond the Institute itself. Some designers also auction off their Met Gala gowns and donate the proceeds to charity. For example, in 2018, Balmain designer Olivier Rousteing sold all of his Met Gala designs and donated the proceeds to RED, an organization working to raise awareness to eliminate HIV/AIDS. The garments that attract the most criticism for their extravagance are, in these cases, themselves converted into donations. Judged by what it is for and what it produces, the Met Gala is not distasteful.

Premises

Counter-arguments

While the Met Gala may raise money for an educational cause, much money is squandered on the excessive extravagance of the night. If less money was initially put towards the event (which is often used in wasteful and superficial ways), the event would have even more money by the end of the night. Moreover, the money goes towards the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. While an educational cause, the millions of dollars earned via charity as well as the money spent on the night would certainly do more good put towards a more charitable cause. There is no need for a single exhibit to receive upwards of ten million dollars yearly. In this way, while the Met Gala certainly is a charity event, it is certainly not the most productive nor helpful.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The formal designation settles what the event is called, not whether it is distasteful. Naming something a benefit does not answer an objection about how the benefit is conducted. [Rejecting P2] The sums cited are gross rather than net of what the evening costs to stage, and the argument never supplies the difference. An event criticised for its expense cannot be defended by its revenue without that figure. [Rejecting P3] Designers auctioning their gowns is a separate act of charity occurring alongside the event. Crediting it to the gala inflates the account of what the gala itself achieves. [Rejecting C] The conclusion mistakes the objection. The charge is not that no money is raised but that conspicuous expenditure to fund a costume collection sits badly against other uses of the same resources — which the premises do not engage at all.