What does Gilded Glamour mean? The Met Gala 2022 theme, explained 

The Met Gala 2022 is all set to return on May 2, after being postponed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic, and this year's theme has been announced as Gilded Glamour.

On Monday, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City will host fashion's most outstanding red carpet, a star-studded affair.

While the "In America: A Lexicon of Fashion"-themed gala in 2021 was postponed to September, this year's gala will function as a continuation, with a slightly adjusted theme and a new dress code.

The 2022 event will be packed with A-list personalities, led by hosts Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, Regina King, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and honorary co-chairs Tom Ford and Anna Wintour.

Timothée Chalamet, Billie Eilish, Amanda Gorman, and Naomi Osaka were among the September hosts.

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What does the Met Gala 2022 theme, Gilded Glamour, mean?

As per Page Six Style, from 1870 to 1890, the Gilded Age was in full swing. Mark Twain used the word to describe a period of prosperity, industry, and expansion.

The Gilded Age was a 30-year period during which industrialists and real estate moguls saw their fortunes skyrocket owing to the fast growth of railways, factories, and cities.

The country's infrastructure was created by famous family names like Frick, Astor, Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Vanderbilt, while socialites like Caroline Schermerhorn Astor and Alva Vanderbilt controlled New York society.

For the urban elite, fashion grew extravagant, with lace and crystal embellishments and bird wings — milliners of the time wore caps with many feathers, wings, and stuffed dead birds.

American women wore complicated undergarments such as corsets, stuffed shoulder cushions, bustle pads, crinolines (a type of structured petticoat), and even steel springs to achieve the right shape under their derriere-enhancing gowns. However, CNN reports that the silhouettes were simplified by the end of the century.

Menswear was also more formal, with the newly popular tuxedo becoming standard clothing for high-flying gents in the 1880s.

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Met Gala 2022 will be like a sequel to last year's event

This year's Met Gala theme was decided by Vogue Editor-In-Chief Anna Wintour and the head curator of the Museum of Modern Art’s Costume Institute, Andrew Bolton.

The second part of the "In America" exhibit, according to Bolton, adds "historical context" to the first. Talking to Vogue, he said:

“The stories really reflect the evolution of American style, but they also explore the work of individual tailors, dress-makers, and designers."

The themes of Gilded Glamour in 2022 and American Independence in 2021 are linked to the Met's "In America: A Lexicon of Fashion," which is described as "a two-part exploration of fashion in the United States" by the museum.

"Part Two: In America: An Anthology of Fashion" will premiere on May 7 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's American Wing and will be on display until September 5.

According to the museum's website, the show will feature men's and women's attire from the 18th century to the present.

According to Variety, the Met Gala will include the work of eight film directors: Janicza Bravo, Sofia Coppola, Julie Dash, Tom Ford, Regina King (a co-chair for the gala), Martin Scorsese, Autumn de Wilde, and Chloé Zhao.

Scorsese directed The Age of Innocence, an Edith Wharton adaption set during the Gilded Age in 1993.