Karan Johar wore a Manish Malhotra ensemble, titled, “Framed in Eternity”, that included an oversized ornate cape featuring five of Ravi Varma’s iconic paintings 6 min read May 8, 2026 01:32 PM IST First published on: May 8, 2026 at 01:32 PM IST A recreation of the “Veiled Woman”. A “live” version of John Singer Sargent’s “Portrait of Madame X”. Claude Monet’s lilies on a gown. This year’s theme for the Met Gala was “Fashion is art”. But neither fashion nor art seems to have gotten the memo. The one non-negotiable criterion for something to be called a “work of art” is the originality of thought behind it. Most of the Gala was anything but. When Andrew Bolton, the head curator of the museum’s Costume Institute, announced the theme, he had expressed concerns that it may be interpreted “too literally”. Bolton’s fears materialised on the iconic steps when celebrities served looks that recalled works of art — ancient/contemporary — and too conspicuously.…