Fashion passion

The stars arriving at the Metropolitan Museum of ArtThe largest art museum in the Americas. It is in New York, USA. looked as amazing as ever. There was Rihanna swamped in giant white roses; Kim Petras in silver platform-soled boots; Penelope Cruz in a Spanish wedding dress... and Jared Leno as a giant white cat.

Leno's costume was a homage to the favourite pet of fashion designer Karl LagerfeldA German fashion designer who died in 2019. . The Met is holding an exhibition of Lagerfeld's work, and Monday night's gala was themed around it.

The event is to raise money for the Met's Costume Institute. This year the guests are thought to have paid $50,000 (£40,000) each. Last year the total raised was $17.4m (£14m).

But the event has often been criticised - mainly because it is so extravagant. Many of the outfits are hugely expensive, but only get worn by their owners once. And some people believe that the money raised could be given to much better causes.

There are other questions about the way fashion works. Cheap clothes are a problem as well as expensive ones, since many people buy them and then hardly wear them. And they are often produced by people who are very badly paid and work in terrible conditions.

The there is the question of sustainability: 60% of clothes are made of polyester,¹ which is not biodegradable. This is not a problem with cotton, which is a natural material. The bad news is that it needs enormous amounts of water to grow it.

Some designers are now trying to create fashion in a more responsible way. The Fashion Revolution movement aims to change buying habits so that "we learn to love and appreciate our clothes and the people that made them."

Vintage fashion stores have made second-hand clothes desirable. And some very clever designers are "upcycling" clothes. This means reworking them to give them new appeal - for example, by embroidering an old pair of jeans.  

Yes: It is a wonderful example of human creativity and allows us to express ourselves in many different ways. It is also a crucial industry providing livelihoods for many people across the world.

No: It is frivolous and superficial and makes people who cannot keep up with it unhappy. It is also a colossal waste of the planet's resources, encouraging a throwaway culture.

Or... Extravagance in various forms has been great for culture. Without it we would have no opera, no cathedrals, no works of art made from expensive materials. It is a serious business.