After a hiatus in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the eyes of the fashion and pop culture worlds were all on the 2021 Met Gala, a fundraising festival for the Metropolitan Museum of Art exemplifying opulence through elaborate costumes and expensive ticket fees. The one attendee very few expected to see was Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). She drew controversy not just over her dress—a white gown with the phrase “Tax the Rich” inscribed in red on her back—but in combination with the event where she wore it. Critics marked AOC as tone-deaf for spewing working-class platitudes while attending a ruling-class event, but they missed the intention of the statement. By implementing economically left-wing politics (historically a rejection of opulence) at the Met Gala (an event epitomizing opulence), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez subverts its conventions and communicates a message of inequality beyond a simple rallying cry.

To understand the conventions of the Met Gala, one must first study the conventional Met Gala dress, which is as outrageously extravagant as possible. This was best shown this year by model Iman, who wore a metallic gold jumpsuit with an ornate baroque print, over which fell a crinoline skeleton—reminiscent of 19th-century ball gowns—adorned with gold-painted feathers. The centerpiece of the dress was the headdress: half as tall as her, it emulated both a halo and the sun.

AOC and her designer, Aurora James, opted for elegance and simplicity over ostentation. The dress has no bedazzling of any kind: no sparkles, no jewels, no 4-foot headpiece. It is solid white with a relatively short tail, reminiscent of a wedding gown. In other circumstances, AOC's dress would actually be an expression of opulence. Expensive and difficult to maintain, white wedding dresses signal that one has the wealth to waste on single-use attire. For the wealthy, having the wealth for a white dress isn't as impressive of a feat. At the Met Gala, AOC's gown represents the opulence of the middle class, which is visibly contrasted by the opulence of the upper class represented by the outlandish outfits surrounding her.

The simplicity of the dress also allows the audience to draw their attention to the written words “Tax the Rich”. The phrase lays on her back, symbolizing how the message she intends to make is not straightforward, it's left in her wake. One could argue that the usage of this slogan at an event for the rich (albeit she attended for free as a public official) is commodification of working-class slogans by the very class targeted by them, revealing the statement's emptiness. But she intended to represent the rise of a popular left-wing movement that has infiltrated all areas of life, including the elite establishments of the entertainment industry. This interpretation necessitates that AOC is an agent for the working class, an idea she would want to communicate regardless of its veracity.

AOC supports this interpretation with her framing of the dress on social media. Firstly, she writes about working to “kick open the doors at the Met” (2), implying that she views herself as an imposter among the upper echelons of society. Secondly, to assert that she is not colluding with the ruling class, she provides background for the designer: a “Black woman immigrant designer who went from starting her dream at a flea market in Brooklyn to winning the [CFDA Fashion Awards] against all odds” (2). In addition, the image she posts of the dress is dimly lit and grainy, giving it the effect of an outdated or poor quality camera, which a rich person is unlikely to have to resort to.

But the critical line is at the top of her post, where AOC writes: “The medium is the message” (1). The medium could be the dress, but it is much more likely that it is the Met Gala itself. Look at the rest of the post for instance: nowhere does AOC discuss the actual dress. Subjects she does mention are the exclusivity of the fashion world, as discussed earlier, and the need for services for the working classes, demonstrated by her specific policy goals: “The time is now for childcare, healthcare, and climate action for all” (3). The context surrounding the dress provides the real messaging; take away the contrast between the Met Gala's inordinate spectacle and the dress's simplicity and the presentation of inequality is gone. The rallying cry is a call to action, the context provides the audience with a reason to act.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez subverts the conventions of the Met Gala by implementing left-wing politics in her dress, co-opting the Met Gala as a medium to communicate a story of inequality. Regardless of whether AOC succeeded at telling this story understandably, once one analyzes her choices in dress, event, and messaging, her intentions are made clear.