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Nearly nine years ago, in 2016, the \u201cManus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology\u201d Met Gala painted a picture of how the fashion world views a future where technology and art develop hand-in-hand. Long before this Gala, however, fashion pondered what a future like this would look like: Retrofuturism of the 20th century envisioned an almost robotic, chrome-filled utopia with the material textures, bright colors and sincere charm of the past. Mugler\u2019s 1995 chrome bodysuit sported by Zendaya<\/a> at the \u201cDune: Part Two\u201d premier perfectly encapsulates this energy \u2014 a vision of a world where futuristic fashion and technology retains an intricate and unmistakably human quality, reminiscent of fem-bots<\/a> or maybe even C-3PO.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cManus x Machina\u201d echoed this optimistic sentiment toward the budding relationship between art and technology; metallic silvers and gold-clothed guests made the red carpet appear as a glittering trove, cold and robotic in feel, but still human in form. Taylor Swift\u2019s Louis Vuitton dress<\/a> from the event, consisting of silver scales, embodies this relationship compeltely: a marriage between nature and technology, art and the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Gala\u2019s intention<\/a> was to examine the cultural conversation around haute couture (or hand-crafted, specially fitted pieces) and pret-a-porter (or mass-produced pieces). Haute couture, while higher quality and often regarded with more respect, also carries implicit connections to elitism and inaccessibility. Pret-a-porter, on the other hand, is a more democratic medium, able to combat issues of fast fashion<\/a> and lower-quality pieces without being cost-prohibitive. With ever-developing technologies and practices allowing for more mass production of clothing, it\u2019s relevant to grapple with the societal impacts of both kinds of fashion, how they are distinguished and to what extent they should be allowed to coexist.<\/p>\n While the exhibition was hosted less than a decade ago, the conversation of technology\u2019s relationship with fashion and art has already evolved to embody a much different focus today. While the original event still questioned the role of the machine and to what extent it should be involved in these creative spheres, the theme of the Gala took something significant for granted: the human designer. The idea that a person, the manus<\/em>, would play some kind of role in the development of pieces was a given, no place for concern. Matters of physical creation and reproduction were at play, and as shown through the styles of attendees, concerns were mostly overshadowed by possibility. What technology could do for fashion design was a shining possibility \u2014\u00a0a dream of what could be, rather than what could be lost.\u00a0<\/p>\n