I’ve been meaning to write about the Manus X Machina themed Met Gala this year, which opened the Costume Institute’s 2016 exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

But I kept holding back since I felt I didn’t have anything particularly constructive or nice to say.

However, after having a chat with Michelle Hua, founder of MadeWithGlove, a UK wearable tech company, I realised that some of issues I have with Manus X Machina are applicable to the fashion industry in general. 

When Anna Wintour announced that the next theme for the Exhibition will be in collaboration with Apple and expolore fashion in the age of technology, I got excited. Really excited.

I was expecting to see a real conversation between fashion and technology and to see something new and sensational. Something that hasn't been done before. Something that really embraces the up and coming fashion tech and wearable concepts that are emerging now.

But when I saw the celebrities on the red carpet, I was underwhelmed.

Of course, there were many beautiful gowns, but the looks (to me) were very generic, 'glamazon robots', white or silver, particularly from the so-called ‘Balmain Army’.

Don’t get me wrong the guests looked sensational, and I don't want to take away from the very hard labour of the designers, tailors, seamstresss (and machines) that make these creations a reality (it can take between 100-400 hours to make one haute couture gown). 

But, the event clearly did not meet my expectations. 

Michelle, who is working on making her product as much tech as it is fashion, asked me how I perceive the fashion industry’s take on technology, to which I responded that, in many ways, the fashion industry is still incredibly traditional and that this means that it often closes itself up to new opportunities offered from outside influences. HVO Search discussed this at length at the breakfast in New York last year.

The history of fashion shows that, until a particularly forward-thinking designer (or group of designers) is able to force through change and show that it can be made fashionable, the industry will react negatively to new developments. In many ways, this is the current position of the fashion industry when it comes to technology.

There were of course exceptions. Claire Dane’s ethereal Zac Prosen gown, which featured a fibre-optic organza, looked out of this world and felt appropriate for an actress who once played a fallen star in Stardust.

The gorgeous Karolina Kourkova wore a gown by Marchesa which was co-designed by Georgina Chapman, Keren Craig and IBM Watson, where data-driven, LED lights changed colours in real time in tune with the mood of social media. 

Still, though these and many of the other dresses were incredible, I felt that designers did not make enough of the tech side of the event’s “tech white tie” dress code or of the exhibition’s billing.

So did I get it wrong? Yes. I got too excited.

The actual theme of the exhibition is an exploration of haute couture clothing being created by hand or by machines (or both).

The Givenchy latex gown worn by Beyoncé, is a good example of this. London-based designer Atsuko Kudo and Riccardo Tisci who collaborated to create this piece, had an artist hand-paint the dress’ details, and, came up with a new way to apply the 2,500 pearls (though they won’t reveal how this was done).     

The event and the exhibition are a more subtle nod to the ongoing courtship between fashion and tech, and is much more about how fashion technology is being applied behind the scenes in production and manufacturing processes – primarily making these more streamlined – rather than about the way fashion is being disrupted by technology from the outside.

So maybe I read into Manus X Machina’s billing description what I wanted to, and my disappointment came from setting my expectations too high. Even so, with so many exciting developments in the fashion tech world –  a world in which the role of tech does not extend merely to the production of fashion, but in instantiated in the very garments themselves – I was disappointed that this exciting area seemed to be almost completely ignored.

For the startups working in this industry, the lack of fashion tech at Manus X Machina underlines just how hard breaking into the fashion establishment is.

I have hope, however, that, when the right designer comes along, real fashion tech creations will be granted their rightful place on the world’s most prestigious catwalk. And, when this happens, the doors will open to many of ground-breaking and potentially life-changing designs we currently see in fashion tech.    

What did you think of Manus X Machina? And do you think the fashion industry is being held back by its conservatism? 

Email me your thoughts.