The Met Gala 2024 red carpet was a spectacle in a city roiled by them

NEW YORK — You know the city is really going through it when fashion’s biggest night of the year is only the third most-tumultuous thing happening on a Monday.

At 6:30 p.m., as five tuxedoed men helped carry Gigi Hadid’s yellow-rose-adorned Thom Browne gown up the green and beige steps of the 2024 Met Gala, hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters in kaffiyehs were met (and, in some cases, arrested) by police at barricades along Madison Avenue and East 80th Street, just out of sight and earshot from the celebs pouring out of their black SUVs. Earlier that day, 30 blocks to the north, Columbia University had canceled its main commencement ceremony amid weeks-long protests calling for a cease-fire in Gaza that have led to clashes with students and police in riot gear.