How I MET Your Gala
Will trade baked goods for better titles
The Met Gala was Monday. I know it’s all you and most of the free world can even talk about. I am so with you! Watching celebrities swan around dressed in ornate, outlandish, fashions doubling as wearable art installations is about all I have the bandwidth for these days. It beats the alternative: grinding my molars to a stump fretting about The Handmaid’s Tale becoming actual legislation.
The Met Gala, also called the Met Ball, takes place on the first Monday of May, which I think puts a lot of pressure on Monday to raise its game as something other than the the most typically despised day of the week. Don’t be a Monday, Monday! YOU’RE CARRYING THE WHOLE DAMN MET BALL!! At its heart the Met Gala is a massive annual fundraiser to benefit the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. It is informally considered “fashion’s biggest night” unless you count Halloween and junior prom. Invitations are coveted; it’s easier to get out of North Korea than it is to get an invite to the Met Gala. For “regulars,” tickets can cost up to 75,000 actual dollars, not pirate’s gold.
The first gala was held in 1948 to benefit the newly created Costume Institute. It was mostly a black tie affair, held in places like the Waldorf Astoria or The Rainbow Room, and attended by wealthy benefactors with last names like Carnegie. Things changed in the 1970s when fashion editor Diana Vreeland began chairing the event. It was suddenly “move over distant, distant Vanderbilt cousin; hello Andy Warhol, Elton John, and Cher.” Vogue Magazine’s notorious editor, Anna Wintour, also known as the Emperor Palpatine of the fashion industry, took over running the ball in 1995 and has been in that leopard print driver’s seat ever since.
A theme characterizes each gala year. In 1998 it was “Cubism and Fashion;” in 2013 “Punk: Chaos to Couture;” and this year it was “Sleeping Beauties: Fashion Reawakened.” I am frankly very disappointed that my invitation never arrived as I would have been a complete show stopper in my A Christmas Story inspired pink bunny pajamas and sleep apnea mask (doubling as purse, natch).
In addition to being a fundraiser, the ball kicks off the Costume Institute’s yearly design exhibition, set by the theme. Guests must strategize accordingly. This is why you can’t get away with fishing around in your closet or calling Dior to send over just any “red carpet” outfit. I didn’t really know what was behind all the outlandish fashion. I always thought it was mostly a bunch of eccentric and wealthy socialites and celebrities trying to out-dazzle each other like a bunch of attention-starved theatre camp kids. It is some of that, clearly.
The Met Gala is one of those things that happens every year on my periphery because it involves people who, to me, are classified as beings from a galaxy far, far away—the super famous, super rich, super-bettah-than-me-- benefiting an area that I know nothing about: fashion (she types wearing her standard issue cozy hoodie and yoga pants—three days and counting!). I’m fine with that. The gala costumes are meant to be consumed and ogled and gasped over and picked on and eye-rolled and understood for what they are: flights of fantasy in the form of a bunch of big kids playing dress up, having a ball.
Lens Zen!
The Met Ball may have had her moment on Monday, but spring pink is on her fourth or tenth encore it seems! I can’t get more than six feet without falling into trees or flowers flaunting their rosy tips, tops, and everything in between. Mee-OW!!!
Great reporting! Fabulous photos! I look forward to your post every week. Thank you
Is the baked goods contest still going on Sheils?! Although I won't be able to to top your story title as it is already fantastic! I love seeing all that over the top fashion stuff. Cardi B's skirt was so huge, I think she needed twice as many handlers as Mindy Kaling. It was so heavy, the skirt wranglers went into Cardi-ac arrest from having to maneuver it all night. And don't even get me started on Camila Cabello's clutch! Lana Del Rey's costume - well I thought she looked like one of the murder victims in Season 1 of True Detective. But it's all part of the fun!