NEW YORK (AP) – All right, hello, the first Monday in May.
The biggest fashion night of the year, the Met Gala, is returning to its usual place on the social calendar this year after the pandemic cataclysms. And if it feels like one of those moments, it is.
Less than eight months have passed since the last gala, an annual fundraising campaign that raised eight figures for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Before the pandemic, about 600 A-listers from fashion, sports, music, movies, television, technology and more were invited. This year and last year the numbers were close to 400. The 2020 gala was canceled.
More than $ 16.4 million was raised last year. The stellar event is the main budgetary source of the institute.
This year’s gala coincides with the opening of the second part of a two-part exhibition at the Costume Institute, focusing on American fashion and style. The dress code of the evening is gilded glitter and a white tie, and the Gilded Age, this turbulent period between the Civil War and the early 20th century, is known for its rogue barons, drama and grandeur.
This year’s walk up the Grand Staircase to the Met returns the gala to its legendary location on the first Monday in May, with the official live stream appearing on the Vogue website.
Anna Wintour of Vogue has been leading the gala since 1995. She continues to be one of the honorary co-chairs of the evening, along with designer Tom Ford and Adam Moseri of Instagram. The official co-chairs for 2022 are Regina King, Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds and Lynn-Manuel Miranda.
Prices for last year’s Met Gala start at $ 35,000, although some are free. Celebrities are sometimes accompanied (and their sections are paid) by the designers who dress them or other companies that invite them. The focus on fashion inclusion this year can celebrate and include more unsung designer characters than usual.
The event is the invention of the late Eleanor Lambert, a fashion publicist as powerful as Wintour at the time. In 1948, she had to figure out a way to pay for the newly formed Costume Institute, the only metropolitan department to raise its own funds.
While many of Wintour’s carefully maintained guest list follow the dress code, others are on their way. Interpretation is everything. Think of Rihanna in a papal hat, Billy Porter as a sun god, carried on a stretcher by men without a shirt, and Lady Gaga, who peels off layers when the fashion world stops looking.
The gala concert also serves as a twisted capsule of the time of love, which went wrong for couples who failed. Kim Kardashian and Ye, the former Kanye West, first attended in 2013. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes left in 2008. Jennifer Lopez attended with Mark Anthony in 2011, then with Alex Rodriguez in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Ben Affleck joined her last inside a year after walking alone.
Charlize Theron and Sean Penn were among the couples invited in 2014. Selena Gomez and The Weeknd appeared together in 2017.
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Follow Leanne Italie on Twitter at http://twitter.com/litalie
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