Why we are already working on the Met Gala NOW

The Met Gala, which is actually called the Costume Institute Gala but who cares, is only on May 4th, but I’m sure it’s buzzing and bustling throughout the entire New York socialite scene because what on earth do you wear to a dress code that reads: About Time, Fashion and Duration. In any case, a delightful reason to go over the most decadent, and lucrative, party of the year.

1. The Gala was established in 1948 to raise money for the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

2. A ticket cost 50 dollars.

3. A ticket now costs 30,000 dollars.

4. I kid you not

5. It started with a midnight dinner and was held at various locations in New York. In Central Park, at the Waldorf Astoria.

6. It was Diana Vreeland who decided to hold the entire party right in the museum itself (one of her many brilliant ideas) and immediately came up with the theme.

7. The theme corresponds to the theme of the exhibition that is preceded by the gala.

8. I hadn’t mentioned yet that the Met Gala is the opening of that year’s exhibition at the Costume Institute.

9. If you haven’t been invited to the Met Gala and don’t have 30,000 dollars in your pocket to buy a ticket, you’re basically living in social Siberia.

10. The most, how shall I put it, striking look ever (and that’s impressive because there have been a lot of fabulous outfits rolled out on the carpet during the gala) was that of Madonna. Dressed in a creation by Ricardo Tisci for Givenchy, she showcased breasts and buttocks. Madonna is Madonna and so it was a political statement to break the taboo of being a woman.

11. Kim Kardashian also wore a dress by Ricardo Tisci for Givenchy when she first attended the Met Gala in 2013, accompanied by Kanye. Later she said that she didn’t know anyone, had done her own makeup, and that her lipstick was ‘all over’ and she cried at home out of misery.

12. Her latest ensemble (called ‘a vacuum-sealed bread bag’ by Cécile Narinx in the Volkskrant) was one by Thierry Mugler and I found it quite a low point from an emancipatory perspective. A corset so tight that you had to take breathing lessons to survive it, needing to be transported standing up and not being able to pee for five hours, all just to show off that inhuman waist… Coco Chanel is furious, up there in heaven. But really furious.

13. Is the chance small that you will ever walk the most famous carpet in fashion land? A documentary has been made: ‘The First Monday in May’, so you’re still a bit involved.

14. It is one of the most successful fundraising evenings that exists. An amount of nine or twelve million is easily raised.

15. And what is there for us, ordinary mortals? We can go to the exhibition, the day after. Also nice, right?