OnlyOnAOL: Why the Met Ball is always in fashion
By: Donna Freydkin
Once upon a time, not so very long ago, the annual fashion fete known as the Met Ball was a charity event that raised funds for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
"You feel like you're part of a tableau," says fashion writer Robin Givhan of the "Washington Post" and author of "The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History."
It takes place the first Monday in May and each year, there's a host committee and a theme. This year, the focus is on technology and the lady partnering with chair Anna Wintour is none other than Taylor Swift. So great is the influence of Wintour that the facility has been renamed in her honor: The Anna Wintour Costume Center.
(See our interview above with Isaac Mizrahi, the design legend who attended in 2009).
Wintour took charge of the event in 1995, and that's when it hit full throttle. The guest list is heavily curated and edited. Even press covering the event (no inside access, thank you very much) must apply. The red carpet is endless -- it occupies both sides of the massive Museum staircase -- and is intense, to say the least. It's the only place you'll see Kate Moss rub elegant elbows with Rihanna and Madonna and Anne Hathaway and Beyonce and Kris Jenner and Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David and the list goes on and on and on.
See more: OnlyOnAOL: The top five crazy-cool headpieces at the Met Ball
Wait, you say, but what about the "Vanity Fair" Oscar party on the West Coast? Sure, it's chockablock with bold-faced names. But reporters are allowed -- you get a time slot and can circulate during your allocated period, observing only (this reporter was once in line at the bar behind Tom Hanks, natch). And it's generally limited to Hollywood glitterati. The vibe is relaxed and burgers are served.
The Met Ball, on the other hand, is purely formal. Sure, the fashion can get wacky, but there's a receiving line with the host committee that you can't bypass before entering the venue. Designers invite celebrities as their guests. In 2009, Stella McCartney brought her buds Kate Hudson, Kate Bosworth and Liv Tyler. Dakota Johnson went with Jason Wu in 2014.
"The difference with the Met Ball is that it is a much more eclectic mix of celebrity. It's film and politics and music. It's this convergence. It's still fundamentally a fashion evening. For all this other kind of celebrity involved, it's very much a fashion evening because you have this feeling of having walked into a 'Vogue' fashion shoot," says Givhan.
The gala has been held at the Met since 1946. But since Wintour became the chair in 1995, the guest list has become tighter than a pair of Spanx. Each year, there are rumors of intrigue and snubs, of wannabe A-listers who, for whatever reason, did not make the cut.
When you do get inside, says Givhan, you just look around and soak it all in.
"It's not that big of a space. Pretty much, you see celebrities going in, going up the staircase, there they all are at the cocktail party. One year I was so frustrated – you get there on time because the bigger celebrities come later. The next morning, invariably, I'd pick up someone's coverage and go, 'Brad Pitt was there? I didn't know that,'" she says.
