Dear Ms Fashion,
You may not know it, but it took two iconic fashion legends to have made the Met Gala into the spectacular internet meltdown that it is today: Diana Vreeland and Anna Wintour. Please note that the first Met Gala was actually launched in 1948, to raise funds for the newly-established Costume Institute, but this noble but yet distinctly dusty stately charity took decades before it registered on the social calendar.
It was the iconic Diana Vreeland, who was the Special Consultant to the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1972 to 1989 who first transformed the charity into the social event for the 1970s jet set with her flair and passion for fashion history. Then came Anna Wintour, who having been its co-chair since 1985, has used her influence as editor-in-chief of Vogue to shape the event into the world’s most important red carpet.
Under Wintour's powerful grasp of the entire fashion and media landscape, the Met Gala has transformed into one of the most important event not only on the fashion calendar, but also on the entertainment calendar, with fashion royalty, celebrities and the other professionally-famous, clamouring for an invitation every year on the first Monday in May; It is also one of the most expensive tickets on sale: At USD 50,000 a head, this event is only for corporations and the truly deep of pocket.
Like Vreeland, Wintour works closely with the Costume Institute curators to set an annual theme for the gala that is both relevant to the museum's collections and exciting for the fashion industry. Recent editions such as the very photogenic “China: Through the Looking Glass” have inspired some of the most eye-searing of red-carpet moments in recent years, even for a generation quite inured of eye-searing fashion. This year's theme is based on the Costume Institute’s retrospective “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,” is a tribute to the life and career of Karl Lagerfeld; Although a tedious online Woke storm has now broken over the alleged "problematic" late couturier, it is a defeating debate to wade into and wholly irrelevant when confronted with the sheer mass of some of the most beautiful creations ever made in the name of fashion. Lagerfeld was also that very rare fashion creature, sublimely erudite, a polyglot, extremely refined couturier and wit, endlessly talented, hardworking and witty, who famously transformed some of fashion's most famous houses. Lagerfeld died making Chanel the Chanel that the world knows and loves; he died making Fendi the Fendi that we know and love. To chip at his legacy for sharp, honest soundbites that he uttered decades ago makes the Woke mob look small-minded, humourless and parochial.
Let's celebrate Lagerfeld genius instead: Here are some of the best looks from this year's Met Gala -- and with the new ABARA bags to make each look perfect!
