Join the Met Gala Live Chat Tonight
Alexa, play "...Ready for It?"
Tonight’s the night!
Celebrities are stuffing into New York City’s Mark Hotel as I type to swath themselves in dresses that may or may not have anything to do with tonight’s “garden of time” dress code for the Met Gala. As long as their garden is on time, I bet Anna Wintour will support a wide range of interpretations of this theme, ranging from florals and plants to, like, clocks.
In fact, Anna went on the Today show Monday morning and apologized for the “confusion” over the theme, given that the Costume Institute exhibition Sleeping Beauties — which the Gala opens — is different from the dress code. I won’t say she blamed it on Costume Institute Chief Curator Andrew Bolton, but…
“I said, ‘What are we gonna say to people to wear to this night?’ And he said, ‘Well, what about ‘Garden of Time?’” she said. “So, I fear that we’ve unleashed a lot of confusion out there, and for which I deeply apologize.”
I’ll be hosting a live chat for paid subscribers beginning shortly after 6 pm ET when the red carpet starts. Last year’s chat was great fun — the only way to endure the livestream, really — and I can’t wait to judge the looks with you all again tonight.
If you don’t yet have the Substack app and want to follow along on your phone, I recommend downloading it.
I saw Sleeping Beauties at the Met this morning and I enjoyed it — it had just a touch of the eeriness of the 2011 exhibition Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauties (plenty of iconic McQueen is on display in the show of roughly 250 pieces).
And you get to look at century-old hats in glass cases and smell them at the same time. If you are in New York, I recommend seeing it before it closes on September 2. Here’s my one-minute video recap of the show:
The exhibit includes AI animations of some of the clothes that many of us at the preview this morning found awfully amusing. (As a friend said, gazing upon one of them, “Oh, thank goodness.”) A bonus clip:
Finally, thank you to fellow Substacker Claire Atkinson for featuring me in her newsletter today, talking about Anna’s cultural influence and business leadership, and the Met Gala.
And thank you to Time magazine for talking to me at length about how people get invited to the event.
See you tonight in the chat just after 6!
Looking forward to the recap tomorrow morning.
Can't wait for the fashion and the chat! I visited the Charles Worth exhibition a few years ago, absolutely stunning. I wish I could go every year!