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Your 2024 Met Gala Q&A
How the event really operates, details on this year's gathering, commentary from Tom Ford, and more.
Prediction: this year’s Met Gala is going to be a good one. After Karl Lagerfeld last year and Gilded Glamour in 2022, we’re due for it. Look, it’s not going to be perfect. Are we going to get lots of “florals for spring? groundbreaking!” jokes, since this year’s dress code is “The Garden of Time”? Most certainly. Are celebrities going to sneak their own fast food into the museum? It seems highly possible. Is Anna Wintour going to wear something from Galliano’s recent couture show? I don’t think so, but someone will.
Ahead, an interview with myself about the Met Gala, pulling from my reporting for ANNA: The Biography. If you want to go deeper on Anna and the Gala, grab the book (the paperback includes a new afterword).
Also, I’ll host a chat for paid subscribers on the night of this year’s Met Gala, Monday, May 6. We’ll get through the Vogue.com livestream together.
I feel like we haven’t heard THAT much about the Met Gala this year. Is it just me?
Well, it could be just you. Everyone lives in their own algorithmic cultural bubble — so maybe the machines that serve us content all day know in their cold, hard, little hearts that you’re not as interested in the Met Gala as YOU think you are.
That said, this year’s event hasn’t really been controversial so far, which may have led to less engagement around the coverage. Recent Met Galas kicked up a lot of dust before a single celebrity toe stepped onto the carpet:
Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty, 2023 — People wondered why Lagerfeld, who was vocally disdainful of fat people and sexual assault victims, got the honor of an entire exhibition and gala.
In America: An Anthology of Fashion, 2022 — The “Gilded Glamour” dress code, a nod to the Gilded Age, which is characterized by income inequality, seemed particularly tone deaf coming out of the pandemic. Then Kim Kardashian showed up wearing Marilyn Monroe’s historic dress, which appeared to fit poorly and may have been damaged as a result.
This year’s exhibition theme is Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, which showcases items from the Costume Institute’s permanent collection at the Met, including 15 pieces that are too fragile to ever be worn again. The dress code is “The Garden of Time.” I wonder if the theme and dress code were chosen for their non-controversial properties. That said, it’s always possible that Kim Kardashian will show up wearing a black market original Dior Junon or something else that shouldn’t be on a human body and screw it all up.
How much does the Gala cost to stage? Does it really make money or is it all spent on the party?
According to the museum’s tax form, last year’s event cost $6 million, and raised $22 million.
The party budget covers all sorts of things — the red-carpet set-up, the flower arrangements, food, the performer, etc. Do you remember how, in the Met Gala documentary First Monday in May, they bleeped out how much money Rihanna wanted for performing at the China: Through the Looking Glass Gala? I learned reporting ANNA: The Biography that she was paid around $1 million.
What about the food?
When I interviewed Tom Ford for my book, he told me about how when he was a co-chair in 2003 for the Goddess-themed gala, he was particular about everything, including how the food looked on the plate. When I asked him to elaborate on what exactly was on the plate, he said, “I don't remember. I just remember that a tasting for me was, ‘Yes, the tasting has taste.’ Because one thing that [Anna and I] share — I like one plate, I like it to go down, I like it to come up, I like the evening to move at a clip, and I don’t like to wait a long time in between that. I actually hate eating in meetings, and that is such an American thing, you go to a meeting in America and they've got a big table of croissants and blah blah blah. I hate eating in the office, I don't like the smell of food… for me, you work, you work. If you want to eat, go eat. But I don't understand this concept of mixing it all.”
When I said I thought people don’t eat at the Met Gala anyway, he replied, “I don't eat at any of those things. Especially that room full of people who are all worried about their weight. You don't want to chat with somebody with fish breath, so of course you're not going to eat an appetizer of smoked salmon, and then go breathe on someone.” He continued, “No, people don't really eat at those things. Well, some people do, I'm always actually surprised when I'm sitting next to someone who's slicing into their roast beef.”
In recent years, we’ve seen celebrities rebelling against the food in a different way. In 2021, they served a plant-based menu. Here’s how Vogue described it: “The main dish was Bengtsson and Park’s creamy barley with corn, pickled turnips, and roasted maitake.” And here’s what Keke Palmer posted about it:
Anna is a meat-and-potatoes girl herself, and brought back meat and dairy in 2022. Vogue posted recipes from that year’s menu, including vegan deviled eggs, hamachi crudo with olives and sichuan chili in citrus broth, and barbecue glazed strip loin with roasted sweet potatoes and creamed corn. (Now there’s some casual weeknight cooking for you.)
In 2023, the Karl Lagerfeld-themed food was thankfully not from his diet book, but had the airs of his diet book. The menu was inspired by the wedding he threw for Paloma Picasso, and included “chilled spring pea soup with baby vegetables, lemon crème fraîche, and truffle snow, followed by Ōra King salmon with vegetable nage, asparagus, pickled strawberries, and radish.” That year, Teyana Taylor snuck Chick-Fil-A into the dinner, which frankly seemed like a pitch-perfect way to honor Lagerfeld’s legacy.
Earlier in Back Row:
Does Anna really approve everyone’s looks?
No. She approves around 80 percent of them. While this is often framed as controlling in a bad way, I was told that the celebrities usually like having the help from Vogue because it’s free styling. Remember that a lot of stars don’t have a stylist on retainer all the time — movie studios will pay for someone to dress them when they’re promoting a movie, but they might be on their own otherwise. If you had to go to this thing and could stop by the Vogue office for free help from the world’s top stylists, why not?
The reason this started is because Anna didn’t want people wearing the same thing or the same designers (surely, the stars don’t want this either), and she and her team would look at the outfits down to the shoes.
Do celebrities pay to go?
They don’t have to. Celebrities are sat at tables purchased by brands. However, some who attend will make a donation to the museum.
Who are this year’s co-chairs? What do they actually do?
Bad Bunny, Chris Hemsworth, Jennifer Lopez, and Zendaya are co-chairing the gala with Anna Wintour. Unlike Tom Ford, I don’t get the sense that the celebrities do much other than arrive early and stand at the top of the stairs greeting guests with Anna. It’s not like Zendaya has to pop by one of those 7 a.m. planning meetings to weigh in on the napkins.
That said, Jennifer Lopez did an Instagram video for the Vogue account where she talks about what she’s going to wear, saying, “I have a few different SKETCHES” — with big air quotes around sketches — and “I’m still DECIDING” — with big air quotes around deciding. Does this suggest they’re not sketches and she’s not deciding? Is this video a mirage? Instagram would launch a confusing new feature like that and then penalize all of us for not using it.
How is the rest of the guest list decided?
It’s all Anna-approved! Former Met Gala planner Stephanie Winston-Wolkoff told me that she used to make a list of hundreds of names and then sit with Anna and cross people off. Either you’re in or your out. Some people only get to go to the cocktail hour, so I guess it’s possible to be half-in.
What’s this year’s Kardashian forecast?
Kloudy with a chance of Jenner? Page Six has reported that only Kendall is confirmed for the event. Last year before the Gala, there were rumors that the whole event would be Kardashian-free — then Kim showed up in Schiaparelli couture made from 50,000 freshwater pearls. The dress broke, spilling some of those pearls into New York City’s gutters like they were Tic-Tacs. It somehow felt like an apt metaphor for excess of the whole thing.
Loose Threads
Vogue has a first look at the Sleeping Beauties exhibition catalog, photographed by Nick Knight, and it’s gorgeous.
Vogue hired Steven Meisel to photograph Elizabeth Debicki wearing some pieces that will be featured in the exhibition (presumably, not the ones that can’t be worn — the Junon is a 2017 replica). Amanda Harlech styled it and it’s great.
If Giorgio Armani were to sell his brand, it could go for €8 billion to €10 billion, reports Bloomberg.
Mark Zuckerberg made an announcement about something Meta is doing with AI but I could not listen to or retain a second of it because when I look at the Reel of him talking, all I see is necklace.
Meghan Markle launched the first product from her lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard: jam! It doesn’t seem like it’s for sale yet, she appears to have made 50 jars and mailed it to her influencer friends.
King Charles also has a line of jams, and the Daily Mail says those are now selling out thanks to royalists’ support.
The New York Post ran a story about the Daily Beast reboot under Joanna Coles and Ben Sherwood, whom Barry Diler recently gave a minority stake. From the story:
For her part, Coles told The Post she’s “desperate to try Meghan Markle’s new jam.”
“I am British so I am obsessed by jams as all British people are. I like to stop my day at 4 p.m. for jam and scones,” Coles said, declining to offer more insight into her plans for the newsroom.
Earlier in Back Row:
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I am lol ing at Mark Zuckerberg's chain as it reminds me of my 21 year old son, very proud that he owns jewelry.
Also, did you see the AI version where they added facial hair (I saw it on Twitter). People were like "why do I feel some kind of way"... ;)
The Met Gala is such an excessive event, and I love it for that! There really isn't a lot of glamour left in the world and an event like this lets us dream. I always watch to see what over-the-top creation folks are wearing and they usually don't disappoint. I went to the Charles James exhibit at the Met and it was glorious. These rich folks can well afford to fork over the money to keep the Costume Institute afloat, and entertain us at the same time with the visual salad that is the Met Gala arrivals!