What did they wear to the Met Ball?
The Met Ball extravaganza is over for another year. Victoria Moss picks over the heavenly creatures in their Sunday Best at New York’s most over-the-top party
There’s red carpet hype and hysteria and then there’s the Met Ball. Long touted as the Oscars of the fashion world, the great and well-connected to good stylists come to worship at the altar of the Most Revered Editrix in Chanel, Dame Anna Wintour.
They start with their homage in the days and hours before, posting pictures on social media of themselves at previous Met Galas. Some, as a teaser to what they might possibly wear this time, some just trying to look keen and hope to be invited back next year.
This year’s theme, officially “Sunday Best”, presented the opportunity to fulfil the ambitions of even the most modest starlet’s aspirations of ego: how much like God, or at least one of his chief servants here on earth, can you look?
For anyone who may have been taken aback by the combination of fashion and sacramental cloth in the Met’s exhibition, let us pause momentarily and consider, is there a more fashion religion than Catholicism? All that bling! The complex haute couture level embroidery. The millinery! The cloaks and cassocks – frankly even the most basic of habits has a bit of a swish to it. Not to mention the accessories. The exhibition itself (which features over 40 pieces lent by the Vatican) has a papal tiara containing 18,000 diamonds, which would surely dwarf whichever royal cast-off Meghan Markle will borrow.
Equally helpfully, the heavily stylised television show The
Handmaid’s Tale (season two coming soon) has made demure, Christian fundamentalist looks a trend. The nun garms on display are totally what Elisabeth Moss might rock to be sexually abused by her patriarchal captors. So chic!
And for anyone who wants to read more mystic reason into the choosing of this theme, now: a sharp-eyed colleague pointed out that Wintour’s tenure at American Vogue started with a crystal embellished Lacroix crucifix top on the cover. With rumours of her retirement circulating, is she signing off with the (holy) mother of all takes, aligning herself with the highest powers there can be? It’s a thought.
The greatest power in fashion is of course money. The party and its allreaching media saturation is in aid of Wintour passing the gilded collection plate around the haves. She’s already raised in excess of $12.5million (£9.2million) for the museum in her over 20-year involvement, tickets for the gala are $30,000 (£22,000), tables at the dinner, $275,000 (£203,000).
The biggest recent offering has come from Wintour’s courting of the billionaire, 28-year-old investor Wendy Yu, who has given the Met so much money that chief Andrew Bolton has had to assume the job title of Wendy Yu curator in charge.
In some ways, when Rihanna has already done a giant 16ft yellow silk fur-edged train, (China: Through the Looking Glass, 2015), and Madonna has bared her bum (in not very much Givenchy, in 2016) one does wonder where the Gala can go in terms of shock value.
Would Kim Kardashian dress as a nun? No, she dressed as herself in a clingy gold Versace number. Would anyone compromise their cosmetic house contracts with a faux stigmata? Sadly, not.
But I think anyone who missed out on the blue-veiled nativity lead in primary school can appreciate Katy Perry’s 6ft feathered Versace wings – who says a bit part, side-of-the-stage unnamed angel can’t steal the show?
The competition was strong though. Rihanna, who co-chaired the bash, alongside Wintour, Amal Clooney and Donatella Versace, was the model for John Galliano’s reinterpretation of er, himself, as her outfit echoed the opening look of an incense-wielding priest from his 2000 Dior haute couture show, “Freud or Fetish” (the original of which is in the exhibition). The consensus across the modern taste barometer that is Instagram was that she had variously “slayed” or “won” the night. I mean, she certainly knows how to clearly interpret a dress code. Just imagine what she could do for Ascot.
What to do though, if you are actually Madonna? Long-time fan of Catholic appropriation, long-time scandalous dresser? Once even denounced by the Vatican
itself (for her Like A Prayer video), why bother to shock when you’ve already nailed the dress code by the simple virtue of being Madonna? She did what any selfrespecting diva would do and teamed up with her original dresser, Jean Paul Gaultier. Classic corset combo. She later took to the stage, whipping off her habit, to reveal a vestal virgin look while singing a mash-up of Like a Prayer (sure) and Hallelujah (with a monk-garmed choir, obviously).
The Italians, namely Dolce & Gabbana and Versace who dressed half the gold carpet between them, were treated to all their Christmases or indeed First Mondays in May (for the Gala is always on that day – and is the title of the 2016 documentary on the making of the extravaganza, see Netflix) coming at once, so heavy are their back catalogues with Sistine references.
But it wasn’t all heady, heavy Renaissance style. Some went for a more monastic, minimal interpretation – see actor/director Greta Gerwig in The Row. Others felt a pull to a strong woman, Joan of Arc warrior look (the singer Zendaya, Alicia Vikander and Shailene Woodley). Others of course took one look at a rail of heavily encrusted gold leaf embroidery and picked the simple black cocktail dress (Kate Moss). The night’s key accessory was a halo, and here the more low-key silver bands felt, to be honest, a little token. Surely once you’ve decided to opt for a celestial glow, it’s a shame to hold anything back.
There was, however, one attendee who had no need for concern over a sartorial faux pas. The Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Michael Dolan – spied joking with George Clooney – arrived in full red and black regalia. Interestingly, the model Taylor Hill wore a very similar look by Diane von Furstenberg. The Archbishop however, had a much bigger crucifix.