It’s a moneymaking machine and a global platform for celebrities. Is an event like this now heading to Europe?
Forget the bling of the recent Met Gala in New York: it’s all the ker-ching that makes it truly dazzling. So when’s the party getting started here?
Shortly after 6pm New York time, on the first Monday in May, Hollywood star – and one of the evening’s co-hosts – Blake Lively, 34, stepped from a limo outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. Teetering under the weight of her rose-gold Versace gown, she made her way up the long red carpet in front of a bank of photographers, as millions watched on a global live stream. The most exclusive party of the year had begun.
The Met Gala, founded in
1948 to raise funds for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has become the pivotal event in the celebrity calendar since Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour
began co-chairing it in 1995. She may be more famous for her severe-fringed bob and dark glasses, but it’s her acute business acumen that has also kept her in the most powerful job in fashion for the past 34 years.
Anna curates the Met event down to the finest detail – from the guest list, to the menu, to the celebrities’ arrival times, which are staggered to avoid a paparazzi traffic jam on the red carpet. She even vets some guests’ outfits prior to the night – nothing escapes her meticulous eye.
As a result, this invitation-only event has become fashion’s coveted ticket and the most profitable night of the year for both Vogue and the Metropolitan Museum. This month’s Met Gala made $17.4 million (around €16.7 million) for the museum’s Costume Institute. The money rolls in from sponsorship – Instagram was one of this year’s main sponsors – and the sale of tickets, which cost $35,000 each (around €33,500), while fashion brands pay up to $300,000 (around €290,000) for a table. It appears worth it. To give an idea of the scale of the audience, on TikTok the hashtag #metgala2022 had
1.1 billlion views within the first 48 hours.
It’s also a golden egg for Anna’s paymasters Condé Nast, which publishes Vogue. This year, they charged advertisers – including Cartier and Motorola – $1 million (around €960,000) for two six-second spots during the course of two hours of live streaming. Vogue also published a live blog, including a tool for users to vote for their favourite look, which advertising is also sold against.
‘This is an extremely important fundraiser,’ Anna-Lisa Yabsley, Vogue’s executive director of content strategy, told online magazine Business of Fashion. ‘Everything we do content-wise is about raising awareness and getting people through the door.’
Is it any wonder that Britain’s Victoria and Albert Museum wants a piece of the action? American socialite and art collector Libbie Mugrabi, 42, may just hold the key to bringing this money-making blueprint to Europe. After an acrimonious split from her billionaire husband David, Libbie has used some of her €92 million divorce settlement to
IT’S WINTOUR’S ACUTE BUSINESS ACUMEN THAT HAS KEPT HER IN FASHION’S MOST POWERFUL JOB FOR 34 YEARS