All fashionistas around the world wish they had the Golden Ticket. What is the Golden Ticket? To go to fashion’s equivalent of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory- the annual Met Ball.
Those who are bestowed the coveted invite spend months along with designers coming up with the attire to be worn to the event. These are not just simple dresses- they are walking art installations displayed in the form of attire.
So imagine the disappointment of fashionistas everywhere when the Queen of Fashion herself Anna Wintour told the world, “Due to the unavoidable and responsible decision by the Metropolitan Museum to close its doors, About Time, and the opening night gala, will not take place on the date scheduled.”
While a necessity, it is a sad day for the fashion world. How did the Met Ball go from an intimate charity event priced at $50 a ticket to the walking artistic attire installations it is today?
The brainchild behind what we know as the MET Ball today is none other than visionary Fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert. The idea was to raise some much-needed funds for the recently launched Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It’s origin is based on Manhattan’s elite being invited to an to an intimate midnight supper in December of 1948. For fifty dollars, Manhattan’s high society could attend the midnight event. Up until 1971, the annual December midnight supper were held at venues such as the Waldorf Astoria, Central Park, and Rainbow Room. There were no themes, no months of prepping- it was just another event on Manhattan’s elite philanthropic calendar.
The idea of a Met Ball theme did not come into play until 1972 when former Vogue editor Diana Vreeland took the reigns. Vreeland’s powerful friends, which included Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, are rumored to have “raised enough money to fund her salary for the first two years,” according to Architectural Digest. Vreland was brought on as a consultant for the Costume Institute in 1972, and with her lead out were the intimate midnight suppers and in were the grandiose themed parties at the Met.
Forever set in stone as the Met Ball, the first theme of “Fashion Plate” set out a tradition that would change the course of fashion history. She redefined what high society meant in regards to an invitation. She opened the Met Ball doors to entertainers & politicians. This expanded what was referred to as high society; it wasn’t just for the Manhattan socialite anymore. A musician with a hit song, as long as they were approved by Vreeland, was invited into the exclusive club. Do we see where Anna Wintour got this from? It wasn’t Wintour that started this exclusivity; she just continued and expanded it.
In 1995, Wintour took over- she came in guns a-blazing! While aesthetically nothing was changed, everything from the seating arrangements, to Wintour’s determination of which celebrities that each designer or brand would be allowed to invite pumped up the already exclusive event one hundred times over. Now with tickets selling at $35,000 a piece we have come a long way from the midnight $50 supper that once was.
Missing the Met Ball as much as I am (it is the fashion event of the year!)- check out some Met Ball looks from years past:
- Met Ball , circa 1960- notice how few people there are?
2. Cher 1974: The ORIGINATOR of the sheer dress trend
3. Margaux Hemingway and Bernard Foucher 1979: I love how this neckline is coming back into style!
4. Anna Wintour 1989: Even then she was on top of her fashion game
5. Princess Diana 1995: She needs no words- ONE OF THE TOP FASHION ICONS OF ALL TIME
6. Liv Tyler and Stella McCartney 1999: This is one of the few Met Ball looks I can actually replicate! Not all of them are inaccessible
7. Beyonce 2015: SHUTTING IT DOWN- all bow down to Queen Bey!
8. Sean Combs and Jennifer Lopez 1999: Who would know she would go from this (which is accessible- I actually have a MUCH cheaper dress like this in black I wore to a wedding):
To this- Jennifer Lopez 2015:
9. Kim Kardashian-West, Kylie Jenner, and Kendall Jenner 2019: Kim went from Kayne’s date to a bonafide Met Ball power player. You can make it on your own ladies! We are the stars of the show; not just a man’s plus one (this is true with the Met Ball and real life!).
10. Last, but certainly not least, we cannot discuss the Met Ball without bowing down to New York’s Fashion Icon herself- Sarah Jessica Parker 2015:
However there is a new sheriff in town- shaking up the fashion world to include all shapes, sizes, races, and genders. She is changing the game one artistic attire piece at a time- get ready to bow down to…
11. Rihanna 2018- SHE CAME AS THE POPE- ENOUGH SAID
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