Met Gala is an annual event that gathers around itself millions of enthusiastic looks from the public around the world, for which it has received the unspoken name of “Oscar” in the fashion world. Guests traditionally come to it in bright couture outfits – real works of art.

The Met Gala is always talked about so much, admired by guests, outfits and makeup, so we decided to tell you more about what this event is, why it is important for Americans and how it became the main fashion event of the year.

The Met Gala was founded in 1948 by fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert to raise funds for the newly founded Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The first event was a gala dinner that cost fifty dollars to attend and was held in December. For several decades, the Met Gala has been one of the many fairly standard charity events attended by New York’s high society as a prestigious glamorous party that goes by the unspoken title of “event of the year”.

However, at the very beginning of its existence, a charity dinner was not held at the Metropolitan Museum, and its locations were well-known venues in New York, among which were: Central Park, the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, and the Rainbow Room nightclub.

The year 1960 was historic for the Met Gala, because for the first time the event was held in the Grand Hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was decorated with sculptures in the Egyptian style. Guests came to the evening in luxurious expensive dresses, furs and, of course, diamonds.

Another watershed in Met Gala history came in 1972 when Diane Vreeland, a highly influential French-American fashion columnist and editor, became Special Consultant to the Costume Institute. She collaborated with such popular publications as Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue. It was under her wing that the Met Gala gained more courage and went beyond the usual charity dinner. Much of what Diana came up with at the beginning of her work with this event still works today. In particular, she began to involve her famous friends in the event, among whom were the former US First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and the wife of the American writer Christopher Buckley, Pat Buckley.

Since 1973, the Met Gala’s lavish parties have been themed. The first was dedicated to the iconic Spanish designer Cristobal Balenciaga and was called “The World of Balenciaga”. It was Vreeland who made the event not just a social dinner, but an event that was talked about and dreamed of. From now on, Met Gala guests had to walk around the huge hall of the mezeya, thus demonstrating their outfits. The list of invited guests was also significantly expanded, and now it consisted not only of socialites, New York millionaires and aristocrats, but also of Hollywood stars, including Cher, Diana Ross and Mick Jagger.

Under Vreeland’s leadership, the event began to take shape as the biggest fashion party of the year. In 1989, Diana Vreeland died of a heart attack at the age of 85, and her place, though not immediately, but already in 1995, was taken by the journalist and editor-in-chief of Vogue Anna Wintour. The history of the Met Gala then took on the form we know it today and established clear and rigid rules that all guests must adhere to.

Anna limited the list of guests of the gala evening to 650-700 people, the date of the event itself was moved from December to the first Monday of May. Ticket prices also increased significantly, because if in the first years after the foundation of the event they cost $ 50, in the 70-80s about $ 1000, by the end of the 90s the price rose to $ 2000 and only increased every year. Since the popularity of the event itself also grew over the years and the most famous stars of their time appeared on it, in 2010 a ticket to the Met Gala was 25 thousand dollars, and a table for 10 people could be bought for 250 thousand dollars.

Typically, designers buy tables and fill them with celebrities dressed for the event. However, one should not think that any willing millionaire can appear there, since the list of guests is personally approved by Anna Wintour herself. It wasn’t uncommon for a Vogue editor to turn down big-name guests and companies at the Met Gala because, in her opinion, they lived up to her standards.

Perhaps it is because of this legibility that this costume ball has become so exclusive, unique and discussed, and its guests gladly pay huge sums for tickets to go there. In 2013, this gala event raised $9 million, and in 2014 – $12 million, and in 2019 a record $15 million. Today, the Met remains one of the largest charitable events in New York, after all, over the years of its existence, it has raised about $ 200 million for the Costume Institute.

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