It was oncethe Party of the Year; now, its known simply as theMet Gala.
Either way, its an event that no one forgets, but dont letustell you that.
So there was something so mysterious about it.
Outside The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, 1965.
I saw an incredible image of Annette de la Renta in a cape at the Met Gala.
And that was the beginning of me thinking about the Met Gala.
That image is burned in my memory.
Naomi Campbell in a Versace minidress at the 1990 Met Gala.
He was the guy to call.
It was the Haute Couture exhibition and I was his assistant and really behind the scenes.
I always remember Kim [Kardashian] talking about [the Met Gala] a lot.
A goddess-like Kate Moss ascends the steps with Marc Jacobs at the 2009 Met Gala.
When I first started getting into fashion, I thought of it as this otherworldly experience.
I think when she first told me about it, she had not even gone yet herself.
I think I became aware of the Met Gala when I went with Gianni Versace.
Cher and Bob Mackie and the Met Gala, 1974
Perhaps even Santo Versace.
It was just such a memorable moment for me, because Kate was such a British icon for me.
That picture went everywhere.
Kim Kardashian at the Met Gala in 2022
I definitely remember seeing it in the newspapers, and thats when I realized the power of fashion.
It was probably the year before I got invited that I became aware.
I was definitely a fashion junkie myself.
A graceful Jacqueline Kennedy walks through the galleries at the 1979 Met Gala.
I would always look at Style.com and drag all the models photos into different folders onto my computer.
As a fashion person, its hard to remember when I first started consuming images from the Met Gala.
In the 70s, when Cher wore that Bob Mackie nude suitIm now so familiar with that image.
Princess Diana in Dior at the 1996 Met Gala
And then Richard Avedon photographed her for the cover ofTimemagazine in that outfit.
Its so indelibly in my mind.
I now have total recall of Met Galas I wasnt at, before I was even born.
Nan Kempner and Pat Buckley at the 1977 Met Gala.
I would see big celebrities doing this incredible red carpet every year.
And I didnt know exactly what it was, but I was enamored by the glamorousness of it all.
It was when Princess Diana attended.
Diana Vreeland, surrounded by masked models and actresses for 1974’s “Romantic and Glamorous Hollywood Design” exhibition.
And the notion of meeting Mrs. Vreeland there was just…for me, it was Valhalla.
That was the year I kind of started to dream about being there.
I first knew of [the Met Gala] when Diana Vreeland was there.
A young Elle Fanning wears frothy Valentino couture at the 2011 Met Gala.
It was calledHollywoodsomething, somethingGlamour.It was the most extraordinary thing I had ever seen.
She was like, Michelle looked really wonderful.
It was the 2007 Met Gala, it was Paul Poiret.
Cochairs Tom Ford and Nicole Kidman mingle with Adrien Brody at the 2003 Met Gala.
That was my first one and probably still my favorite to this day.
I was freaking out that I was so young and that they invited me to go.
I was sat next to Franca Sozzani.
Kendall Jenner wears a blush-pink Topshop gown to the 2014 gala.
And he was coming with Nicole Kidman and that was all arranged.
I think Nicole forThe Hoursand Adrien forThe Pianist.
It was absolutely extraordinary, I remember really clearly.
Rita Ora in Thakoon at the 2013 Met Gala.
It was incredible to see her walking right by me.
I realized then that, OK, I want in.
I want in so that I can share this joy with my fellow designer friends.
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds inside the Great Hall, 2022
But I was just so honored.
To be able to walk onto that carpet was just such a huge honor.
It just made me feel so much better and confident about what I had been doing in my life.
Beyoncé (in nearly sheer Givenchy) and Jay-Z at the 2015 Met Gala.
Its like a certification.
Its the closest my job comes to, like, competitive sports.
Its one of these times where you feel like you cant even afford to blink.
Yves Saint Laurent, an expressive Countess Jacqueline de Ribes, and Bill Blass at the 1983 Met Gala.
Tommy Hilfiger was very gracious to invite me.
It was very, very charming.
And everybody wentthe installers, the light guys, everybody, everybody.
A crowd of mourners holds a candlelight vigil for John Lennon in 1980.
It was really probably the most fun part of it all.
I remember being at Mrs. Vreelands show for Saint Laurent.
God, Ive been going…can we not say for how long?
Crowds assemble outside the Met to catch a glimpse of celebrities on their way to the Met Gala.
I dont think Ive actually missed a year if Im going to be really honest.
Well, the awful thing is that I cant remember which Met Gala was my first one.
Isnt that just awful?
Selena Gomez in the museum galleries at the 2017 Met Gala.
Back then, it was a lot of the grand social women in haute couture and some American designers.
I think 1980 was the Met Gala that I went to.
Back in those days it was not the first Monday in May, it was in December.
A Met staff member photographed the night of the 2017 Met Gala.
Of course, before she finished the sentence, I said, Sure, when?!
Definitely breaking the rules for black tie.
And unfortunately that night was the night that John Lennon was assassinated.
Headpieces designed by milliner Stephen Jones for “AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion.”
And it started snowing and there were no cell phones.
Somehow the word got out that he had been shot and, of course, we all left.
It was such a sad moment.
Headpieces designed by milliner Stephen Jones for “AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion.”
Also, I think at the time we didnt realize that this had happened just across the park.
We kind of felt like we were there.
Chapter Three:The Party Prep
We design the carpet, the entrance, the Great Hall.
Katy Perry had the bright idea to wear Moschino on the red carpet of the 2019 Met Gala.
By that time, we have to clean up and be sure we are ready to launch the doors.
My first year catering the Met Gala, we were just wholly unprepared for how the outfits effected service.
And you never really think about it, right?
Perry then changed into a delicious Moschino look once inside the museum at the 2019 Met Gala.
How are you serving a table when someones got a hat thats three feet wide?
Or how are you serving a table when someones dressed as a burger?
This is a very unusual event because the outfits are so incredible and sometimes just simply outrageous.
One Vera Wang dress makes an appearance three times: On Stella Tennant (with a Yohji Yamamoto blazer) at the 2003 Met Gala.
Its the worst traffic in the world.
I can get anxiety easy because I know Anna would not be happy if youre late.
Everyone has a certain time that theyre supposed to be there!
Selena Gomez in a variation of the Vera Wang dress at the 2015 Met Gala.
Controlling the crowds and safety is always our main priority.
Were trying to have the littlest impact on the community, the Upper East Side, and nearby residents.
Getting this very large and elaborate production off smoothly, its very hard.
Vera Wang in her own design at the 2003 Met Gala.
There are anywhere between 5,000 and 8,000 people that flock to Fifth Avenue to try and celebrity sightsee.
Its two days where all the celebrities come in and eat, drink, sleep at the Mark.
First of all, go with the theme.
Sarah Jessica Parker at the Met Gala in 2014
Sometimes you want to stick to it strictly or you just give a nod to it.
And all the girls are laughing.
It had to go before the board, the cigarettes got through but not the tampons at first.
Diane Kruger is escorted by Prabal Gurung into the 2018 Met Gala.
I mean, what a topsy-turvy worldjust shows you, doesnt it?
Youve achieved this with your team, to put the exhibition on.
And by that point, Ive tweaked it so much because Im sort of an endless tweaker.
Zendaya wearing Michael Kors and walking with the designer at the 2016 Met Gala.
I really do walk away from it.
Katy Perrys Moschino chandelier was a whole thing.
So it was a little bit tricky.
Sarah Jessica Parker flaunts her Stephen Jones mohawk at the 2013 Met Gala.
Then when she was inside, she changed from her chandelier into a burger.
Even with stylists, I cant even imagine.
We have a lot of requests that go through Sophie [Pape] for celebrities.
Bella Hadid finds the shot of Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid at the 2015 Met Gala.
And I say They want to dowhat?
They need to follow the rules of the road.
That is the first time I really decided to completely dress up.
Rihanna in the Guo Pei-designed look that launched a thousand memes at the 2015 Met Gala.
I think that the camp theme really lended itself for people to go all out and have fun.
I had thisI Dream of Jeannievibe and I had these crazy nails with charms hanging off every nail.
I got a fake tan and I was so not myself, really transformed.
Taylor Swift covering the 2016 Met Gala special edition ofVogue.
And actually, Stella Tennant wore the same dress with a black oversized Yohji Yamamoto blazer over it.
It was ironic that we were both in the same dress and she was not my guest.
It was a white dress with black straps.
Rihanna and Beyoncé covering the 2014 Met Gala special edition ofVogue.
That means three of us were wearing the same dress to the Met Gala!
Hands down my favorite year was Camp.
He was so bashful but Sarah Jessica secretly asked me to print it out in huge font on paper.
Katy Perry and Rihanna covering the 2018 Met Gala special edition ofVogue.
Obviously, Oscar loved it.
Its kind of baby steps.
Hopefully next year well take another step and maybe dress more celebritiesor one day attend ourselves.
Models dressed as punks grace the steps of the Great Hall at the 2013 Met Gala.
Only later did I realize that she was pregnant.
The year I came with Solange Knowles, she wore Iris van Herpen and I made her shoes.
I just remember my face, my assistants face, the face of the stylist!
Kim Kardashian West, Kylie Jenner, Kendall Jenner (with Jared Leto’s head), Jeff Bezos, and Jared Leto at the 2019 Met Gala.
You know, when latex rips, its done.
It was such a precision haircut that if it shifted at all, it wouldnt fall right.
So Ursula was literally cutting her hair as she was stepping out of the Mark [Hotel].
Jeremy Scott bows down to Madonna at the 2015 Met Gala.
Im always joking that getting ready with your date to go to the Met feels like youre getting married.
Ive never been married, but the Met Gala feels like a weddinga very long wedding.
So we had to move the seat and she sat on the floor.
Jennifer Lopez, Celine Dion, Donatella Versace, and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley inside the Met Gala, 2019
That was absolutely hysterical.
I believe Philip Treacy must have been responsible for the fabulous-but-unaccommodating headdress.
Not everyone knows this, but the candelabra came complete with working lightbulbs!
Kendall Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Kyle Jenner do touchups in the bathroom at the Met Gala, 2023
Chapter Five:Climbing the Steps
The stairs are intimidating.
Lets be very frank.
I mean, I worry about them every year.
Katy Perry lends Winnie Harlow a hand at the 2018 Met Gala.
Depending on the kind of dress or costume youre wearing, it can be extremely intimidating.
[At 2019’s gala] Stephen Jones, the wonderful milliner from London, went with me.
I had on this big feathered Ziegfeld Girls sort of thing.
A gilded cage of peacocks greets visitors at the 2017 Met Gala.
I mean, you look up and its like climbing Everest, you know, without an oxygen tank!
But in those times, I guess people didnt care.
People just wanted to be there.
Atop a reinforced table, Rihanna serenades a crowd that includes Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and Kim Kardashian West.
I think it built my confidence a lot, walking in and not really having a permanent buddy.
Lady Gaga attends the Met Gala in 2019 with quite the performance.
Its a very nerve-wracking experience for the guests because it is so highly regarded and so highly photographed.
A group including Eddie Redmayne, Madonna, Jeremy Scott, Ruth Negga, Giancarlo Giametti, and Pierpaolo Piccioli observed the spectacle at the 2015 Met Gala.
I mean, this photo is going to run forever.
Its like the Studio 54 or the Black and White Capote ball for people of our generation.
We [Bolton and Thom Browne] never do the red carpet.
Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, 2021
So they sent me and I had no idea what I was doing and it was terrifying.
There are two things that I will never understand in this world and thats art and fashion.
I will never get it.
Kendall Jenner and Kim Kardashian, 2021
So my team works on calling in the clothes as early as two months before from past designer seasons.
Theres so much back-of-house, front-of-house stuff the night of.
Especially when we were putting out the Met Gala special edition issue.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Aurora James, 2021
Who designed your outfit?
How much input did you have?
Are you happy to be uncomfortable because you know its worth it?
Larry David looks unamused at the 2015 Met Gala.
But the downside of hosting the livestream is that its live.
My first time attending with AmericanVogue, it was the Rock Style exhibition year in 1999.
I thought I was pulling a Cher.
Dua Lipa inside the Met Gala, 2023
I thought, I dont know if I got this right.
Theyre so happy to be there.
So I had a double life when I was working at the Met.
Bianca Jagger and Mick Jagger at the 1974 Met Gala.
I would go to Yellow Fingers with Nicky and then I would install a mannequin from Mrs. Vreeland.
I really was a worker bee.
I really installed the shows and I loved it.
Tom Ford and Diana Ross light up the room at the 2003 Met Gala.
I absolutely loved it.
And the great payoff was you had this incredible party that everybody was at and everybody was happy.
The lost and found department is very busy the next morning.
Mary-Kate Olsen and sister Ashley make their way through the 2017 Met Gala.
We get a lot of emails about people who have lost jewelry, etc.
And it was Vivienne Westwood who had just arrived.
They were clapping for the queen of punk.
At the 2015 Met Gala, guests sat down to chinoiserie-themed tables.
I remember my first Pre-Met Party in 2015the partyVoguehosts the weekend before the Met Gala.
It was kind of amazing to seeVoguedescend on a place like that.
At that time I was like: Are you famous or do you work atVogue?
Diana Vreeland and Marisa Berenson embrace at the Met.
I had only been atVoguefor a few months and everyone was mingling with celebrities.
Its great to meet you.
And I said to her, No, its great to meetyou!
She said, Were all meeting each other.
What I would say is that meet cute doesnt feel like the best description at the Met Gala.
Its more like meet glam!
The year I was wearing Marchesa, I bumped into Gwyneth Paltrow in the hallway.
I remember her kind of embracing me; I think theres a picture of it.
I was lost for a second.
I remember Jared Leto’s [2019 look] had a mold of his own head.
Hes like, Take it for the night!
And Im like, This thing is heavy.
I need to give this back to you.
I sat next to Lewis Hamilton and he invited me skydiving.
I havent taken him up on that yet, but Lewis invited me skydiving!
I remember once walking up to Marc Jacobs.
He was with Karen Elson and Cher and he said, Stephen, have you met Cher?
I mean, only at the Met Gala!
A personal moment for me goes back to Madonna.
I would basically have to ignore all these verbal, sometimes physical, altercations.
I had one real beacon at that time and that was Madonna.
And it was what gave me hope.
I had a unique interaction the year Tom Brady hosted, maybe three years ago.
Here, being in New York, Im a diehard Jets fan.
We were set up on Fifth Avenue and a car tries to pull in.
It was Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola, two receivers for the New England Patriots.
We had a fun little interaction.
I was like, This is not Patriots country!
This is Jets country!
The year I dressed Celine Dion [in 2019], she introduced me to J.
Lo, who I hadnt met.
I think that it was at that point where I go, Lets work together!
And then she looks at Celine and says, As long as theyre making something like that!
Oh my God, Sarah Jessica Parker.
You know what I mean?
I have a really good photo of Lupita Nyongo in the bathroom.
Its on my phone still and I never showed it to her.
You always can snap good photos in the bathroom, thats for sure.
you could always tell theres some drama.
It feels like a high school bathroom.
So I got a little nervous and I was hoping she was okay.
She was in a stall because her zipper broke and she actually couldnt close her dress.
So we got a needle and thread and we sewed her back into the dress!
There were a few years there where the Met Gala bathrooms got super hedonistic.
Youre going to need help.
So she came into the stall.
We just left the door open, my dress was so big.
She picked it up and helped place it over the toilet.
Then Cara came over and said, Oh my God, can I take a picture of this?
And I was like, Yeah, sure.
Chapter Nine:Never a Dull Moment!
There have been several crashers who werent fully clothed.
Those were kind of shocking moments, you know, be it topless, bottomless, or semi-bottomless.
But the naked man in the box definitely takes the cake.
The year I went with Thakoon, the Manus x Machina year, I had this really long ponytail.
It was a massive thing of fake hair and I was whipping it around in yourVoguestudio.
It came offmy hair totally fell out and Alexa [Chung] was like, I got this!
She pulled me aside, we went to the bathroom, and she was like a hair master.
I dont know if I have it in my pocket.
And so she actually started singing.
I mean it was incredible!
It was Celine Dion standing right in front of you singing!
But we had one person, a gentleman who actually hid in the museum.
It was the last car that night.
Oh, its a box, it was covered.
It was a very interesting, maybe 15 minutes that played out until we really got it under control.
And I didnt expect that.
The box was shut.
You know, why arent you answering us?
Does he need medical attention?
So we had to get the fire department to open up the box…he was placed under arrest.
I remember waiting for Rihanna.
She had yet to arrive and the carpet was really slowing down.
Then we heard all these screams and we were like, okay, shes here!
But here was no Rihannait was a cockroach.
A photographer in the press pit has to step on it and kill it.
It was one of the funniest unscripted moments from the Metat least that Ive ever experienced!
Chapter 10:And the Singer Is… Madonnas unforgettable Like a Prayer performance in 2018.
Kanye West didnt like the stage we designed.
That was so fun.
Theres always great performances and its always kept very secret.
I mean, you never know who its going to be.
And it always surprises you.
The crowd parted like Moses in the waves.
And in our mind, I think it was difficult to conceive.
And there were all of these men in gowns sobbing with joy at the gala.
It really came together in the end.
My second Rihanna moment was completely astounding.
It was the year Rihanna performed and I had a table that was perpendicular to the stage.
I was right at the end of the table, so I was looking at the stage.
At 2013s gala celebrating punk, there were two performances in the Temple of Dendur.
To premiere those songs, in that room…I just remember thinkingthatis punk.
I also remember I was wearing a Givenchy skirt.
You understand why certain stars are stars.
Eventually she did, of course, and her performance of Bad Romance was absolutely unforgettable.
I remember getting an email from Bill [Bull, Anna Wintours dressmaker] in early summer.
The email was very unceremonious; I think he used the expression Met Event.
And I replied to him in two seconds: Is this for the Met press conference or a luncheon?
He replied, No, the Met Gala.
Reading that email, I felt like I couldnt move.
A lot of people were like,Why did you do that?
!It wouldve been easier for both of us to go and wear something really beautiful and be normal.
But she couldnt have; shes a politician.
The event does hold this kind of mystique of power in the event world.
But, I mean, we definitely overbooked our staff.
As a general rule of thumb, whenever we did COVID tests, 10% would come back positive.
We had to plan ahead.
Maybe that reads poorly, but at the time, my instant thought was what a nice touch!
Like if Larry David had a good time, it wouldnt have been as good of a party.
Its just such a fun night with cool people.
It was nice to just see everyone just come and pay their respects to Anna, you know?
For a lot of people, their cultures dont get actively represented.
That will stay with me for forever.
I think that honestly was my most joyful Met moment.
When youre doing something major at the Met, well, you have arrived.
It was such a life affirming moment for me.
I used to go to the Met as a student.
I used to sketch all these clothes that were in the archives.
But sometimes thats what can make it feel a little isolating and lonely.
Ill never forget what that exhibition and its opening made me feel.
Whats so incredible about the gala is that its not just a Costume Institute fundraiser or a Met event.
