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met gala May 06, 2013

Anna Wintour Goes Back to Chanel For the 2013 Met Gala

It's like she came home.

by Justin Fenner

It's like she came home. For Monday night's Met Gala, Anna Wintour returned to the brand she's worn to the Costume Institute's annual party no fewer than six times over the past few years and enlisted Karl Lagerfeld to make a custom floral version of one of the gowns in his Spring 2013 Chanel Couture show. During Vogue.com's live stream of the event's red carpet, Wintour told William Norwich she chose the dress because Andrew Bolton — curator of the exhibit Punk: Chaos to Couture — told her, "Pink is the color of punk."

A look at that dress, plus all the gowns and ensembles she's worn to the Met Gala since she became Vogue's editor in chief in 1988, here in the gallery.

Source: Joe Schildhorn/BFAnyc.com

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met gala May 06, 2013

A Look Inside the Costume Institute's Punk: Chaos to Couture Exhibit

Anticipation is high for the red carpet at tonight's Met Gala, but this year's exhibit at the Costume Institute — Punk: Chaos to Couture — has proven to be just as exciting.

by Justin Fenner

Anticipation is high for the red carpet at tonight's Met Gala, but this year's exhibit at the Costume Institute — Punk: Chaos to Couture — has proven to be just as exciting.

On Monday morning, the museum invited journalists for an inside look at the show, which features high-fashion clothing that expresses the spirit of the punk movement, often alongside punk originals designed by people like Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood. Gianni Versace's Safety Pin Dress, for example, is a highlight of the exhibit's focus on hardware, while pieces from Rei Kawakubo's Spring 2013 collection for Comme des Garcons are featured in a room dedicated to deconstructed clothing.

The exhibit, which will be open to the public from May 9 to Aug. 14, also features a number of films by photographer Nick Knight, as well as re-creations of Westwood and McLaren's shop at 430 Kings Road in London, and the bathroom of New York's iconic music venue CBGB as it appeared in 1975.

A look at the exhibit, here in the gallery.

And be sure to catch the Met Gala red carpet tonight, streaming live on Vogue.com starting at 7 p.m. EDT/4 p.m. PDT.

Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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met gala May 09, 2012

The Chicest Looks from the Met Gala Afterparty

There wasn't a red carpet at the Met Gala's official afterparty, but its attendees looked just as glamorous as they did heading up the steps at the ball.

by Justin Fenner

There wasn't a red carpet at the Met Gala's official afterparty, but its attendees looked just as glamorous as they did heading up the steps at the ball.

Miuccia Prada and Anna Wintour hosted a crowd including Kate Bosworth and Marc Jacobs at the Harry F. Sinclair House Monday night. Prada was seen walking around the fete hand in hand with her husband Patrizio Bertelli and tapped her feet to performances by Alicia Keys and Azealia Banks. Wintour changed from her white Prada gown to a black cocktail dress for the afterparty, and Karlie Kloss exchanged her floor-length Jason Wu creation for a shorter dress by the designer.

There were also afterparties at the restaurant Crown and the Boom Boom Room at the Standard Hotel. A glimpse at the Sinclair House festivities follows in the gallery.

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Met Gala Red Carpet Fashion Pictures 2012

Red Carpet May 07, 2012

Impossible Glamour: Fashion's Finest at the 2012 Met Gala

Monday night was the industry's biggest, most glamorous party, and each look that came up the steps for the Met Gala was more stunning than the last.

by Justin Fenner

Monday night was the industry's biggest, most glamorous party, and each look that came up the steps for the Met Gala was more stunning than the last.

Anna Wintour arrived first, clad in a Prada update of Elsa Schiaparelli's famous lobster dress — the first time she hasn't worn Chanel to a Met Gala in six years — followed shortly by Miuccia Prada herself, wearing a shirt and pants of her own design.

But even though Monday's gala honored Prada's work, other fashion houses turned out lots of good looks. Scarlett Johansson wore custom Dolce & Gabbana, Jessica Stam stunned in Dior, and Lauren Santo Domingo slid into Oscar de la Renta. A list of who wore what sits here, but pictures of all the best looks can be found in the gallery.

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Schiaparelli and Prada Met 2012 Exhibit Pictures

met gala May 07, 2012

Inside the Costume Institute's Schiaparelli and Prada Exhibit

Let's talk about fashion: that's the premise of this year's Costume Institute exhibit, titled Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations.

by Justin Fenner

Let's talk about fashion: that's the premise of this year's Costume Institute exhibit, titled Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations.

Through a series of videos directed by Baz Luhrmann, the exhibit — which was inspired by a series of Vanity Fair articles from the '30s — imagines Miuccia Prada and the late Elsa Schiaparelli (played by Australian actress Judy Davis) discussing their respective approaches to dressing women. Against this backdrop are clothing and accessories from each designer, arranged almost as if in conversation, too: In one gallery called "Waist Up, Waist Down," Prada's skirts are shown next to Schiaparelli's jackets. "To me the waist up is more spiritual, more intellectual, while the waist down is more basic, more grounded," Prada says in the coordinating video. "It's about sex. It's about making love. It's about life. It's about giving birth."

Other conversations include themes like "Hard Chic," which looks at the influence of menswear and military uniforms, and "The Surreal Body," which examines pieces like Schiaparelli's famous lobster dress and Prada's Fall 2011 skirts and shirts that are covered in large sequins resembling fish scales.

Prada told The New York Times that while she's never directly been inspired by Schiaparelli, she now understands "there actually were some similarities. But it is other people's vision."

Fashion's biggest names will get a first look at the exhibit tonight during the Met Gala, and the exhibit itself will open to the public on May 10 and close Aug. 19. For now, a sneak peek at the exhibit in the gallery.

Photo: A view of the exhibit.

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met gala May 07, 2012

Zac Posen on His First Trip to the Met Gala

Zac Posen went to the Met Gala long before he made his name as a designer.

by Justin Fenner

Zac Posen went to the Met Gala long before he made his name as a designer. In fact, Posen was a teenage intern for the Costume Institute the first time he attended fashion's biggest party.

"The Met Ball was sort of my first experience as an intern, when I was 16, of seeing what a ball would look like. I was an intern there, so I bought my staff ticket for the Gianni Versace exhibition. I saved up my money for like, three weeks to buy my $50 ticket. It was a really dreamy experience. So when I then became a designer and started going, it just has a very personal significance. I try to make it the most fun possible for me and my date and anybody that's around me. And it's an amazing cause and has an incredible history around it."

Posen also told us about what it was like to see Diana Vreeland's old office at the Met.

"When I was there, Diana Vreeland's office was still intact, and that's where I did my interview. It's no longer there. It was changed to a video archive while I was there, but it was an amazing experience to see all the stuffed peacocks and the Maria Callas photos on the wall. It was just like a closed time capsule, and it all had sort of a '60s vibe to it. All the clothing was archived between Venetian blinds. It was very cold. You have all the Christy Turlington mannequins and tons of vertical filing. And that was where I sort of got the fashion bug — for the history."

Photo: Zac Posen with Christina Ricci at the Met Gala in 2011.

Costume Institute to Showcase Miuccia Prada For Spring 2012

fashion news Aug 26, 2011

Miuccia Prada and Elsa Schiaparelli Next Up For Costume Institute Exhibit — Plus Themes From the Past

This year's success of the Costume Institute's Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibit left us wondering how the MET was going to top the record-breaking show.

by Chi Diem Chau

This year's success of the Costume Institute's Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibit left us wondering how the MET was going to top the record-breaking show. WWD just reported that the Costume Institute’s Harold Koda and Andrew Bolton have chosen to showcase the work of Miuccia Prada and Elsa Schiaparelli for its next exhibit in Spring 2012. More details to come, but, for now, see who else has been featured at the Costume Institute in the past years.

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met gala May 02, 2011

The 2011 Costume Institute Gala Is Here

>> It's officially Costume Institute Gala time, and this year it's all about Alexander McQueen — which means plenty of McQueen dresses are going to be running around on the likes of Gisele Bundchen, Sarah Jessica Parker, Naomi Campbell, and Daphne Guinness.

by POPSUGAR Fashion News

>> It's officially Costume Institute Gala time, and this year it's all about Alexander McQueen — which means plenty of McQueen dresses are going to be running around on the likes of Gisele Bundchen, Sarah Jessica Parker, Naomi Campbell, and Daphne Guinness. Anna Wintour, for her part, chose not to break her Costume Institute Gala Chanel couture streak — now five years running — with a McQueen frock; same goes for daughter Bee Shaffer, who chose Balenciaga instead. Rumor was swirling pre-red carpet arrivals that Wintour had Kate Middleton's McQueen wedding dress flown in for tonight's gala — but we'll have to wait and see: neither Wintour nor Sarah Burton are expected to give red carpet interviews.

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Blake Lively Wearing Chanel to 2011 Costume Institute Gala

met gala Apr 28, 2011

Which Designer Is Dressing Blake Lively For the Costume Institute Gala?

>> Blake Lively had the train torn off of her gown a couple of nights ago at the Time 100 Gala (which she safety pinned back on) — but hopefully she'll have better luck at Monday's Costume Institute Gala.

by POPSUGAR Fashion News

>> Blake Lively had the train torn off of her gown a couple of nights ago at the Time 100 Gala (which she safety pinned back on) — but hopefully she'll have better luck at Monday's Costume Institute Gala. Lively, who just debuted a head of red hair, will be dressed by Chanel for the occasion — not a huge surprise given that she's a current face of the brand. As for her date? “Karl Lagerfeld, of course!” she said. [WWD]

met gala Apr 27, 2011

Daphne Guinness on Why She's Dressing For the Costume Institute Gala in a Barneys Window

>> One of sure to be many fashion figures wearing Alexander McQueen to Monday's Costume Institute Gala?

by POPSUGAR Fashion News

>> One of sure to be many fashion figures wearing Alexander McQueen to Monday's Costume Institute Gala? Daphne Guinness, who plans to dress herself for the event — in a feathery McQueen gown — in one of the windows of Barneys' Manhattan flagship, starting at 5 p.m. on May 2. The stunt — which was Guinness's idea — is not in any way a peep show, she says: “I am not doing a burlesque — no way. I’m going to be getting dressed behind something. I’m not Dita Von Teese, nor shall I be.” Instead, she likes the idea because “there’s been this discussion for longer than I’ve been alive that fashion is not art,” Guinness explains. “My feeling is that this is another piece of evidence that, yes, there is a commercial side to fashion that is needed, but there are these crossover moments that do become art. I hope it works, and I don’t faint.” [NY Times]