Met Prep

Who else is excited for the Met Gala raise your hands?!

Tonight, celebrities from the worlds of fashion, film, society, sports, art, and music will gather for the Museum’s Costume Institute Benefit. This year’s gala celebrates the opening of the Anna Wintour Costume Center and the exhibition Charles James: Beyond Fashion (on view from May 8 through August 10).  Before this conversation begins, I know that both men and women have been planning their dress of choice since the invitations were mailed out many months ago. I am excited to see what will come down the red carpet– fashion’s answer to Prom –in all its decked out glory.

In case you are living on another planet, the Costume Institute Ball is quite unlike the Oscars or Golden Globes — this fashion fête is notorious for its over-the-top dress code, coinciding with the year’s theme. But this year, Vogue Editrix Anna Wintour caused a frenzy from every male celebrity, fashion designer and just plain hangers-on when she declared the dress code would be “white tie and decorations.” Usually it’s only the female contingent that have to angst over their wardrobe choice for the evening. The men just had to make sure their tuxedo didn’t have any spots on it from the last evening of revelry.

Not this year.

If you are of the female variety, you will probably want to copy one of the Spring looks that paraded down the runway a few months ago. I foresee some Lanvin,
Prabal Gurung, and J Mendel sprinkled about the evening, but what about real black tie?

I love this look from Marlene Dietrich from Morocco in 1930.

I am extremely sensitive to those poor guys who are forced to wear white tails for these event which according to discreet sources are very hard to find, yet alone pay upwards of $10,00 for white tails.

I will be glued to the screen watching as this evening of revelry unfolds. Will you tune in? I’ll be live tweeting, follow me @nyfashionhunter!