History of the Met Gala
How we came to love the first Monday in May.
A sister duo is as powerful as they come. Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen, Venus & Serena Williams, Amalie & Cecilie Moosgaard, Anna & Elsa from Frozen, Jo, Meg, Amy & Beth from Little Women, Beyoncé & Solange - come on!
The first Monday in May would have been a regular day if it weren’t for philanthropist sisters, Irene Lewisohn and Alice Lewisohn Crowley. Orphaned at an early age, the sisters inherited a significant sum of money that allowed them the privilege to concentrate on their interests after completion of their formal education. Irene’s love of theatre from a young age, particularly dance, eventually inspired Alice, and together they taught acting, dancing and began showcasing amateur productions. They later formed the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in 1915, a fulltime acting conservatory that continues to nurture young talent to date in the heart of New York City.
From staging shows and travelling the world, Irene had steadily amassed a great collection of costumes that later led to the establishment of the Museum of Costume of Art with Alice Bernstein, who assisted with set designs at the Neighborhood Theatre. The Museum would serve as an institution devoted to the care and display of the collections to the public and to inspire designers in their own work.
After Irene’s death in 1944 due to lung cancer, the Museum of Costume Art, with financial support of the fashion industry, merged with the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The MET) and became the Costume Institute. Dorothy Shaver who was the President of Lord and Taylor at the time, the first woman to hold this position, assisted in the establishment of the Costume Institute and later became chairman of the Insitute.
They were required to provide $150,000 to transfer the existing collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The idea to host a Costume Institute Gala to raise funds to cover expenses was Eleanor Lambert’s creation. She also founded New York Fashion Week, Council of Fashion Designers of America and the International Best Dressed List. The first night was incredibly successful raising $350,000 from the $50 ticket for the midnight supper on a random fall day and donations from the attendees.
The turn from a quiet fundraiser to a star-studded party can be credited to Diana Vreeland who became a consultant for the Met after losing her job as editor in chief of Vogue from 1963 to 1971. Her first exhibition in 1973, World of Balenciaga debuted a year after the death of legendary designer Cristobal Balenciaga and was a tribute to his successful decades-long career as a couturier. After her demise in 1989, Diana was succeeded by Canadian socialite Pat Buckley who had served as co-chair alongside Vreeland from 1979.
In 1995, the Artistic Director of Condé Nast and Editor-in-Chief of Vogue, Anna Wintour, co-chaired her first gala celebrating the exhibition Haute Couture. She has since been the co-chair excluding 1996 and 1998, and in the past 27 years she has raised over $200 million which has been the main source of funding for the department's exhibitions, acquisitions, and renovations. By 2001, the gala assumed its official date as the first Monday in May after the death of curator Richard Martin in 1999 that moved the exhibition to spring of 2021.
It is under Anna Wintour’s reign that the theme of the exhibition began to heavily inspire the attendees outfit choices, and, in some cases, it was highly encouraged. Amber Valletta’s most recognizable and outrageous outfits inspired by Marie Antoinette for the 2004 theme "Dangerous Liaisons: Fashion and Furniture in the 18th Century" was orchestrated by Anna Wintour who encouraged Amber to “just go for it” when dressing for the theme. This was one of the first moments a guest dressed precisely in theme and over the years it is now expected despite the criticism Anna Wintour has received for turning the Gala into a Halloween costume party and on some the choices made by attendees especially after the 2019 theme “Camp: Notes on Fashion.”
After a two-year $40 million renovation, the Costume Institue re-opened in May with a shiny new gallery, an updated costume conservation laboratory and was deservedly renamed the Anna Wintour Costume Center.
More than 150 years later, the sisters’ dream and 8000-piece collection now made up of over 2 million pieces, with its oldest works of art dating back some 5,000 years, the Costume Institute serves as a great resource for over a million visitors to view a time capsule of fashion history and find inspiration for their own work.
To my sister who without her approval, this publication would not exist.
This one’s for you Valerie!