It’s Called the Met Gala, but It’s Definitely Anna Wintour’s Party
On
Monday, as twilight falls on Fifth Avenue, more than 500 Oscar-winning
actresses and actors, Wall Street titans, Silicon Valley wunderkinds,
fashion designers and Hollywood players will walk up a 150-yard red
carpet leading into the Metropolitan Museum of Art for what has become, over the last decade, the undisputed party of the year on the New York social schedule.
Last
year, the single evening generated almost $12 million, was a trending
topic on Twitter and attracted over 25 million page views on vogue.com the following day. This year, it will be part of a documentary by the filmmaker Andrew Rossi, and recorded by 225 approved photographers, reporters and even tweeters and Snapchatters.
It is the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute
benefit, known as the Met Ball. In addition to kicking off the museum’s
annual blockbuster fashion show, devoted this year to Chinese
aesthetics’ influence on Western fashion, the event has become a
testament to the unmistakable power of its co-host, the 65-year-old
editor of Vogue and artistic director of Condé Nast, Anna Wintour, continuing the mythmaking of films such as “The Devil Wears Prada” and — in a retort of sorts to that thinly disguised portrayal — the 2009 documentary “The September Issue.”
Since
1999, Ms. Wintour, an iron fist in an Oscar de la Renta (or Prada or
Chanel) dress, has been the driving force behind the gala’s
transformation from a well-attended dinner for museum donors and patrons
into one of the biggest fund-raising events staged by any of the city’s
cultural institutions, as well as an unprecedented global advertisement
for her vision of the fashion industry.
How
that happened is a story not only of changes in society, media and
philanthropy, but also of one woman’s understanding of how a single
evening could solidify her role as a corporate power broker.
Under Ms. Wintour’s reign, the gala has raised more than $145 million for the Costume Institute
(the party funds its operating budget in its entirety), with attendees
willing to pay $25,000 for an individual ticket or commit to a minimum
$175,000 for a table of 10. By contrast, the Museum of Modern Art’s
recent David Rockefeller lunch, the museum’s biggest annual fund-raiser,
brought in $3.5 million, while the New York City Ballet’s 2014 spring
and fall galas raised a combined $5.45 million.
That is partly why, at a ceremony last May that was attended
by Michelle Obama and nearly every living American fashion designer of
note to reveal the newly renovated Costume Institute, the space was
christened the “Anna Wintour Costume Center.”
If
the gala has been good for the Met, it has also been very good for
Vogue, cementing Ms. Wintour’s position as perhaps the most powerful
person in fashion. She and her team exert significant control over the
guest list, the seating plan, the coverage — deciding which reporters
are allowed to go where — and, often, even what selected guests will
wear.
Attendance
at the gala “is something you now have to consider as part of a
strategy for any designer in the world,” said Ed Filipowski,
co-president of the public relations and production firm KCD. “No other
international event even comes close.”
And,
given the shadow economy of Hollywood fueled by beauty contracts and
brand ambassadorships, celebrity guests have their own compelling
business reasons to attend, according to Bryon Lourd, chairman and
managing director of Creative Artists Agency.
Though
she declined to be formally interviewed for this article, Ms. Wintour
agreed to answer three questions via email as long as they did not
involve the guest list, the seating plan or financial information. Asked
about her own motivation, she said “there was no grand plan.”
However, Mr. Filipowski said, “In my experience, she does not do anything she does not understand.”
What
is clear is that before Ms. Wintour arrived, “It was a very different
kind of party,” Emily Rafferty, president emerita of the museum, said.
“It was local society.”
CreditErin Baiano for The New York Times
Pat Buckley,
the socialite wife of the conservative pundit William F. Buckley, had
been largely overseeing the event since 1979 (it was started by the
publicist Eleanor Lambert in 1948). Tickets were generally bought by
individuals, unlike today, when most are bought by companies such as
Burberry, Chanel and Versace.
The
international fashion crowd entered the equation in 1983 with the Yves
Saint Laurent show, which was masterminded by Diana Vreeland, then a
special consultant to the Costume Institute. Combined with the explosion
of Wall Street money that swept the philanthropic scene in the late
1980s and shifted the focus from cultural institutions to schools and
hospitals, the profile of the typical Met Ball attendee began to shift
from the traditional society names toward newer, boldface personalities.
The
true flexion point came in 1995, when Ms. Wintour, who was hired as
Vogue’s editor in 1988, was asked to host for the first time. The
following year, the invitation went to Elizabeth Tilberis, another
British editorial import who had been brought over to run the
Hearst-owned magazine Harper’s Bazaar in 1992.
“They
were keeping a pretty close watch on each other at the time,” said
Susan Magrino, chief executive of the Magrino public relations firm, who
handled communications duties for Ms. Tilberis. “Liz saw the Met as a
way to show she had arrived. In a way, the museum was the accidental
beneficiary of their competition.” (Ms. Tilberis died of cancer in
1999.)
Diana,
Princess of Wales, was a guest at the gala that Ms. Tilberis hosted,
and Christian Dior served as a sponsor. Bernard Arnault, Dior’s owner,
had just named the radical British designer John Galliano as artistic
director, and Mr. Galliano made his debut with the dress Diana wore that
night. The pair caused a media sensation.
By
1999, Ms. Wintour had become, as she remains, the gala’s de facto
co-host, and her leadership coincided with the shift in Vogue covers
from model-based images to celebrities. In 1993, there were three
celebrity Vogue covers; by 1998, there were seven, and in 2002, there
were 10.
The
gala’s guest list was undergoing a similar transformation. Starting in
2003, celebrities served as a hosts of the Met Ball or the dance
after-party, which no longer exists, every year, including Nicole Kidman
in 2003 and 2005 (seven Vogue covers), Sienna Miller in 2006 (four
covers), and Carey Mulligan in 2012 (three covers, including this
month’s). There can be up to four additional hosts, as there are this
year.
Though
Hildy Kuryk, Vogue’s director of communications, is quick to point out
that not every cover model is a host of the ball, it is also true that
every female Hollywood star who has served as a host has been on the
cover of Vogue.
“A
lot of actresses aspire to the cover of Vogue,” Mr. Lourd said. “It’s
the gold standard. And Anna absolutely controls that.” As a result, he
added, “There are a lot of people who would like her to like them.” And
not just actresses.
When
the designer Stella McCartney was asked to be a host in 2011, the year
of the museum’s Alexander McQueen exhibit, she had just gotten pregnant.
“I thought, ‘Oh my god, if Anna finds out I will be at the top of those
stairs just after giving birth....’ ” Ms. McCartney said with a laugh.
Did she consider saying no?
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