The gala funds the Metropolitan Museum of Art\u2019s Costume Institute, allowing for exhibits such \u201cIn America: An Anthology of Fashion,\u201d which opens this week at the museum in New York City.<\/b>
\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Met Galas, he\u2019s been to a few. But James Corden, schmoozing at this year\u2019s cocktail reception, looked around and pronounced that this might be his favorite yet. \u201cClassy,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt just feels really classy.\u201d The TV host waved his arm around the room, taking in the hundreds of guests who\u2019d followed the sartorial instructions \u2013 \u201cgilded glamour\u201d \u2014 and came in the best Gilded Age finery they could muster. Elegant gowns, shimmering with gold. Classic black and white. Tails and even some tophats. Headpieces and bustles and perhaps the accessory of the night: the tiara, sported by none other than Vogue\u2019s Anna Wintour, who runs the gala, wearing a family heirloom. Even allowing for creativity, this was not the night for artfully ripped jeans. Of course, take one letter off \u201cclassy\u201d and you have \u201cclass,\u201d with all the tricky implications of channeling an era that saw the creation of excessive wealth and income inequality in the United States. Some guests wrestled with that thought as they pondered the meaning of the evening. Others pointed out, accurately, that the gala funds the Met\u2019s Costume Institute, allowing for exhibits such \u201c In America: An Anthology of Fashion,\u201d which opens this week and seeks to uncover unsung heroes and untold stories in American fashion history, especially women, and women of color. Others said the night was an important way of showing that New York was back in full force, even with the pandemic still upon us. \u201cWe\u2019re celebrating craftsmanship and we\u2019re celebrating America,\u201d said celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson, who again this year curated the night\u2019s menu, choosing a slate of female chefs and taking on the main course himself \u2014 a barbecue-style beef, he said, with corn and succotash. \u201cWe\u2019re showing that New York is back.\u201d Certainly New York florists were back, if they hadn\u2019t been already. The question is whether there were any pink roses left in the city after Monday\u2019s gala. The outside steps to the Metropolitan Museum of Art were lined with 50,000, with another 75,000 surrounding the lobby centerpiece. Another 150,000 roses bathed every inch of the Great Hall staircase \u2014 a striking backdrop for the hosts\u2019 receiving line. Also striking: The giant centerpiece, this year the tallest it\u2019s ever been \u2014 a 50-foot, golden creation representing the torch in the hand of Lady Liberty. (Museum officials said this year for the first time, the centerpiece will remain in place another day, for public view). As guests entered from the red carpet, with crowds screaming outside, they passed a 12-piece chamber orchestra that played American classics like \u201cAt Last\u201d until dinner. After greeting Wintour and her celebrity hosts (Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Regina King) guests wandered through the Arms and Armor galleries toward the American Wing and the huge Charles Engelhard Court, where cocktails were served and where curators built a bridge to access the exhibit in the period rooms. Usually, guests eschew the exhibit for the cocktails, but there was a decent flow of people in and out of the show, for which nine film directors were tapped to create cinematic vignettes. It was, said some of the directors, a chance to engage in a different kind of storytelling. \u201cIt was really fun,\u201d said Tom Ford, not only a top fashion designer but one of those nine directors. Ford, assigned a room housing a grand, circular painting of Versailles and its gardens, chose to dramatize the story of the Battle of Versailles \u2014 a famous night for American fashion in 1973, when American sportswear designers showed up their French couture counterparts. Ford decided to stage a real conflict, involving weapons like fencing foils. \u201cMy 9-year-old kid was watching a lot of \u2018Mulan,\u2019\u201d he quipped, when asked his inspiration. \u201cI\u2019d better go see that now,\u201d said actor and producer-director Mindy Kaling, who\u2019d been chatting with Ford. \u201cYes!\u201d he encouraged her, and off she went. Inside the exhibit, meanwhile, director Autumn de Wilde (\u201cEmma\u201d) was showing her own work in the period rooms to a few friends. \u201cThat woman has probably just lost the house with her gambling,\u201d she said, pointing to a clearly distressed woman mannequin next to an overturned cards table. \u201cI wanted to show how messy people\u2019s lives are,\u201d she said. \u201cA beautiful home doesn\u2019t mean a beautiful life.\u201d At that moment, a real \u201cGilded Age\u201d character walked in \u2014 actress Den\u00e9e Benton, who stars in HBO\u2019s series of the same name. She congratulated de Wilde for her work, and de Wilde told her she was \u201cobsessed\u201d with her show. Benton may not have chosen to wear a Gilded Age bustle, but Franklin Leonard did \u2014 two of them, actually. Leonard, a film executive who helped curator Andrew Bolton pick the diverse slate of film directors for the exhibit, said he was channeling Frederick Douglass in a coat that had not one bustle but two \u2014 on either side \u2014 one of the more clever looks of the night. \u201cI guess it\u2019s a double bustle,\u201d he said, crediting designer Ken Nicholson. Leonard, attending his first gala, said it was a surreal experience. \u201cI, the captain of the high school math team in Columbus, Georgia, never thought I\u2019d be wearing a double bustle jacket, inspired by Frederick Douglass, at the Met Ball,\u201d he said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t part of the plan.\u201d \u201cListen,\u201d Leonard said, pondering the uneasy balance between art and excess. \u201cFor all the excess, this is a fundraiser for the Costume Institute.\u201d And he was said was proud to have helped put together the slate of filmmakers for the show, who include not only gala hosts Ford and King but Radha Blank, Janicza Bravo, Sofia Coppola, Julie Dash, de Wilde, Martin Scorsese and Chlo\u00e9 Zhao, last year\u2019s Oscar winner. \u201cThey were the best group of filmmakers out there,\u201d he said. Though many sipping cocktails and munching on coconut ceviche hors d\u2019oeuvres were gala veterans, there were a number of first-timers. Many remarked that the most surreal part was seeing such a concentration of stars from all walks of life, where there\u2019s always someone more famous around the corner. Or when, as happened Monday, a fun band starts snaking through cocktails, with drums and a tuba and a guy leading it with a melodica, you look more closely and the melodica guy is Jon Batiste, who just won five Grammys. New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he was thrilled to attend his first gala. He wasn\u2019t even the only New York mayor in attendance \u2014 Michael Bloomberg was there, too. Adams, who wore a tuxedo with the words \u201cEnd Gun Violence\u201d on the back and featuring symbols of the city he has run for several months, said he was thinking about the \u201cvery real\u201d income inequality that stemmed from the Gilded Age, as the city now recovers from the pandemic. Noting that the wealthiest two percent of the city was represented in the room, he said his role was \u201cto come among these New Yorkers and talk about the issues that the other 98% of New Yorkers need that are not in this room\u2026. Not to divide us, but to unite us.\u201d Adams also joked about a tabloid report that he had been dying to come to the gala for years. \u201cThey\u2019ve been trying to get ME to come for years,\u201d he quipped. Met Gala moment: Kim Kardashian channels Marilyn Monroe.<\/p>\n