This year’s Met Gala goes Virtual – and Everyone’s Invited

The first Monday in May was supposed to be a pinnacle day and night in the world of fashion with the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art unveiling its exhibition and fans flocking to see arrivals for the annual celebrity-studded Met Gala. While the pandemic-induced shutdown has caused the actual gala to shift to a date of to-be-determined, all is not lost.

With the Fifth Avenue museum temporarily closed, WWD reports that The Met will be floating new content about its spring Costume Institute exhibition “About Time: Fashion and Duration,” which is now slated to open Oct. 29. There will also be fodder about Met Galas from years past. The annual extravaganza reels in reams of worldwide publicity for The Met and serves as the Costume Institute’s primary fund-raiser. As for the fate of the gala, “The gala is under discussion,” a Met spokeswoman said Friday.

Those who just can’t wait to see the new show can check out the preview, which includes animation of new photography from Nicholas Alan Cope from the exhibition’s catalogue. There is a lot of ground to cover since the Andrew Bolton-led show covers 150 years of fashion. Part of the digital preview includes an interview with author Michael Cunningham, which will include an excerpt from a short story titled “Out of Time” that he penned for the catalogue. Fans can preorder the catalogue online.

All those stay-at-homers can also check out a reading list from “About Time’s” ghost narrator Virginia Woolf that will include time-related quotes from each work, including ones that will be in the show. The show highlights 120 looks dating back to 1870 — the year that the museum was founded and the kickoff of a decade that had major developments in the global standardization of time.

There also will be video highlights of galas from the last five years.  Vogue is rolling out “A Moment With the Met,” an exclusive YouTube livestream that celebrates the first Monday in May.

As part of the #MetGalaChallenge, people are encouraged to re-create previous standout red-carpet looks, photograph themselves at home and post their images on Instagram. Billy Porter, an authority on making a lasting fashion impression, and Vogue magazine will select the leading looks, which will be spotlighted @metmuseum, @metcostumeinstitute and @voguemagazine.  Vogue will be rolling out “A Moment With the Met,” an exclusive YouTube livestream that celebrates the first Monday in May.

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Photo Credit: Sky Cinema / Shutterstock.com