- Hello, everyone.
I'm Anna Wintour.
I'm very happy to invite you to join me
as I look through some of my very favorite Met looks
over the years.
Particularly exciting at this time,
as we are getting ready to open in America,
the September 13th opening
of the Met Costume Institute Exhibition.
[relaxed jazzy music]
So, this first image is Bianca and Mick Jagger
looking incredible.
This was before I was involved with the museum back in 1974.
So it shows you what iconic past
the Costume Institute truly has.
And if you think about Harry Styles being the muse
for Alessandro Michele at Gucci today,
I think one could say
that Bianca Jagger was the muse for Halston.
And if you look at this incredible picture,
you understand exactly why.
So, this next image is Cher, looking absolutely remarkable,
accompanying Bob Mackie, who is the designer of her dress.
And it's particularly poignant for me to see this image
because Cher was so gracious in being a performer
at the last Costume Institute Exhibition, Camp,
where she looked just as amazing
as she does in this photograph.
This is from Rock Style in the late '90s,
and who better to embody rock style
than Liv Tyler and Stella McCartney.
And Stella tells the story
that she really had no idea what the Met Gala was,
and went to the East Village that afternoon,
and sewed these t-shirts herself,
and arrived on the red carpet and was, as she told me later,
completely in shock.
She, of course, was the life and soul of the party.
And this is the image
that everybody remembers from that night.
What's wonderful about the Met and the opening night
is that people feel very fearless.
And I think that gives them license
to dress in a way that they might not normally.
We definitely have seen our fair share of surprises,
and certainly this image was one of them.
I think people were surprised
to see Stella and Liv dress this way,
but I also think they very much enjoyed it and applauded it,
that it was different and risk-taking,
and everything the rock style should be.
This image is of the late Alexander McQueen
with Sarah Jessica Parker,
and Sarah Jessica Parker is the perfect Met guest
because she takes the theme of the night
unbelievably seriously
and plans it out for months and months ahead.
And she has spoken, you know, with such passion and sadness
and admiration for Alexander with this particular look
because they planned it out meticulously.
He flew over from London more than once.
And she tells a very poignant story
that she kept every single piece from this particular look,
including all the pins
and the scraps of fabric that were discarded
during the fitting process.
And this was one of those magical nights,
maybe because the subject of the exhibition was Anglomania,
and the Brits like to have a party,
and they like to dress up.
So this photograph of Blake Lively in Versace is from 2009.
And the reason I chose this picture is,
I think it was the night that
Blake Lively took the world by storm.
Everybody was saying, "Who is that girl?"
Of course we knew her from Gossip Girl,
but I think that she had not
reached the pinnacle of success that she later enjoyed.
And this was a dress that certainly was worn to be noticed.
And it was a wonderful, wonderful evening.
Every year, I think about
who might be the right people to invite to be our co-chairs.
And I decided for American Woman,
the only option of course, was Oprah Winfrey.
And she was delightful and enchanting and magnificent,
and standing in the receiving line,
as we do every year,
was so much fun because the guests were so overwhelmed
to see Oprah that they would curtsy or faint,
or just be completely tongue-tied.
And she was charming and gracious to everybody.
And she looked completely stunning here
in her great friend Oscar de La Renta's navy evening dress.
And afterwards, she hosted what was, I think,
the most memorable afterparty that we've ever had
with Pharrell and Justin Timberlake
and Oprah herself working the DJ booth.
The party went on 'til six in the morning.
This is Beyonce looking stunning
in Riccardo Tisci for Givenchy.
And of course, with Beyonce,
we're never quite sure if she's going to turn up,
but she knows her timing.
She was, by far, the last person on the carpet.
So it meant that she had the carpet entirely to herself,
which was absolutely what she deserved,
and she was certainly worth the wait.
So I think in the modern era,
when people think about the Met,
there's no question in my mind
that they think about this extraordinary dress
that Rihanna wore for the China exhibition,
China: Through the Looking Glass.
This dress must've been seen
several billion times around the world.
And when Rihanna arrived that night,
I think the world stopped
just to admire how extraordinary she looked.
And similarly,
to other guests that understand timing and entrance making,
I think Rihanna understood perfectly
that this was an entrance-making dress,
and that it was gonna be the,
not only the dress of the night,
but the dress of the Met through the annals of time.
So, she nailed it.
This is also from China: Through the Looking Glass.
And we asked some of the Vogue editors
who were helping out that night
to wear these beautiful pajamas that Michael Kors made,
especially for the evening.
And my particular favorite, of course,
is Grace Coddington right there in the middle
because Grace, practical to the last,
was so happy to be wearing this outfit
because she was going straight from the Met to the airport.
So now we're back to our favorite Met guest, Rihanna,
who asked John Galliano
to make this unbelievable outfit for her
for Heavenly Bodies,
which was an exhibition that really celebrated
the influence of the Roman Catholic Church on fashion.
And he made this look for her in three different colors,
in this cream that she chose to wear,
also in gray and in black.
And we didn't know until the night
which one she was going to choose.
And I always remember that night.
There were a number of
very important members of the Catholic Church
who had accompanied the Vatican choir
to perform at that evening
and were dotted around the museum.
And one of our guests went up
to one of the most important maestros.
I think the maestro who was actually in charge of the choir,
who was in his very classic Roman Catholic garb, and said,
"I really love your outfit.
"You really nailed the theme.
"But maybe Rihanna did it better."
Chadwick Boseman did it better.
He and Donatella Versace worked very, very hard
on his extraordinary cape and suit
that he wore also to the Heavenly Bodies exhibition.
And for those of us who work at Vogue,
he was the only guest
that people were talking about the next day.
How great does he look?
And going back to the idea of being fearless at the Met,
I don't think that, as much as we admire Frances McDormand
and her classic sense of style,
I'm not sure we think of her
as someone who has feathers on her head
or an amazing aquamarine Valentino Cape.
So, when she arrived at Heavenly Bodies,
she also took the red carpet by storm
because she was so out of her more traditional character.
And what was, magnificent about the way she looked
was how much she was enjoying it,
and how much fun she had the whole night.
Pierpaolo really understood what she was trying to achieve
and worked his customary magic.
So this last page was indeed memorable.
I think, two days or maybe just one day
before the opening of Camp,
which was our last exhibition at the Met,
Lady Gaga, who was one of my brilliant co-chairs
for that night,
called to say that she had an idea
that she wanted to create performance art on the carpet
because she felt that truly represented Camp.
I said, "Great, can't wait to see you there."
I had no idea what she was gonna do.
The first, I learned a little bit more about it was,
she walked with extraordinary panache down Fifth Avenue,
and I started to see the images
pop up on everybody's phones.
And I was lucky enough to stand at the top of the stairs
to watch her memorable performance,
where she arrived in Brandon Maxwell
and unveiled four outfits in front of the admiring crowd.
A Camp performance, indeed.
Thank you for watching.
I look forward to you joining us on Monday, September 13th,
for In America, either there on Fifth Avenue
or on our live stream.
It's gonna be a memorable night.
[relaxed music]