Only at the Met: An Oral History of the World’s Most Glamorous Gala

Chapter One: Its Reputation Precedes It

Karlie Kloss, model

Before I started going in 2009, it was before social media and before everyone had access to everything at all times. So there was something so mysterious about it. I didn’t know what actually happened at the Met gala, but I just knew that whoever walked that red carpet was transported to another universe.

Raúl Àvila, event designer of the Met gala

I had no clue what the Met gala was until Robert Isabell, in 1995, said: “We’re going to be working on the Met this year.” Robert, at that time, did everyone’s weddings: the Miller sisters’ weddings, John F. Kennedy Jr.’s wedding, Whitney Houston’s wedding, Sarah Jessica Parker’s wedding. He was the guy to call. It was the “Haute Couture” exhibition and I was his assistant and really behind the scenes.

Kendall Jenner, model

I always remember Kim [Kardashian West] talking about [the Met gala] a lot. When I first started getting into fashion, I thought of it as this otherworldly experience. It was so cool to me, that I thought, Oh, there’s no way I'll ever be invited to this.... I think when she first told me about it, she had not even gone yet herself.

Naomi Campbell, model

I think I became aware of the Met gala when I went with Gianni Versace. I don’t know who the first person I went with was, but I was wearing Versace and I know Gianni Versace, Donatella Versace, Christy Turlington, and Paul Beck were there. Perhaps even Santo Versace.

Rita Ora, singer

When I was growing up, the Met gala was, for me, one of those mystical things that people just dream about but never actually experience. The first time I really, really became obsessed with it was the year when Kate Moss went with Marc Jacobs and she had that turban on. It was just such a memorable moment for me, because Kate was such a British icon for me. That picture went everywhere. I definitely remember seeing it in the newspapers, and that’s when I realized the power of fashion.

Elle Fanning, actress

When I was around 12, Sofia [Coppola] introduced me to the fashion world; I met Marc Jacobs and got to campaign with him and I met the Rodarte sisters. It was probably the year before I got invited that I became aware. I was definitely a fashion junkie myself. I would always look at Style.com and drag all the models’ photos into different folders onto my computer. I was super-obsessed.

Prabal Gurung, designer

You knew about the Met gala when you were going to school at Parsons, but it seemed like such a faraway thing that was happening to someone on Mars or something like that.

Winnie Harlow, model

I would see big celebrities doing this incredible red carpet every year. And I didn’t know exactly what it was, but I was enamored by the glamorousness of it all.

Hamish Bowles, Vogue international editor at large

I vividly remember that Women’s Wear Daily used to do these incredible covers the day after the Met gala, which was then very New York–society-centric. They would give the attending ladies, and I think sometimes the men but principally the ladies, stars from one to five stars and the F.V. for fashion victim, which of course was the most deadly thing. John Fairchild was a very opinionated editor in chief and Women’s Wear Daily had the sort of knife out for certain socialites. I remember one year he put F.V. under Audrey Hepburn, who, I must say, was wearing a very uncharacteristically over-the-top dress, a crimson satin with a lot of feathers.

Andrew Bolton, the Wendy Yu Curator in Charge, the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

It was when Princess Diana attended. I think Liz Tilberis [then the editor in chief at Harper’s Bazaar] was the chair that year and Princess Diana was one of the cochairs or, at least, one of the hosts. I became aware mainly because John Galliano had just been appointed creative director at Dior and he made this incredible bias-cut slip dress for Princess Diana, and it was the first garment that John made under the creative directorship at Dior. That’s the first time the Met gala came onto my radar; it was for the opening for the Christian Dior exhibition [in 1996].

Michael Kors, designer

The ladies, people like Nan Kempner, Pat Buckley, and Jackie Kennedy, I had been following them and looking at them on the pages of Vogue since I could remember—since I was probably 12 or 13. And the notion of meeting Mrs. Vreeland there was just...for me, it was Valhalla.

Law Roach, stylist

The first time that I started to deep-dive into it, to really pay attention, was the year when Sarah Jessica Parker wore a mohawk at the Alexander McQueen show. That was the year I kind of started to dream about being there.

Stephen Jones, milliner and exhibition headpiece designer

I first knew of [the Met gala] when Diana Vreeland was there. Back in the library, at college, there was the book of her first exhibition at the Met, which was covered in gold brocade, and it was a Hollywood [“Romantic and Glamorous Hollywood Design”] exhibition from 1974. I was at Central Saint Martins in London then and it was 1976 and we were all punks, wearing rubber and leather and hanging around in the library with a bottle of red wine hidden in our bag. But then, I saw this book and I looked inside it and just marveled at the images and the story. It was called Hollywood something, something Glamour. It was the most extraordinary thing I had ever seen. I tried to steal the book but I was found out by the completely terrifying librarian who basically rugby tackled me as I tried to skip over the entrance to the library.... About 15 years ago, I bought a copy at auction in perfect condition for really quite a bit of money.

Chapter Two: My First Met

Prabal Gurung, designer

The first year I went was the year Oprah [Winfrey] and Lady Gaga hosted. I remember, up on the staircase, were Anna [Wintour], Oprah, and all the cochairs. I had dressed Michelle Obama for her White House Correspondents’ Dinner in this red gown just a few days prior, and when Oprah saw me she said, “Oh Prabal,” and she gave me a big hug. She was like, “Michelle looked really wonderful. Michelle looked amazing!”

Raúl Àvila, event designer of the Met gala

I left Robert [Isabell] in 2004 and then Anna [Wintour] asked me to come and help her with the event. It was the 2007 Met gala, it was Paul Poiret. That was my first one and probably still my favorite to this day.

Elle Fanning, actress

The very first Met gala I went to I was 13, and it was the “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” exhibition. I went with Valentino and I went with my sister and, my god, it was just an incredible experience. I was freaking out that I was so young and that they invited me to go. I was sat next to Franca Sozzani. I wore this little—I looked like a little Oreo, in the best way—navy and white lace little short skirt.

Andrew Bolton, the Wendy Yu Curator in Charge, the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The first Met gala I went to [...] I was so lucky because I had just started in 2002 and so it was “Goddess: The Classical Mode,” and it was extraordinary because Gucci was a sponsor that year, and Tom Ford was one of the cochairs. And he was coming with Nicole Kidman and that was all arranged. And what was extraordinary is that when Nicole arrived, with Tom, they also brought Adrien Brody, and that year they both won the Oscars. I think Nicole for The Hours and Adrien for The Pianist. So you had Tom who was really the most famous designer at that time with these two Oscar winners escorting him up the red carpet. It was absolutely extraordinary, I remember really clearly.

Kendall Jenner, model

My first year was “Charles James [:Beyond Fashion]” and I went with Topshop.... At that time I was too afraid to take any crazy risks, because I was just so new and still figuring it all out. So, I thought my dress was really perfect for me, especially for my age, the time, and who I was going with.

Rita Ora, singer

[When I realized I was attending,] I don’t know if I cried or if I vomited, because it would be the scariest one minute of my life, having to go up those stairs. But I was just so honored. I thought, I can’t believe I’ve made it to the point where I can hold my own at such a powerful event with such inspiring, influential people from all over the world. To be able to walk onto that carpet was just such a huge honor. It just made me feel so much better and confident about what I had been doing in my life. It’s like a certification.

Daniel Arnold, photographer

I think I first heard of the Met gala when I got the assignment to shoot inside the event in 2015. I think I looked at Larry Fink photos the night before because I was super-nervous and I continue to be nervous the night before that party each year. It’s the closest my job comes to, like, competitive sports. Not that it’s competitive, but the stakes and the opportunity are so outlandish and the timeframe is so short. It’s one of these times where you feel like you can’t even afford to blink.

Naomi Campbell, model

It was always very nice because Gianni Versace, when he had to do any of these public events, he always invited us. It was really kind of him to want to invite us, the models, and he always did to whatever public event he had to do or if he had to receive an award of any kind. He didn’t have to invite us so it was just nice to be invited to enjoy a nice evening with him and Donatella.

Law Roach, stylist

Tommy Hilfiger was very gracious to invite me. We had put a lot of work into the Tommy x Zendaya collection and he’s such a good person, he said, “You know, you deserve to come and celebrate with us.”

Tonne Goodman, Vogue sustainability editor and former assistant to Diana Vreeland at the Costume Institute

I started working with Mrs. Vreeland at the Met after dropping out of art school, and one of the best parts of the Met gala, or the Party of the Year, which it was then called, was the staff party the night before—the floor was opened up to all the people that worked on the exhibition and it was like their own little in-house party. It was very, very charming. And everybody went—the installers, the light guys, everybody, everybody. It was really probably the most fun part of it all.

Vera Wang, designer

I went first as a member of the Vogue team, and at that time, if my memory serves me right–I was trying to look things up, but they aren’t even on Google–but it would alternate between Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar every other year. I remember being at Mrs. Vreeland’s show for Saint Laurent. It was at that Met, it was downstairs in the basement; I remember that was quite an exhibition. God, I’ve been going...can we not say for how long? Half a century! I don’t think I’ve actually missed a year if I’m going to be really honest.

Hamish Bowles, Vogue international editor at large

Well, the awful thing is that I can’t remember which Met gala was my first one. Isn’t that just awful? I remember Blaine Trump and Pat Buckley; I was at the Dior exhibition in 1995 and I think I might have been at “Haute Couture” the previous year. Back then, it was a lot of the grand social women in haute couture and some American designers. The atmosphere was honestly rather Edith Wharton; there wasn’t really a sense of a great cultural mix or sort of uptown, downtown mix so much. And then with Anna [Wintour] it became much more the Vogue mix, beyond society—sports and politics and tech and layer by layer, all those elements got added.

Michael Kors, designer

I think 1980 was the Met gala that I went to. Back in those days it was not the first Monday in May, it was in December. And I met Vera [Wang] while I was designing for a store in New York called Lothar’s.... And she called me out of the blue and she said, “Do you want to go to the dance after-party at the Costume Institute?” Of course, before she finished the sentence, I said, “Sure, when?!” Rather than wear black tie, Vera was wearing my design: a charmeuse slip—a little nothing of a dress—with a mohair sweater tied around her waist and a down jacket. Definitely breaking the rules for black tie. In the early days, it was not really a lot of people in the entertainment business, it really was the New York social world and you would watch most of them leave after dinner if you were attending the dance party in the Temple of Dendur. I think Vera and I saw people like Nan Kempner, and Lee Radziwill, and Pat Buckley, and all of the ladies coming out of the dinner portion. And unfortunately that night was the night that John Lennon was assassinated. And it started snowing and there were no cell phones. Somehow the word got out that he had been shot and, of course, we all left. It was such a sad moment. Also, I think at the time we didn’t realize that this had happened just across the park. We kind of felt like we were there.

Chapter Three: The Party Prep

Raúl Àvila, event designer of the Met gala

We design the carpet, the entrance, the Great Hall. It takes an entire year to plan and produce and to get everything done in a week in the museum so it’s done in time for the party. For the design in the Great Hall, we work through the night from Sunday at 7 p.m. when the museum is closed and everybody is gone, until noon or 2 p.m. on Monday. By that time, we have to clean up and be sure we are ready to open the doors.

Elle Fanning, actress

I realized that it’s much better to start your hair and makeup early, so you’re not stressed out and you’re not late. Normally the hotel you’re staying in, everybody is staying in, and to get your car is a whole mess. It’s the worst traffic in the world. [Even though] you are staying so close [to the Met], it takes you practically an hour to get there. I can get anxiety easy because I know Anna would not be happy if you’re late. Everyone has a certain time that they’re supposed to be there!

Detective Michael Lombardi, New York City Police Department

Controlling the crowds and safety is always our main priority. We’re trying to have the littlest impact on the community, the Upper East Side, and nearby residents. Getting this very large and elaborate production off smoothly, it’s very hard. We have to try to control traffic on Fifth Avenue, because we can’t shut it down and have to keep traffic flowing. We have to facilitate a drop-off and pick-up with 160 to 200 black cars as smoothly as possible; getting them in, getting them out securely, not having people crash, which we’ve had in the past. There are anywhere between 5,000 and 8,000 people that flock to Fifth Avenue to try and celebrity sightsee. It’s tough.

Sally Singer, former Vogue creative digital director

The pleasure of covering and working on Met as I did from 2013 to the 2019 was thinking of every possible way of telling the story, with minimal interference to the event itself, with as many points of view on that experience. It was as though we snuck into the museum to sort of mingle and work like ninjas among the guests. It was a real pleasure to see Casey Neistat make videos; Brandon [Stanton] from Humans of New York tell people’s stories of the Met; and to see anything Daniel Arnold, Cass Bird, Bardia Zeinali, and Gordon von Steiner did as well.

Izak Senbahar, owner of the Mark Hotel

It’s two days where all the celebrities come in and eat, drink, sleep at the Mark. It seems like a really fun slumber party, you know, with everybody under one roof, except that instead of, like, the people being in their sweats, everybody’s dressed to kill and looking terribly glamorous and sexy.

Prabal Gurung, designer

First of all, go with the theme. Sometimes you want to stick to it strictly or you just give a nod to it. It depends on the girl I am taking, but the question to ask is, “What do you want to tell the world with what you wearing?”

Stephen Jones, milliner and exhibition headpiece designer

Working on the headpieces for the “Anglomania” exhibition, I was thinking, Well, if I were back in punk times, but knowing how to make hats as I do now, what would I like to have? So I made a Mohican out of cigarettes and I made him a Mohican out of tampons, which actually went before the museum board. And it was actually quite funny because all the men were saying, “I don'’ know if we can have this?” And all the girls are laughing. It had to go before the board, the cigarettes got through but not the tampons at first. I mean, what a topsy-turvy world—just shows you, doesn’t it?

Andrew Bolton, the Wendy Yu Curator in Charge, the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

We work pretty late getting the exhibition up and we are there very late the night before, so it’s a mixture of exhaustion and euphoria that I feel the night of the Met gala. You’ve achieved this with your team, to put the exhibition on. And by that point, I’ve tweaked it so much because I’m sort of an endless tweaker. I really do walk away from it. I’m still fiddling up to the press preview, but once that has happened and I’m at the gala, I do see that as the end of me sort of working on the exhibition.

Sophie Pape, Met gala consultant

Katy Perry’s Moschino chandelier was a whole thing. It weighed 50 pounds and the dimension of that look allowed for just an inch and a quarter to clear the museum door. I got the picture of the chandelier and then I flagged the dimensions, like, can we even get it this in? And there was a lot of back and forth on how we were going to get her hat on and because it was battery powered, how long that battery was going live. We wanted to make sure that it’s as systematic as possible with these entries so we had to time her arrival so she didn’t have to bypass the line because everyone’s important. So it was a little bit tricky. Then when she was inside, she changed from her chandelier into a burger. I just wish she had been a hot dog because it was very difficult for her to get in between some of the tables in the dining room.

Vera Wang, designer

You have a choice as a designer: Either you embrace the theme fully and you’re able to execute that to the best of your ability, or you really just make it about your own style as a brand, no matter what the theme is. I think dressing one to three people is manageable, but when you start to get above five on that kind of night...it must be extremely intense. Even with stylists, I can’t even imagine. It’s a lot to manage; it’s like managing a mini football team, but everybody’s in a different uniform.

Detective Michael Lombardi, New York City Police Department

We have a lot of requests that go through Sophie [Pape] for celebrities. When she calls me and she says, “Hey Mike, you know, celebrity X, Y, and Z wants to do this.” And I say “They want to do what? That’s not safe!” One celebrity last year, her outfit was very elaborate and she couldn’t fit in a regular car. So they were proposing she get transported standing up the cargo area of a see-through windowed van, and that’s a major security issue. They need to follow the rules of the road. A celebrity in a see-through truck being driven around is going to cause a lot of people who are excited to run and take pictures, and that creates a public safety issue on the street.

Chapter Four: Say Yes to the Dress

Elle Fanning, actress

I actually haven’t really bonded fully with the theme until last year. That is the first time I really decided to completely dress up. I think that the camp theme really lended itself for people to go all out and have fun. I had this I Dream of Jeannie vibe and I had these crazy nails with charms hanging off every nail. I got a fake tan and I was so not myself, really transformed.

Vera Wang, designer

One year I wore a dress from my Chinese collection, not the Chinese Met exhibition, but I did a Chinese collection. And actually, Stella Tennant wore the same dress with a black oversized Yohji Yamamoto blazer over it. It was ironic that we were both in the same dress and she was not my guest. It was a white dress with black straps. And then, listen to this, years later, Selena Gomez wore the same, a slightly different version of the same dress I made custom couture for her, to the Met. That means three of us were wearing the same dress to the Met gala!

Michael Kors, designer

Hands down my favorite year was “Camp.” To be able to dress the queen of camp, Bette Midler, and her daughter and then to take someone Gigi Hadid’s age, who for her the concept of camp was new, but she was fully fearless and wanted to have fun with it.

Karlie Kloss, model

When I attended in 2011, it was the year I graduated high school, I wore Dior to the Met gala on the Monday and then Dior again to my prom on Friday the same week. And John Galliano and his team helped me find a dress for each; that was a really special year.

Hamish Bowles, Vogue international editor at large

It might not have read as her most spectacular red carpet look but Kim Kardashian West in her gold Versace, when you actually saw that in person. I mean, it was absolutely like this transcendent thing, she looked like some devotional, goddess of fecundity. It was incredible!

Prabal Gurung, designer

I designed a dress in a certain shape for Diane Kruger, but then she said, “Oh, can we make it an empire waist?” Only later did I realize that she was pregnant.

Law Roach, stylist

When Zendaya went with Michael Kors, her hair stylist Ursula Stephen was cutting her hair riding down the hotel elevator. It was such a precision haircut that if it shifted at all, it wouldn’t fall right. So Ursula was literally cutting her hair as she was stepping out of the Mark [Hotel].

Nicolas Ghesquière, designer

I’m always joking that getting ready with your date to go to the Met feels like you’re getting married. I’ve never been married, but the Met gala feels like a wedding—a very long wedding.

Hamish Bowles, Vogue international editor at large

I took Sarah Jessica Parker to “Punk: Chaos and Couture” and I had gone to her townhouse to collect her. It was delightful because it was this whole kind of family situation with kids tumbling around, her husband seeing her off, and she had this extraordinary Mohican headdress on. But we realized she couldn’t sit in the seat of the car in the vehicle that I had come to collect her in because she couldn’t fit upright with her headdress. So we had to move the seat and she sat on the floor. That was absolutely hysterical. I believe Philip Treacy must have been responsible for the fabulous-but-unaccommodating headdress.

Anna Wintour, Vogue editor in chief and U.S. artistic director and global content advisor, Condé Nast

There was no shortage of sensational outfits at last year’s “Camp”-themed gala—Billy Porter in his gold wings, Zendaya in her L.E.D. Cinderella gown—but the chandelier dress worn by Katy Perry, who is always one of the red carpet’s biggest risk-takers, was a true standout. Quite literally! We had to measure the doors of the Met to make sure they were wide enough to accommodate the Jeremy Scott–designed contraption. Not everyone knows this, but the candelabra came complete with working lightbulbs!

Chapter Five: Climbing the Steps

Vera Wang, designer

The stairs are intimidating. Let’s be very frank. I mean, I worry about them every year. Depending on the kind of dress or costume you’re wearing, it can be extremely intimidating. Last year, Stephen Jones, the wonderful milliner from London, went with me. I had on this big feathered Ziegfeld Girls sort of thing. And between the weight of that, my hair extensions that day, and the beading on my dress, I could barely walk. I mean, you look up and it’s like climbing Everest, you know, without an oxygen tank!

Raúl Àvila, event designer of the Met gala

What I remembered about those earlier Met galas is the tent was very minimal, it was ugly, white, with no cover, nothing to make it beautiful. And if it was raining, you could see the water coming down from everywhere on the tent and people got wet. But in those times, I guess people didn’t care. People just wanted to be there.

Kendall Jenner, model

I was the new kid so I didn’t have a ton of friends yet in the industry, but I was going with Topshop so I knew a couple of people that were also going with them. I think it built my confidence a lot, walking in and not really having a permanent buddy. Kim was with Kanye, and I always knew if I needed something she would help me out, but it was kind of cool to be on my own in there.

Rachna Shah, partner, managing director PR and digital at KCD

It’s a very nerve-wracking experience for the guests because it is so highly regarded and so highly photographed. I mean, this photo is going to run forever.

Elle Fanning, actress

I think it’s the only red carpet in the world that you can be in a costume and that’s okay and accepted. It’s like the Studio 54 or the Black and White Capote ball for people of our generation.

Andrew Bolton, the Wendy Yu Curator in Charge, the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

We [Bolton and Thom Browne] never do the red carpet. We tend to sneak in the back way and we spend a lot of time in the exhibition, actually; we often miss cocktails, which is a really fun bit but I’m in the exhibition space just chatting to people who are interested in talking about the exhibition.

Chloe Malle, Vogue contributing editor

Before I started at Vogue in 2010, I was working at the New York Observer and the style reporter who usually covered the Met was sick. So they sent me and I had no idea what I was doing and it was terrifying. I was in the press pen on the red carpet line next to the New York 1 interviewer with really bushy eyebrows, George Whipple, and his cameraman, because I’m so short, kept dropping his video camera on my head.

Detective Michael Lombardi, New York City Police Department

There are two things that I will never understand in this world and that’s art and fashion. I will never get it. Understand it. I try to look at it, but I just scratch my head looking at the red carpet.

Chapter Six: It’s My Job to Party

Allie Michler, Vogue director of fashion development

There’s always a directive from Anna and the events department that explains what all Vogue girls and guys should wear. So my team works on calling in the clothes as early as two months before from past designer seasons. We try to have different people and their aesthetics in mind and we set up fittings and basically turn the fashion closet into a makeshift studio.

Anna Wintour, Vogue editor in chief and Condé Nast U.S. artistic director and global content advisor

Hours before 2013’s “Punk: Chaos to Couture” red carpet was to start, we discovered that an assistant to our indefatigable event designer Raúl Àvila was a punk fanatic. We sent him home to Queens in a town car to collect some pieces from his collection, so he could join the models lining the staircase. He made it back just in time, mohawk and all, and he even appeared in Bill Cunningham’s coverage of the gala.

Chloe Malle, Vogue contributor

There’s so much back-of-house, front-of-house stuff the night of. Especially when we were putting out the Met gala special edition issue. During the gala, I was lucky enough to go and I would be manically running around trying to do the Best Dressed list with Sally [Singer] from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Then I would sit, have dinner, and feel like Cinderella at the ball, literally running out before the clock strikes midnight to get home sleep for two hours and then be in the office by 3:00 a.m. to start going over photographs that come in. There’s a strange disconnect between what I just experienced and being in the gray office in pitch black looking at pictures of Rihanna that are popping up on the wires and starting to call out who might be on the cover.

Sally Singer, former Vogue creative digital director

My first time attending with American Vogue, it was the “Rock Style” exhibition year in 1999. I went to the flea market and I bought a yellow sequined poncho with matching sort of long-line bootcut yellow sequin trousers for $60. I had my friend Mario Nico give me extensions, which I thought was terribly exciting, like an extended ponytail. I thought I was pulling a Cher. I thought I looked great and then all of the other women who worked at Vogue had so much jewelry on, they had security guards around them. I thought, I don’t know if I got this right.

Virginia Smith, Vogue fashion director

I have to say, when I see all the Vogue guys and girls lined up when you’re walking up is so great. It’s so sweet and I always get emotional about it every time I walk in and see everyone all dressed up. They’re so happy to be there.

Tonne Goodman, Vogue sustainability editor

The Vreelands were friends of our family and I was at that time actually dating Nicky [Vreeland, Diana’s son]. So I had a double life when I was working at the Met. I would go to Yellow Fingers with Nicky and then I would install a mannequin from Mrs. Vreeland. I really was a worker bee. I really installed the shows and I loved it. I absolutely loved it. And the great payoff was you had this incredible party that everybody was at and everybody was happy.

Marley Marius, Vogue features associate

When I was at Columbia University, I blew off a final to go stand outside the Met Gala. I tried to get there early and still there were a lot people standing on top of each other. It felt so intoxicating to have that proximity to power and celebrity. And the drama of the tents! Obviously it makes for a dramatic picture, but the fact that it’s so open to the street, it’s theater—the momentum of all the cars arriving and people shrieking before they were sure which celebrity would get out. It felt worth it to stand out there. Fast forward to a year later, I interviewed to be Anna Wintour’s assistant—and I got the job.

Nancy Chilton, chief external relations officer for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The lost and found department is very busy the next morning. We get a lot of emails about people who have lost jewelry, etc.

Andrew Bolton, the Wendy Yu Curator in Charge, the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

One experience I remember really clearly, it was during the “Punk: Chaos to Couture” exhibition and it just brought tears to my eyes. Anna [Wintour] had arranged for these models to stand at either side of the grand staircase, dressed as punks. I remember they were given special instructions not to smile and not to engage with the guests and suddenly, there was this eruption of applause—all of the models were clapping. And I remember, thinking oh no they're going to get in such trouble because they're not meant to be doing anything. And it was Vivienne Westwood who had just arrived. They were clapping for the queen of punk.

Chapter Seven: We Met at the Met

Michael Kors, designer

Rihanna was standing next to me so I went to introduce myself, and before I could say anything, she looked at me and she said, “I know who you are. It’s great to meet you.” And I said to her, “No, it’s great to meet you!” She said, “We’re all meeting each other.”

Karlie Kloss, model

I met Kate Moss at the Met, and as a [then] 16-year-old model, that was pretty amazing.

Rita Ora, singer

The year I was wearing Marchesa, I bumped into Gwyneth Paltrow in the hallway. I was alone because my date at the time was at the table and I was kind of like, “Oh where am I going?” I remember her kind of embracing me; I think there’s a picture of it. And that was a really special moment because she just made me feel like, “Oh it’s going to be fine.” I was lost for a second.

Kendall Jenner, model

I remember Jared Leto last year had a mold of his own head. He’s like, “Take it for the night!” And I’m like, “This thing is heavy. I have wings! I need to give this back to you.”

Law Roach, stylist

I sat next to Lewis Hamilton and he invited me skydiving. I haven’t taken him up on that yet, but Lewis invited me skydiving!

Stephen Jones, milliner and exhibition headpiece designer

I remember once walking up to Marc Jacobs. He was with Karen Elson and Cher and he said, “Stephen, have you met Cher?” I mean, only at the Met gala!

Andrew Bolton, the Wendy Yu Curator in Charge, the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Cardinal Dolan, who I got to know quite well during the Heavenly Bodies dinner, he likes his food and he was appalled about how small the portions were. He's used to, I suppose, massive portions and tipped a waiter to go out onto the street to get him two hot dogs.

Jeremy Scott, designer

A personal moment for me goes back to Madonna. Growing up, I was persecuted for being gay, for being different, for having flamboyant style in rural Missouri. I would basically have to ignore all these verbal, sometimes physical, altercations. I had one real beacon at that time and that was Madonna. And it was what gave me hope. Seeing her documentary Madonna: Truth or Dare and seeing her love of her dancers and the gay community, I would think, Well you know what? Madonna will be my friend one day. And I used that as a way to protect myself from the daily battle. Fast forward to 2017, when she was my date to the Met gala and we went into the video booth. There I am dancing with Madonna; I’m making a music video with Madonna, who is dressed in my designs. I just remember turning to her saying, “You know, that was one of my biggest highlights of my life, just getting to dance with you.”

Detective Michael Lombardi, New York City Police Department

I had a unique interaction the year Tom Brady hosted, maybe three years ago. Here, being in New York, I’m a diehard Jets fan. We were set up on Fifth Avenue and a car tries to pull in. So the window rolls down and it was a few guys trying to cut in and I was like, “Listen you can’t come in this way,” and then I recognized who they were. It was Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola, two receivers for the New England Patriots. We had a fun little interaction. I was like, “This is not Patriots country! This is Jets country!”

Chapter Eight: Meet Me in the Bathroom

Kendall Jenner, model

You almost forget the environment you’re in and then you’ll walk into the bathroom and be like, “Oh my God, there’s Jennifer Aniston! Oh my God, Sarah Jessica Parker.” You know what I mean?

Elle Fanning, actress

I know Cass Bird was in there for awhile and she would take all the photos and I even have some cool photos. I have a really good photo of Lupita Nyong’o in the bathroom. It’s on my phone still and I never showed it to her. You always can snap good photos in the bathroom, that’s for sure. There’s feathers and glitter all over the floor being left behind and people whispering in each other’s ears the gossip that’s going on. You can always tell there’s some drama. It feels like a high school bathroom.

Michael Kors, designer

I went with Jessica Simpson one year and she went to the ladies’ room and she seemed to be gone from the table for quite a while. So I got a little nervous and I was hoping she was okay. And I went to the ladies room, which always was the best party at the Met gala, especially during the early 2000s. And I opened the door, and it was basically a full party going on and I didn’t see her. She was in a stall because her zipper broke and she actually couldn’t close her dress. So we got a needle and thread and we sewed her back into the dress!

Winnie Harlow, model

My favorite Met story is me trying to use the bathroom the first year in that big white wedding dress. On your wedding day you have a whole team of bridesmaids who can help you with that stuff, but at the Met you’re by yourself. So I walked into the bathroom and there was Katy Perry, Cara Delevingne, and I think Joan Smalls, was in there. I was looking at myself in the mirror, kind of giving myself a pep talk in my head about how I was going to accomplish using the bathroom in my dress. As I started to stroll over to the stalls, Katy Perry looked over at me and she was like, “Do you need help? You’re going to need help.” So she came into the stall. We just left the door open, my dress was so big. She picked it up and helped place it over the toilet. Then Cara came over and said, “Oh my God, can I take a picture of this?” And I was like, “Yeah, sure. Why not?”

Chapter Nine: Never a Dull Moment!

Kimberly Chey, senior development officer for events at the Met

There have been several crashers who weren’t fully clothed. Those were kind of shocking moments, you know, be it topless, bottomless, or semi-bottomless. But the naked man in the box definitely takes the cake.

Elle Fanning, actress

The year I went with Thakoon, the “Manus x Machina” year, I had this really long ponytail. It was a massive thing of fake hair and I was whipping it around in your Vogue studio. It came off—my hair totally fell out and Alexa [Chung] was like, “I got this!” She pulled me aside, we went to the bathroom, and she was like a hair master. She absolutely knew how to do it and put it all back together right before we walked in—she saved me!

Rachna Shah, partner, managing director PR and digital at KCD

At her first Met gala, Celine Dion showed up and she was like, “Do I need to show ID? I don’t know if I have it in my pocket.” And we were kind of joking with her that, you know, obviously I think we can tell who you are by your voice. And so she actually started singing. I mean it was incredible! It was Celine Dion standing right in front of you singing!

Anna Wintour, Vogue editor in chief and U.S. artistic director and global content advisor, Condé Nast

At the 2007 exhibition, “Poiret: King of Fashion,” the centerpiece of the installation in the Met’s Great Hall was a peacock cage. At one point, the lone peahen escaped the cage—keep in mind, it was suspended 20 feet above the museum’s marble floor—and flew all the way to Arms and Armor before she could be returned to the three peacocks that had been keeping her company. What a sight!

Eaddy Kiernan, Vogue contributor and former special events director

People have been incredibly resourceful in terms of how they’ve snuck in, and fortunately the security has gotten to the level of the Secret Service over the years. But we had one person, a gentleman who actually hid in the museum. He went into the men’s room the day of the Met gala during the press preview when the museum was open to the media earlier in the day. He stood on top of a toilet seat all day long and then snuck out at night when it was time for the gala—but security ultimately did find him and sent him on his way.

Sally Singer, former Vogue creative digital director

One year Jessica Simpson was there with John Mayer. She was wearing Michael Kors and her breasts maybe fell out of her dress on the red carpet...and then at dinner it was suddenly like, whoa, Jessica Simpson’s breasts are across from me at the dinner table and they are on a platter and I’m looking at them. And John Mayer was putting his hands on them at the dinner table. He kind of reached down and I just remember thinking, Oh, celebrities, feel free to play here. That’s what’s going on.

Detective Michael Lombardi, New York City Police Department

It was the last car that night. We’re standing there, truck opens up, kind of looking at it like Okay, last car, lets go. Oh, it’s a box, it was covered. They picked the box up, they put it on the red carpet, they take the cloth off, and there was a gentleman who is inside of a plexi, see-through box, completely nude on the red carpet. Quickly, you know, myself with security, got that box removed from the red carpet and we needed to get that box open and see what was going on with him. It was a very interesting, maybe 15 minutes that played out until we really got it under control. And I didn’t expect that. We heard about crashers years prior, but a person coming in a plexiglass box, naked, was something new for all of us. The box was shut. I was there with my supervisor and we were trying to talk to the guy in a box and he’s not answering us. Is he alive? Is he breathing? You know, why aren’t you answering us? Does he need medical attention? So we had to get the fire department to open up the box...he was placed under arrest.

Chapter 10: And the Singer Is...

Anna Wintour, Vogue editor in chief and U.S. artistic director and global content advisor, Condé Nast

The joy of spending time with my brilliant friend Baz [Luhrmann] working tirelessly to make the gala magical, whether getting up in the middle of the night to film Judy Davis in Australia as Elsa Schiaparelli, or staying up all night to support Madonna as she rehearsed for her glorious performance on the steps, or watching the faces of the Vatican choir boys as they realized they were singing in front of Bradley Cooper, Rihanna, and Donatella Versace. Most people don’t know that Madonna’s performance at “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” was an addition at the eleventh hour, when the Vatican nearly dropped out because they didn’t want their choir to miss any school or exams. Hers ended up being one of the best performances of all time—giving us all a new appreciation for the term perfectionist. Every single step she took was predetermined and choreographed to a T. We wanted to place staff in the audience to help part the crowd, but she was determined to do it on her own.

Raúl Àvila, event designer of the Met gala

Kanye West didn’t like the stage we designed. There was just no saying no to him and so we had to change the entire stage that very same day.

Elle Fanning, actress

Katy Perry performed one year that I went and I have a vivid memory of Sofia [Coppola] and I dancing to her and videoing ourselves. That was so fun. There’s always great performances and it’s always kept very secret. I mean, you never know who it’s going to be. Always the murmurs. And it always surprises you.

Andrew Bolton, the Wendy Yu Curator in Charge, the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

You had this person walking down the stairs as a monk and it was only after she sort of disrobed, that you realized it was Madonna—it was just extraordinary. What was so beautiful about that—because she came down the stairs and then through the guests—it was a bit biblical, actually. The crowd parted like Moses in the waves.

Eaddy Kiernan, Vogue contributing editor and former events director

Cher was very devoted to this concept she had of constructing gigantic wings from an Egyptian goddess that would come up, flanking either side of the Temple of Dendur. And in our mind, I think it was difficult to conceive. We didn’t know how it would work and she was saying that it would be lit up and we had some real concerns about it, but we decided to sort of trust the process and it ended up being just about the most camp moment I think any of us could have ever imagined. And there were all of these men in gowns sobbing with joy at the gala. It really came together in the end.

Hamish Bowles, Vogue international editor at large

My second Rihanna moment was completely astounding. It was the year Rihanna performed and I had a table that was perpendicular to the stage. I was right at the end of the table, so I was looking at the stage. And my table—which, I didn’t know, had been specially reinforced and the waiters had raced to clear everything from it—was her performing runway. So, as I was literally sitting at the end of the runway, she was basically doing the concert for me, she was walking toward me and sort of directing it all toward me. It goes without saying, it was a mesmerizing performance and for obvious reasons an electrifying moment on every level.

Mark Guiducci, Vogue creative editorial director

At 2013’s gala celebrating punk, there were two performances in the Temple of Dendur. Debbie Harry performed with Blondie on one stage and then, on a second stage at the other end of the room, Kanye West. That night he debuted the first songs from his unreleased album "Yeezus", which had never been heard before. He blasted "On Sight" and "Black Skinhead" so loudly you could hardly hear anything but noise. To premiere those songs, in that room...I just remember thinking that is punk. I also remember I was wearing a Givenchy skirt.

Anna Wintour, Vogue editor in chief and U.S. artistic director and global content advisor, Condé Nast

You understand why certain stars are stars. Working with Madonna, and Cher, and Lady Gaga was a lesson in excellence, precision timing, and bravado. Though in 2010, the year of “American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity,” I do remember Gaga not wanting to come out of her dressing room. She was reluctant to go on stage—waiting for “divine inspiration,” if I recall—and had to be coaxed out by Oprah Winfrey. Eventually she did, of course, and her performance of “Bad Romance” was absolutely unforgettable.

Chapter 11: The Time of My Life

Nicolas Ghesquière, designer

The room is filled with so many people that you are craving to meet during the year, it’s inspiring to see what’s going on in the cultural world, to see Cindy Sherman seated somewhere. You’re in between two feelings—one of feeling absolutely privileged and very thankful to be one of the guests and also feeling like a kid in one of the most fantastics.

Daniel Arnold, photographer

I heard later, this is total hearsay, but I believe it, somebody else had overheard Larry David complaining to whoever he brought along with him, “There’s an hour of my life, I’ll never get back.” Maybe that reads poorly, but at the time, my instant thought was what a nice touch! Like if Larry David had a good time, it wouldn’t have been as good of a party.

Kendall Jenner, model

It’s just such a fun night with cool people. At the end of the day, I think that we’re all fans of each other, and to be able to really connect with these people, who do such amazing things and are so talented and so creative... I’m getting chills even talking about it.

Naomi Campbell, model

It was nice to just see everyone just come and pay their respects to Anna, you know? I mean, she traveled around the world and attended every show, for every designer, and she would be in many of the fittings as well back in the day. It was nice to see everyone from all over the world take that time to come back and pay their respect to her.

Stephen Jones, milliner and exhibition headpiece designer

For any creative person doing something at the Met, you pinch yourself because you’ve reached a certain sort of pinnacle and it’s amazing to think that we all start off our career not knowing how things are going to turn out. When you’re doing something major at the Met, well, you have arrived.

Jeremy Scott, designer

When I got the message that Andrew [Bolton] wanted to speak to me about the exhibition, that he wanted to include several pieces, well, I cried. It was such a life affirming moment for me. I used to go to the Met as a student. I used to sketch all these clothes that were in the archives. By the nature of what I do, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but that’s what's beautiful about it and that’s what makes it special. But sometimes that’s what can make it feel a little isolating and lonely. I’ll never forget what that exhibition and it’s opening made me feel.

Andrew Bolton, the Wendy Yu Curator in Charge, the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

What’s so incredible about the gala is that it’s not just a Costume Institute fundraiser or a Met event. It has really become a New York moment and it’s part of the New York landscape, New York history.

Originally Appeared on Vogue