01x04 - The Rise of the Met Gala

[bunniefuu]

[woman] Good evening and welcome

to the Met Gala

at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

right in New York City.

It's gonna be epic.

Oh, my God, the Met Gala is legendary.

The Met Gala is like

the Super Bowl of fashion.

[Enninful] The best designers

in the world gather to celebrate fashion.

The Met Gala is truly

a place where the designers can flex

and show their couture ability.

[reporter] Fans watched

as Met Gala darling

Blake Lively literally transformed

her look into a patina princess.

And the godmother of it all,

Anna Wintour.

People enjoy seeing fashion at its best.

Theatre, fantasy,

a world of creativity.

The Met Gala is also the place

where fashion and celebrity really mix.

It is like an onslaught of lenses

and people screaming out your name.

It's pure, utter glamour.

And it is the place to go,

[gasps] "Who's that over there?

Who's that over there?"

It has become about fashion

as entertainment

and keeping people fascinated.

[Enninful] The Met Gala has become

this cultural phenomenon.

But it wasn't always like that.

This is the story of how Vogue and Anna

created the most important fashion event

in the world.

[indistinct chatter]

'Cause I don't know about being that.

Yeah, so, less messy.

-Maybe.

-Yeah.

-[Wintour] You have to see it.

-That's all right.

-[Wintour] Yeah, like that.

-That's good. Yeah.

When I think about the Met,

I think about the extraordinary breadth

of talent and creativity and design.

And I think that's what the Met

needs to be.

The women, we've tried bow ties

and no bow ties.

Some of the violinists

feel like the bow ties get in the way.

Well, you know, it could

What if we do a Karl collar,

but maybe just a tiny little button,

like Karl used to have the shirts

that buttoned up, like mid-19th century.

Yep. Yeah.

Baz, he's into every single detail.

And to have that maestro eye gives me

so much confidence.

[Luhrmann] And then maybe a little bit

more weight on there.

It's good. And then maybe something

on here, right? So, it's like a little

The story of us and Anna

is we've become great friends,

but we also believe, and I think

possess and own the same values.

Embracing of the new, looking forward,

not trying to hang on with your claws

to, like, the past

while not throwing the past away.

And if it becomes problematic

-Yeah.

-Maybe nothing.

Maybe nothing.

Today, the Met Gala

is the single most watched

fashion event in the world.

-The shoes have to sparkle.

-Right, the shoes are like, big statement.

On we go.

But it's taken us 25 years

to build into the event that has become

the household name,

the global name that it has become today.

People think the Met Gala

is a relatively recent phenomena.

It was something that began in 1948.

In the very beginning, the Met Ball,

it was very small and elitist.

[Kors] It was a very private little party.

The Upper East Side of New York,

socialites,

a word we don't even hear any more.

And it stayed that way

for quite some time.

[Elizabeth Hurley] But in the early '90s,

I don't know if the general public knew

what the Met Gala was.

I think it was just the industry.

God, it was so different.

It was just like another one

of those things

that you kind of went to

that was a fashion thing.

And I got home from work and I was like,

"Shall we go?"

And it's like, "Yeah,

all right, then, let's go."

But then in 1995,

everything started to change.

[reporter] Last night's New York Gala

had beauty, it had class,

but most importantly, it had style.

After years at the helm,

Mrs William F. Buckley Jr. decided

to step out of the limelight

and turn things over

to Vogue editor Anna Wintour.

[Wintour] The first Met that

I worked on was back in 1995.

[reporter] Everyone who was anyone

in the fashion world was there.

Oscar de la Renta, Tommy Hilfiger,

Calvin Klein, Kate Moss,

Isaac Mizrahi and Gianni Versace.

[Wintour] There was

no traditional red carpet.

It was just a mix of people

from the fashion industry

and socialites and donors to the museum.

The Met Gala in 1995, I probably

would have gone as a guest of Calvin.

It was low-key.

It felt very inside baseball

in kind of the coolest way.

I went to Anna's first

Met Gala in 1995,

and I wore a dress from a thrift shop

in Pittsburgh where I was sh**ting.

[chuckles] I've worked really hard since

to right that wrong.

[Wintour] We were just starting out,

but I realised

there was an opportunity there

and to bring the world of fashion

to a much broader audience.

The Met couldn't be kept

in an ivory tower for ladies

who lived on the Upper East Side.

We needed to broaden it out

and reflect the moment.

[Enninful] At the time,

there was a huge shift happening

and it felt like the beginning

of a whole new world.

Fashion, music, film

The arts were just blending.

But until the mid-'90s, we hadn't actually

seen the fashion world at the movies.

Here's my process.

I get inspired somehow, somewhere,

from the ballet, from dance,

from a movie, from something.

And from there,

I do all these millions of sketches.

It's one, two three 14, 15, 16.

Same jacket. Minus that figure, right.

[Wintour] Unzipped was the first

fly-on-the-wall documentary about fashion.

Here, hold that, would you? Oh, Naomi.

No, that's coming out.

[Campbell] No, the ring doesn't come out.

The chain and the little

[Mizrahi] Mary.

I can't. It closes up.

It closes up in an hour.

I have to get it redone again.

[Mizrahi] Well,

20 minutes you'll be on the runway.

It lifted the curtain on the experience

of creating a collection,

the experience of a fashion show,

the experience of actually being

a fashion designer.

[photographer] Beautiful.

-You're a little close

-Yeah, exactly.

-It's like, my pores are not that small.

-Exactly.

We did not know what the hell

we were doing when we made Unzipped.

But you realised that there was a great

form of entertainment in the making.

When Isaac created that documentary,

it was opening up a world that previously

had been very hidden from the public.

We just kept sh**ting

and sh**ting and sh**ting.

No one was doing something like that.

And it was just full of fashion people.

First time I met him,

he was filming Unzipped.

I didn't even know him before that.

-[Mizrahi] Where are you from?

-Okla.

Oklahoma? You're such a liar.

I swear to God.

He was so ahead of his time to kind of be

documenting fashion in that way.

Isaac, why do you always give me

the flat shoes

and you always give Maomi McCampbell

the high heels?

You gave me slippers for my finale

last season. Every single time!

The success of Unzipped

showed there was a huge appetite

for fashion as entertainment.

You could watch Isaac

being this impresario backstage.

Go music.

Let's go, let's go.

That was him. That's what he liked to be.

He liked to be front and centre.

I've never been at a show

with so much energy,

and editors clapping, talking, screaming.

It was like a star was born.

I think it really kind of switched

the whole lens of everything.

He brought fashion

into the world of popular culture

in a way

that had not been explored before.

[Goodman] Fashion had dipped its toe

into popular culture,

and Anna recognised that.

[Kors] Anna looked at the Gala and said,

"You're having a conversation

with yourself.

"Why aren't we making this night

more inclusive, more engaging,

"and not just fashion?"

[Bolton] Anna's talent

is identifying those lightning rods.

The people that will generate buzz

and that will generate interest.

I think that transformed the Gala.

[reporter] Last night was

the Metropolitan Museum's Gala opening,

celebrating 50 years of Dior.

Though it was Dior they were celebrating,

most eyes were on the guest of honour,

Princess Diana.

[Bowles] Princess Diana

at the Met Gala was

quite a coup, I suppose.

[reporter] She was in the company

of the evening's co-chair,

her friend, Harper's Bazaar editor,

Liz Tilberis.

Princess Diana had that ability to light

up a room when she walked into it.

[Bowles] It sort of gave

a new flavour to the Met.

Princess Diana understood fashion,

and she enjoyed looking her best.

I think it's something

that she wears beautifully,

and I think she's here tonight

to support it.

And it worked, and she connected.

As the Met grew in its star power

and global media recognition,

and that brought, I think,

the right kind of spotlight to the night.

[Bowles] After that, I knew the Met Gala

would change in some way.

I didn't quite conceive

how much it would change. [chuckles]

[Luhrmann] Back of the hand is going to

page that garment like that,

and the flute, come here, yeah.

-So, shall we do it one more time?

-One more, last time.

Guys, we'll do it one more,

but just actually imagine

Just imagine that you are there,

and actually engage with the musicians

as they're going around you.

It's good to put everyone

under pressure they'll feel on the night,

which is there's gonna be

a lot of interesting-looking folk

looking back at you,

with big dresses in the way.

We ready? Take our first position, please.

[eclectic classical music playing]

The Gala is one of the great events

of the year.

But I think one has to look beyond

that spectacularness

to see what it really is doing,

which is to get the public to appreciate

what the Costume Institute offers.

The Costume Institute is consistently

the number one most visited exhibition

in the Metropolitan Museum.

Every year, Andrew Bolton, the curator,

thinks of some extraordinary idea

or theme.

Punk or Camp or Anglomania.

The Met Gala was invented as a fundraiser

for these exhibitions.

We rely on the Met Gala for our salaries,

our operating costs, our acquisitions.

It's our primary source of funding.

In 2023, we are celebrating

the life and work

of the extraordinary Karl Lagerfeld.

[Enninful] The Met

is where fashion meets art.

[Goodman] And the mission

of the Costume Institute

is to promote and celebrate fashion

as an art form within the halls

of the Met Museum.

The Costume Institute at the Met

is the largest collection existing

in a museum today.

My job is to support

the work of Andrew Bolton.

Andrew is presenting

those exhibitions in a way

that the wider public

will understand and appreciate.

And it's so rewarding

when you walk around the exhibition

and see how engrossed the visitors are.

They are really studying the work

in a way that is It's why we do it all.

[reporter 1] Entertainment and fashion

drew together Monday night in New York

at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

[reporter 2] Madonna, Elton John,

Cher, Gwyneth Paltrow.

All of these stars and more turned out

to pay tribute

to the work of the designer to the stars,

Gianni Versace.

[Bowles] In the 1990s,

no designer did more

to change the direction of the Met Gala

than Gianni Versace.

Gianni was a showman,

you know, he understood the importance

of having celebrities

and lots of cameras

and a feeling of excitement.

The whole Versace experience

is the experience of celebrity,

movie star, music,

all of that is vital for today.

I just remember always looking forward

to going to Gianni's shows

because there was something about bringing

fashion to life in a very original way.

[Versace] I always say be yourself is

the only fashion you can wear, it's you.

That is Versace, it was a philosophy I had

from when I was very young.

Gianni Versace

He had his clear vision

and that's why I loved working with him.

I think I missed one show when I had

to fly to meet President Mandela,

and I was really scared to tell him,

Donatella and I were scared to tell him.

Finally, when we told him, he said,

"You have to go."

He then made 50 shirts and gave me

to take to President Mandela.

[Wintour] Gianni had this

amazing love of life.

He was a very close friend of mine,

we spent holidays together.

He would pack everything up himself,

and we would cross the road

in front of the house and go to the beach.

No security, just us and the children.

He didn't lock himself away,

and I think that's why

he always believed in

walking to the newsagent by himself.

Which was such a tragic decision.

[reporter 1] Fashion designer

Gianni Versace was m*rder*d today,

gunned down outside his mansion

in Miami Beach, Florida.

[reporter 2] Police say Versace was

targeted on his usual morning walk.

[reporter 3] Versace was opening

the front gates of his beachfront home

when a man in his 20s shot him.

It was a profound loss.

It was a loss for the fashion world.

It was a loss for everybody.

I got a phone call 10 minutes before I got

to Rome and I didn't believe it.

Now we're never gonna see him again

and it's so unfair. It's not fair.

When Gianni died, I felt a lot of grief.

A lot of grief and not knowing

how to cope with the grief.

We're all human,

and I leave it there.

[Valletta] Gianni Versace

was beloved by many people,

but he was also an icon and a giant

in our industry and the world at large.

To have lost him that way

and so violently and it just

I can't even tell you how shocked

I think we all were.

There was nothing pretentious

about Gianni.

Always treating people with great respect

and living a true life.

[Bowles] Vogue wanted to celebrate Gianni,

and I wrote the piece saying

what an incredible designer he was.

And I think that for Anna, it was a way

of saying goodbye to him.

He was an extremely influential designer,

an extremely brilliant designer

who certainly deserved to have

that exhibition at the Met.

[reporter] Friends of Versace say

that it was one of his dreams

to have his work on display

at the Metropolitan Museum of Art,

so now his wish has certainly come true.

I like the world to see Gianni work.

Not only fashion people with the chance

to come to every fashion show

during his career,

but also people from the streets.

It represent my brother in a great way

as he want to be represented, absolutely.

[Wintour] I give a lot of credit

to the museum that they understood

that it was important to remember him,

and they were able to create

an extraordinary exhibition in his memory.

[photographers clamouring]

[reporter] The evening was

full of fashion, finery and fun,

but at its heart was the memory

of their friend, designer Gianni Versace.

[Evangelista] He had friends

in every corner, you know?

The music people,

he had the Hollywood people,

of course, the fashion crowd.

He had everybody.

Everybody wanted to celebrate Gianni.

I'm just thrilled, you know,

it's been a long time coming

and we just hope we're gonna have

a wonderful night in his memory.

There was a real feeling of solidarity,

and suddenly, the Met Gala started

to have more importance.

And so the Met Gala became a moment,

a photo-op moment,

that was a dream for contemporary culture.

Melding fashion

and pop icons of the moment.

[Wintour] When I look back at that night,

I think that was the night

that began the big change

of how people looked at the Met.

Yeah, that might have influenced

the direction that the Met Gala took.

Maybe it was the beginning

of what it's become today.

I would always sit at home

and dream of the Met Gala

and look online, and just stay home

that night just to look at the pictures

and see the feed on the Internet

of what everyone was wearing.

[modem dialling up]

Imagine a world

where every word ever written,

every picture ever painted,

and every film ever shot

could be viewed instantly in your home

via an information superhighway.

[Bryant Gumble] What is Internet anyway?

What, do you write to it, like mail?

Allison, can you explain what Internet is?

In the late '90s, the Internet

changed everything so radically.

That little mark with the A

and then the ring around it?

-"At".

-See, that's what I said.

Katie said she thought it was "about".

-Yeah.

-Oh.

[Jonathan van Meter] Internet Explorer

ended up in everybody's living rooms

and I think it, like, instantaneously

affected the way the culture,

it sort of forced a turning of the page

somehow right in the middle of the decade.

[reporter] Fashion invades cyberspace

as computer technology

and the fashion world merge.

Today, countless fashion designers

have websites on the Internet.

[Goodman] The first person to actually

live stream a fashion show

was the Austrian designer Helmut Lang.

[Bowles] Helmut Lang absolutely moved

with the times.

The clothes were super simple

but with great nuances of cut.

And I think he became really one

of most important designers of the '90s.

Helmut Lang was very influential

at this point

and kind of ahead of the game for sure.

Suddenly, fashion really is democratic.

Even if you live on a farm in Australia,

you're at the show.

You are welcome to join the party.

[Goodman] And if there was

one thing that confirmed

fashion was reaching a wider audience,

it was the arrival of a new TV show,

Sex and the City.

You have to give Sex and the City credit

for being a showplace for fashion.

It is a phenomenon, right?

[Parker] I was a woman writing

a column in New York

talking about intimate relationships

with her female friends,

with the backdrop of a city that was like

all tingly and alive and

fashion.

You know, the first season we shot,

we were at a budget.

It was very modest.

We were begging and borrowing

from, really, only from warehouses,

which in some ways I wonder

was the genesis for Carrie

wearing so many thrift store pieces,

because that's what we could afford.

All the clothes were loaned,

and Patricia Field was the big designer

that dressed her for that show,

and put her style on the map.

Its uniqueness in tone and fashion

in New York was arresting.

Everybody was talking about it,

and the curiosity and interest just grew.

[Goodman] The turning point

was when fashion designers

started to work with the show.

And then one day, Fendi took a gamble

and decided to loan

Sex and the City this bag.

[Goodman] In one episode,

Carrie gets mugged

and the guy doesn't want her phone

or her wallet.

He wants her Fendi Baguette.

Give me your bag.

-What?

-Your bag.

-It's a Baguette.

-Let me have it.

[Parker] The Fendi Baguette moment

just hit a nerve and people went bananas.

[chuckles]

When she carried the Fendi Baguette,

that took off.

It's one of those miracles of suggestion

that that was the bag to have.

She put it on the map.

And I remember going into Fendi

with my sister

and it was just like looking at a wall

of pick-and-mix sweets.

You had to have that bag.

[Bowles] When the brands

clicked with Sex and the City,

they really threw everything at it.

[Parker] The loan of that Fendi bag

really changed everything.

It just opened doors for us.

All of a sudden, we had far more access

to important designers and couture.

It went from Fendi not being sure

whether to send their bags

into Sex and the City

to Dior giving them the keys to the store.

[Goodman] Of course, when Carrie finally

saunters into the Dior store in Paris,

her dreams of sophistication

come crashing down.

Bonjour, madame.

-Bonjour. [exclaims]

-[all gasp]

To have powerhouse brands like Dior

open their doors to Sex and the City

was a massive moment for fashion.

[Bowles] In one episode,

Carrie even gets the job

every fashion-obsessed New York girl

dreams about. Writing for Vogue.

[Carrie] I had just submitted

my first freelance article

for one of the most relevant

and provocative magazines

on the newsstands today, at least to me.

Vogue. Also known as Mecca,

where I belong.

We always say that was because Fendi

gave us the chance.

Sex and the City really invited the public

into this niche world of fashion

that had been quite elitist before,

and they couldn't get enough.

[Enninful] Now fashion houses

have entire departments

dedicated to getting their products

to TV and film.

After Sex and the City aired,

there was this kind of new relationship

in terms of entertainment with fashion.

Fashion was no longer a cottage industry

but had now crossed over into mainstream.

The whole world wanted to know

what was happening in this

ever-growing industry.

[announcer] Live from New York City,

this is the 1999 VH1 Vogue Fashion Awards.

[narrator] For the first time ever,

the hottest rock stars,

the most beautiful models,

and the best-known designers

together in one room.

In 1999, Anna decided to sponsor

the VH1 Awards.

VH1 was the YouTube of the time,

and it expanded our universe.

[photographers clamouring]

The music scene was so important

at this point,

and for me, personally,

this seems like a no-brainer.

It was a thrilling concept, really,

this idea that you were going to marry

fashion with the wider pop culture.

And the winner is Marlon Brando.

Wow! No, it's Lenny Kravitz.

Alexander McQueen.

[both] Jennifer Lopez!

[cheers and applause]

The first Vogue VH1 Fashion Awards

I remember very clearly.

The Women's Wear Designer

of the Year is

Because I won.

Tom Ford for Gucci!

Which was great.

I'd like to thank Vogue and VH1

and the Style Council for this award.

Thank you. Thank you.

[Goodman] The VH1 Awards gave fashion

an even broader reach

because it was broadcast

all over the world.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Can you imagine that exposure?

All of a sudden, fashion was coming at you

from all angles,

from awards to Hollywood.

You were bombarded

everywhere you went with fashion.

The influence on the Met Gala

would be major. Major.

[reporter] The 51st Annual Costume

Institute Gala

rocked the Metropolitan Museum of Art

on the Upper East Side.

This year's theme is Rock Style.

Well, I just did a book called Rock Style.

And the book is a history

of rock stars' costumes over the years.

And that influenced the Met

as to what should go into this exhibit.

It was a little bit rebellious for the Met

and for what Anna had been doing

prior to that.

So, that night

was like a major costume party.

[people clamouring]

With everyone dressed like rock stars.

A lot of really cool people turned out.

You have so many icons in other industries

wanting to be a part of the Met Gala.

Fashion and rock 'n' roll meet together,

we jam, we have a good time, we party.

Rock 'n' roll is attributed

a lot to fashion,

and fashion is attributed

a lot to rock 'n' roll. So

It's like two peas in a pod.

I mean, music and fashion,

one created the other

and I think it's come to here.

[woman] And we've got

Stella McCartney over here.

That's Liv Tyler.

I remember, I went with Liv Tyler

'cause she was one of my best friends.

And we really didn't know what to expect.

I was like, "What am I gonna wear?"

And I'd bought these vests

and I went down to a place

called Filth Mart,

I asked them if they would customise

these vests for me.

They were like, "When do you need them?"

I said, "I need them in three hours."

And they were like, "Okay."

And I remember going

and picking Liv up at her apartment.

And she had a makeup artist

and a hairdresser, and I was just, like,

"Wait a minute, what is that?"

She's like,"I'm having my hair

and makeup done."

And I was like, "You're getting your what

and what done?"

sh**t these two.

[McCartney] We didn't know what the hell

we were letting ourselves in for.

We went up the stairs, we both were like,

"What the hell was that?"

We couldn't believe what was going on.

We were literally fish out of water.

I will never forget Stella McCartney

and Liv Tyler's Rock Royalty T-shirts.

I'm sure they haven't either. [chuckles]

Then the next day,

we were on the cover of, like, WWD.

Which apparently was a big deal.

We didn't know.

It was copied everywhere,

which was just completely unexpected.

I remember I had a fitting

and I swear to God that Gisele came in

in one of those rip-offs, to my fitting.

I remember being like, "Gisele!"

[Coddington] The Met had grown.

[whooshing]

Yeah.

It had become the place to be invited.

It had overwhelmed, I would say,

even the Oscars.

[Bowles] But while the red carpet

was forging ahead,

the runway was being left behind.

[Wintour] It was a different world.

You would go to Paris

and sit in a very uncomfortable chair

and just watch the girls come out

in very, very slow motion.

And up down, up down.

And some music.

And there was nothing beyond that.

Alexander McQueen

was the first to see that

and understand what a show could be.

The idea of fashion show,

really, as entertainment.

Fashion, what does it mean to you?

It means change. Constant change.

That's the way I thrive,

is because I have to do something new.

What's the point of doing it

if it's not new?

42-71.

Lee wouldn't really accept no.

He wanted to push the boundaries.

He just kept going. I mean,

all of the shows were like that.

It was always doing something

never done before, really challenging,

a real puzzle as to how the team

were gonna make it work.

My God, this is

like a 10,000 people job, this.

[man] I'm not gonna do all of this.

[Goodman] The famous, famous show

that Alexander McQueen did

is utter brilliance in my opinion.

It's unparalleled.

What Alexander did was change

how clothes should be presented.

Then I remember the show finished,

we thought the show was done.

Out came Shalom in this white fabric,

but it had a belt.

And, "What's going on?"

There was no rehearsal,

I didn't hear the music.

This was purely spontaneously improvised,

every moment of it.

Out came these robots

who then started spraying Shalom.

[audience exclaiming]

I remember, literally,

the audience gasping.

[Harlow] It was iconic.

It almost looked like a pagan ritual.

Lee was expressing a lot of incredible

pathos in this moment.

I mean, it was incredibly emotional.

I think that's the first time tonight

that I was blown away by my own show.

That man-and-machine thing

at the end is

I'm still in shock, really.

It's the first time I've cried in my show.

[Wintour] I always admired

his creativity and his brilliance

and his conviction and his fearlessness.

And his shows were simply astonishing.

This is when the fashion shows

really became a piece of theatre.

And really, incredibly exciting.

And that actually had a big influence

on the Met Gala.

[Bowles] Alexander McQueen's genius

was to take fashion and turn it

into performance art.

And that really felt like the final piece

of the puzzle for the modern Met Gala.

-Beautiful.

-Amazing.

Yeah. As Justin Levine described it,

that's an absolute banger.

-[all laugh]

-Would you like to hear anything else?

-It's fabulous.

-Yeah.

It's gonna set a really good emotion,

and a really good mood.

And Anna knows, some of these have

really great personal connection to Karl.

There'll be a lot of people coming in

who will know that.

-So, just

-He loved to waltz.

He loved to waltz.

And he had a nice ballroom to

waltz in, too. But that's another story.

-[Wintour] They really work.

-[Bolton] This one is great in the end.

And this is the

-It's so beautiful.

-canonical and countercultural line.

[chuckles]

-What do you think about the explosionals?

-They're all Wow.

It's like such a surprise,

'cause it's like, wow,

the combination

of masculinity, femininity,

-and here it is.

-I was worried it'd be

too much of a statement, like, too big.

It's fantastic.

In his brilliance, Andrew Bolton

boiled down the exhibition

from 10,000 costumes to 200.

I love that one.

[Harlech] It's very you

with all the necklaces.

[Wintour] I love that dress.

And Michelle's

Yeah, isn't it beautiful, this?

[Wintour] What were you saying?

That's concrete?

-So this is concrete, cubes of concrete.

-[Harlech] He did concrete sequins.

Of course he did. Who else

And it took three years to develop.

The focus of the exhibition

is very much about the work.

And the idea is that

you get to know Karl for the work,

rather than the caricature

that he developed over the years.

You know, he was somebody who anticipated

where fashion was going.

Karl was always about the zeitgeist.

He loved popular culture.

He knew the power of a celebrity

very early on.

And I think he was using celebrities

as a vehicle for his clothing

and for his own aesthetic.

-[Wintour] It's looking really good.

-[Bolton] This looks good, isn't it?

And once we've got all the lighting done

and the greens look amazing.

Karl loved the Met Gala 'cause, you know,

he was the ultimate voyeur.

And, you know, there's no better place

to be a voyeur than the Met Gala.

-[crowd cheering]

-[woman] Rihanna!

[reporter] Welcome to the 2023 Met Gala.

The night we honour the life and legacy

of one of the most influential

and prolific designers in the history

of fashion, Karl Lagerfeld.

The Met Gala has turned into

the ultimate expression of pop culture.

'Cause I don't go to the Academy Awards.

Fashion people, we don't go to the Oscars.

Politicians don't go to the MTV Awards.

There's only one gala that we all go to.

And that's the Met Ball.

[Campbell] Chaos.

But organised chaos. Fun.

So phenomenal.

[Enninful] The Met Gala

is the ultimate viral fashion moment.

A designer having one viral moment

on the red carpet equals 10 shows.

And it just gets bigger

and bigger and bigger.

[Parker] I think it's definitely

intimidating, the carpet now,

because there's just so much attention

and everybody is, in a sense,

competing for the prize, you know?

[Banks] It's a sport.

It should be in the Olympics.

And it's, "How can I top you?"

[Goodman] Fashion is an art.

And it is enormously powerful.

The purpose of the Met Gala

and the Costume Institute

is to support that and to promote it.

Fashion within the halls

of the Metropolitan Museum.

That's the point.

[Wintour] The Met has reached

millions around the world

because, I think people understand

that whatever is happening in fashion

is reflecting our culture, it's reflecting

what's happening in the world.

Fashion is a conversation

and I think that's the joy of the Met.

Chanel, Chanel, Chanel. Gucci, Gucci,

Gucci. Gucci down, Chanel down.

Some people call it high end, low end,

but it's ghetto fabulous.

That's what it is.

Taking that logo was like stealing

the crown jewel.

It was major.

Ralph Lauren gave you one horse.

I gave you a whole herd.

Rappers wanted the whole herd.

Can you imagine doing that

in this time period of social media?

Instagram down, Twitter down,

Facebook down.

I just loved the fact

that she just left the house like that.

TikTok down, Twitch down.

Everything down. [chuckles]

It was the beginning of a phenomenon,

I guess you could say.

Hip-hop music and the way they dressed

changed the world.

[theme music playing]