Tuesday, May 2, 2023
10.30 am
MET GALA > OSCAR NIGHT
Like every year for the past 9 years, here I am back from another sleepless night following the most glamorous fashion event ever: the Met Gala.
To help you better understand my obsession, it is necessary to take a step back and explain what this event consists of, which in the fashion industry is also known as "the Oscars of fashion" and which for most people is simply "a red carpet where famous people dress in absurd ways" cit. my beloved colleague Elena.
Just say " first Monday of May ..." to unleash the enthusiasm of most fashion enthusiasts who, like me, have a strong attraction towards everything related to pop culture. The Met Gala in fact, always takes place on this date, that is, the first Monday of May, as always at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
On the occasion of this gala evening, designers, models, actors, singers - or more simply all those who are part of the A series of show biz - gather at the Met to celebrate the opening of a new fashion exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and to raise funds for the Costume Institute connected to the museum where during the year the actual works worn by the participants at the Met are exhibited.
The gala is by invitation only, and guess who gets to decide who is “worthy” of attending and who isn’t? The one and only Anna Wintour, director of Vogue America magazine and undisputed guru of the fashion world for over twenty years. Nothing in life is free, least of all a ticket to the Met: after passing the selections of the real Miranda Priestly, in fact, all designers have to fork over the ticket for the celebrities they decide to dress for the gala evening for a modest sum of 50,000 dollars - per guest:'
Each year there is a new theme that guides the design of the red carpet looks and in recent years it has ranged from Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination to Camp: Notes on fashion. This year's theme was Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty, a tribute to the contribution of the Kaiser to the world of fashion, who passed away on February 19, 2019 and was considered one of the most prolific, brilliant and accomplished fashion designers of all time.
Now that you have a more or less precise idea of what the Met is, it's time to try to explain everything that this gala represents for me.
This is me in New York five years ago.
I will never forget that day: my friend Daryl had come to visit me in the Big Apple and, given the infinite passion that we both have for fashion and pop culture in general, we decided to organize a little tour that would touch all the stops related to these two worlds.
A bike ride in Central Park, the ritual photo on the steps of the Met, a visit to the exhibition "Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination", a visit to the Tiffany flagship store on Fifth Avenue and ending with a super aperitif on the rooftop of the Standard Hotel (an incredible place where the after party of the Met Gala is organized every year).
Do you want to know the funniest thing?
I felt totally at ease in this world, as if I belonged there.
At the time I was still unaware of what my future held, I had recently started thinking about launching my own bag brand but beyond that nothing, I was just thinking about enjoying every second of that experience knowing that once I returned I would have to face real life and the responsibilities that come with it.
In New York I dreamed so much, I felt like a resident immersed in a frenetic and eclectic world like the one I always dreamed of living in; since I came back I started to come to terms with reality, to realize that never again will I feel so close to a dream that in reality is sooooo far away.
But the feeling of belonging I felt as I climbed those stairs will stay with me forever.
The Met represents this to me.
The ambition to set impossible goals for myself because those who dream big sometimes actually achieve those goals.
I hope that you too, like me, can allow yourselves ambitions like this. Let's aim high, at most we'll stop short!
For now I'm happy with the pajama look that I wear comfortably on my sofa at home, which doesn't look disgusting anyway :)
With much love,
Bi>
#AlwaysBiMOR
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