Some would call the Met Gala the biggest night in fashion, and with good reason.  The Queen of All Things Luxury and Fashion, Vogue Editor In Chief, Anna Wintour, whom the Met’s Costume Institute was renamed after, invites the who’s who of high society out for a night that honors fashion.  The purpose of the Met Gala is not just to give the have nots a reason to judge the haves, it’s to benefit the Anna Wintour Costume Center and to debut the newest exhibit installation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  The theme of the gala is whatever the new exhibit is.  Ideally everyone is to come in costume (operative word) in keeping with the theme.  This year’s exhibit honors the work of Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons, so everyone should’ve come either wearing the designer or the designer’s aesthetic achieved by another designer to pay homage.  In essence, the Met Gala is a haute couture costume party.

While I always have a bit of a struggle with the exclusivity of such events, I rationalized it with the thinking that only the wealthiest and most influential people can be invited, because those are the only people who have the means to properly honor the night’s theme.  This is an opportunity to really have fun, and do the absolute most with fashion, yet every year only a handful of people show up and actually do that.  This breaks down the entire reasoning behind the exclusivity of the event. If Rihanna is the only person we can count on to show up and show out, then why are we all here?  Granted a few others played along, but not all had the swag to really pull the looks off.  Then there were celebs like Kim Kardashian and J. Lo who have proven over and over again that they are pretty, yet they show up like it’s just any other event.  We know you’re pretty, we know you’re glam, why couldn’t you just play along for a fun night of avant garde fashion?  For Anna Wintour to be rumored to be such a hard ass, I can’t for the life of me understand why she continues to invite people to the Met Gala who don’t do the theme justice.  It’s all political I suppose.  Deep sigh.  Anyway, below are some of my faves, but I have to acknowledge Cynthia Erivo’s look which I only saw after the fact.  She looked phenomenal.

Holding court!! Pre #metgala17

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