The First Monday in May (2016) Movie Script
(indistinct shouting
from photographers)
(indistinct shouting)
Photographer:
Hold that right there, please.
(indistinct shouting continues)
Anna Wintour: The Met stairs,
you know,
that famous red carpet,
has grown in spectacle
over the years.
It's a kind of theater.
(man speaks indistinctly)
Fashion can create a dream,
create a fantasy.
But there might be some
questions about
whether fashion belongs in a museum like the Met.
Photographer 2: Rihanna!
(indistinct shouting continues)
(elevator dings)
Some people have a very 19th
century idea of what art is.
There are people
within the museum
who still dismiss fashion.
Thomas Campbell: When I
started off as a curator,
art was considered to be
painting, architecture
and sculpture.
Anything outside of that
was decorative arts and,
quite frankly,
looked down on.
Costume and fashion being
one example of that.
Wintour: The museum is
its own little world,
its own little city. Some more old-fashioned
traditionalists
are used to things being done
in a certain way and
maybe a Costume Institute
makes them a bit uncomfortable.
Harold Koda: Physically,
the Costume Institute is
subterranean.
And so the psychology of it
has always been that
we were in the north sector...
in a basement.
It was not seen, really,
as an art area.
(indistinct conversation)
Andrew Bolton:
Fashion is still considered more in the female domain
than something like painting.
I think that's the reason
why some people
are quick to dismiss
fashion as art.
Koda: Fashion seemed
frivolous and trivial
to the 19th century attitudes
about fine art.
But it's laden with concepts,
aesthetic principals,
the most refined techniques...
Everything that we subject the criteria of art to.
We're about clothing
as art works.
Wintour: It's rare to find
someone so creative,
that they can change the way
you look at an art form.
But McQueen definitely did.
Newsreader: Our top story:
Alexander McQueen
has been found dead
apparently committing suicide
at his London flat.
Newsreader 2: Brilliant
and controversial fashion designer...
Newsreader 3: The bad boy of
British fashion died an icon.
An inspirational designer
who helped transform
the fashion industry.
Newsreader 4: They were shutting
down his shops today,
and there were people fleeing
his shops crying.
(bagpipes playing)
(cameras clicking)
Campbell:
It was the immediate aftermath
of McQueen's suicide... Andrew came to me and said that
he had been thinking about
an exhibition.
Tom was reluctant initially.
He felt it was a bit ghoulish.
There needed to be some time
before we did an exhibition
of McQueen.
Wintour:
A lot of people felt that
an exhibition may not be
appropriate so soon after he,
he died in such
an awful way,
but Andrew is a real visionary,
and our job is to help him
execute his creative genius.
Campbell:
The combination of the objects,
the very theatrical
mise-en-scne,
the sound... (sound of rushing air)
There was an immersive
component to the exhibition
that took it to a new level.
The degree to which the show
became a phenomenon...
None of us
were prepared for that.
People queuing around
the museum.
It hasn't happened
for many years.
Wintour:
It touched a chord in people
that I'd never seen before.
Campbell: It redefined
exhibition-making in museums. Bolton: "Savage Beauty"
was the turning point
in terms of how art critics
began to view fashion,
and the first time they did
begin to see it as an art form.
When you're confronted
by genius,
it speaks to everybody.
McQueen was one of the most
provocative designers,
but I always saw this
incredible beauty
about his work and this deep romance.
He always tried to tap into
this juncture between
beauty and ugliness and terror.
And he had that ability
to use clothes to move you.
The McQueen show has become
a little bit
of an albatross in a way...
A millstone around my neck.
Because it's the show
that every show that
I've done subsequently
is measured against.
Invariably the reviews
in The New York Times...
"Not as good as
the McQueen show."
And it's sort of...
disappointing to read that
in print
because every show
has its own momentum.
I remember being at school, and we had a career adviser.
They went
around the class saying,
you know,
"What's your ideal job?"
And I said
my ideal job would be
curator in the
Costume Institute of the Met.
And I was about 17.
It really was
a dream come true.
I was just so seduced
by the romance
of getting lost
in the museum and
finding objects that you weren't expecting.
But my overwhelming emotion was
just being intimidated by
the museum and the curators.
I felt a bit of a fraud as well,
to be honest.
I felt as if I was gonna get
found out really quickly
that I wasn't actually
meant to be doing the job.
I still feel a bit like that.
This show that we're currently
curating is called
"China:
Through the Looking Glass."
It's a collaboration between
the Costume Institute
and the Department of Asian Art.
We want to show how
Western fashion designers
look to China for inspiration.
There is this ongoing dialogue
between the East and the West.
And fashion is easier
to understand
than language itself.
Every show I do
is quite personal
and I'm so tired of hearing how
McQueen is the most successful
show we've ever done. It would be nice if China
was able
to knock it off its pedestal.
Bolton: It's like the
Great Wall of China.
(Wintour chuckles)
- Let's start at the beginning
- Wintour: Wow!
- Wintour:
- It's huge. Yeah.
Bolton: We have a
whole section based on
blue and white porcelain.
Starting with a really early one
from Molyneux from the 20s.
- And then Sarah's from...
- Wintour: They were amazing.
Bolton: This is Guo Pei,
a Chinese designer.
Cavalli, Karl, Rodarte...
That leads into
St. Laurent's Chinese collection
- and his Opium scent.
- Okay.
We're borrowing one of those
from the St. Laurent archive.
But the big presence really
is John's Chinese collection
for Dior.
Oh, wow!
Look at the fullness.
Love his tailoring.
Bolton: Galliano is a designer
who is difficult to unpack.
Because he's collaging all these ideas
into a particular collection.
He's taken the idea of
the 18th Century panier,
which is normally at the side
of the gown,
and twisted it around
so its frontal.
He's doing so many references
to the Bowery, the Queen Mother.
Eighteenth century,
Peking opera, Kabuki.
He's an amazing storyteller
on the level of
fantasy and romance.
So I wanted to interview John
because he looks at China
constantly for inspiration.
What surprised me was how
consistent China was as
an inspiration in your work
and I just wanted to find out,
why China? I think it was
that sense of mystery and...
...danger, but only danger that
you've got that feeling
through portrayals
from Hollywood.
There's mixtures of Chinese
opera, geisha
and the Queen Mother...
I don't think I set out to
recreate China.
As you can see,
I certainly didn't achieve it.
So, it was a fantasized...
...vision of China.
A fictional character develops,
and I kinda, like,
start living it,
breathing it.
Paint the picture who she is,
how she looks by candle light.
Can you smell that
powdery lipstick?
I like to express my emotion
through the cut. Each time you cut a fabric,
it's a different
relationship you have to it.
It can be like
mercurial liquid oil.
Or like licorice.
The creative process
is my meditation.
Playing with textures
and shapes and volumes...
That's something that I love.
And because of that,
I am able to
to even think about
going back into an industry
where I've become an outcast.
That fantasy world that
I create is an escape for me.
(indistinct chatter)
Bolton: John weaves these
very personal
and seemingly bizarre narratives into his fashion.
It's quite easy to dismiss
fashion designer's
engagement with China,
as being inauthentic.
But I want to focus on these
works of art that are
extraordinary examples of
a designer's imagination.
You think about someone
like Saint Laurent...
He absolutely changed
the course of fashion history.
There's about 2,000 pieces
in total haute couture?
I think it's more. - Between 5,000 and 6,000.
- Six thousand.
- So beautiful...
- It's a Mondrian.
You've got so many of them.
Yeah, we have different
versions.
Bolton: The Mondrian dress,
with the idea of lining up
the stripes.
It's such tour de force,
isn't it?
Bolton: It looks very easy.
It's such a complicated thing
to achieve.
It's so radical.
Do you have the '71?
- Seventy-one fur, yeah!
- You do.
Yeah. Okay.
Bolton: The craftsmanship that
went Saint Laurent's clothes,
his usage of embroidery, the element of camp...
It's iconic.
Bolton: They are unquestionably
works of art.
Oh, my goodness,
I haven't seen that before.
It's very modern.
Unbelievable.
Bolton: I see so much
magic still in fashion.
It's just overwhelming.
A dream come true.
(chuckles)
Bolton: I grew up in
a small town in England.
And the only access
I had to fashion were
star magazines,
emerging in the 80s.
I just missed the punk movement.
The first movement that
I really engaged with
was New Romanticism.
Which was all about
gender blurring.
I remember seeing people
on the streets
thinking how they looked like
they'd arrived
from another planet.
But also how brave they were.
I was so impressed by the power
of fashion to confront gender
and sexuality.
That's never left me, anyway.
You're still that little kid
from Lancashire who...
...is totally in awe.
Ah, Lawrence,
where is Singh, please?
- Lawrence:
- Okay.
Wintour:
The Costume Institute and Vogue
have a long history together.
Diana Vreeland actually ran it
after she left Vogue.
Please don't stand there!
Wintour: We have one major party
every year to raise funds for
the Costume Institute.
The party supports
our operating budget
for the entire year.
Koda: The Met Gala
was the invention of
this small group of
fashion professionals.
It was relatively small,
but the department itself
was very small.
Bolton: Anna's taking it
to a different level,
in terms of the money that
she's raised over the years.
$120 million
for our department alone.
Michelle Obama: Thanks to Anna's contributions,
the exhibits at
the Costume Institute
have drawn hundreds
of thousands of visitors
to this great American museum.
(applause)
Since Anna Wintour has
taken over the Met ball,
it has become the Super Bowl of
social fashion events.
It starts with months
of preparations,
not just for the exhibit,
but for the actual Met Gala.
Woman: We're starting to plan
for the gala,
starting to organize
with everything.
Do we want to talk
about guest count right now?
I think we should keep
the number as low
as we possibly can.
We were 608 last year.
Okay,
we're gonna start with 500.
- Five hundred.
- Five hundred.
Five hundred.
And everybody is cutting their numbers, right, Harold?
- Do we need to talk about it?
- Yeah, we're trying.
There is the issue of
our partnership with
the Chinese Department...
That's another...
We really have to keep
the numbers down
and also the free seats.
There must be another way
that we can accommodate people.
You'll figure it out.
Anna is meticulously
vetting every single thing,
from the napkins, to the forks,
to the lighting...
The detail of the flowers,
the detail of the ushers,
the way they're dressed.
Everything has been vetted
by her for months
and weeks and months and weeks.
Okay, is there going to be
somebody literally here?
We have two people here.
Will there be
someone there too?
Yes, we have
literally an army up here. It's a full battle squad.
Andr Leon Talley:
She has her legions,
her generals,
who work at Vogue.
Hi, girls, the plan today
is just to walk through
the path that our guests
are gonna be taking,
and also to place you
in your positions.
So if you could make
your way up the stairs,
just stagger yourselves, girls.
Please scatter a few steps up.
Talley:
Now, the Met is a place
that you consider
very, very correct.
Very formal.
Anna has taken that
out of the Met.
Photographer: Happy!
Sylvana Ward Durrett:
We have Dave Franco,
and then who's the other one
you were saying?
Josh Hartnett.
What has he done lately?
Nothing.
You guys are set. You have great
carpet material right now.
Yeah, you have Kendall!
Michael Kors has
Liz Banks and Kate Hudson.
Prada has Emily Blunt.
Ralph has Anne Hathaway.
Versace has JLo.
Beyonc, Kim and Kanye,
Rihanna, Kara,
Amber Heard,
Chastain, Julianne Moore...
All of those people are us,
I believe, right?
Woman: Yes.
They want to come?
- We're not completely sure yet.
- Okay.
Baz Luhrmann: As an icon,
Anna is very unique.
On the face of it,
she's the editor
of a very powerful
American-based magazine.
She's the artistic director
of a whole stable of magazines.
But that is not really the
power of Anna Wintour.
Anna's gift
is bringing culture, both high and low,
to cross-fertilize.
- Hi, guys!
- Hey, Anna!
- You ready?
- Totally.
Okay, let's see the walk.
The Met Gala is a celebration of
a multi-cultural moment.
Pop and fine art mix in
the Metropolitan Museum.
Luhrmann: You can have an
acting icon next to
a musical icon,
next to a political icon.
It's like a giant aquarium
on that night.
Durrett: A lot of thought goes
into who sits next to who.
If they sat next to each other last year.
If they sat next to each other
at other events.
So much goes into it.
It's shocking.
A lot of power-brokering.
Alex has six seats,
he's bringing
Gaga, Miley, Zoe.
Here's Tory.
Durrett: Ah-hah.
She's looking for
one other guy.
And then Ricardo is
down here with Jessica,
Julianne and Beyonc.
So that's that.
What Anna has done is
understood that high fashion,
I mean, the most extraordinary
expression of this medium,
when it's paired
with celebrity,
becomes something
bigger than both. And that is
what happens on the red carpet.
When you see Rihanna
in a couture gown,
it's transcendent.
Talley:
Each celebrity has been chosen
to wear a gown by designers.
It's like assignments.
The Met, for me, means a lot.
It's the only red carpet I do.
Riccardo Tisci: Each designer
brings his own muse.
A singer, a friend,
a model, an actress.
You bring the person that most represents your aesthetic.
Koda: That attention all accrues
to the reputation
of the museum.
I thought he wasn't coming.
I know, but then he decided
he wanted to come.
Okay. Can he not be on his
cell phone the entire time then?
- Mm-hmmm.
- Maybe send him that message.
Loud and clear.
- Who's that?
- These are the two HandM people.
Wintour:
We shouldn't bury this table.
Seriously.
- Yes.
- That's not fair.
- Okay.
- Okay?
And then who are these people?
Those are people who
I'm hoping will go away.
Okay.
The exhibition, "China through
the Looking Glass,"
will present
an image of China
that is a fabulous invention.
Often film is the first lens
through Western designers
encounter Chinese imagery.
And the exhibition will explore the impact of movies
in shaping their fantasies.
The film perhaps that's had the
greatest influence on designers,
is Wong Kar Wai's
In the Mood for Love.
No one has made the chi-pao
look quite as beautiful
on screen as Wong Kar Wai.
In the Mood for Love,
I would see it many times
and I love it.
It was like a truly,
like, beautiful gesture.
The colors were fantastic.
It's after that that I did
my Chinese collection.
I think is must be like
one year after.
It's good even not
to go to the country!
It's better, I think,
like to see through a book, or to see all movie,
on the souvenir you have.
Bolton: We thought Kar Wai was
the right choice
to be the artistic director
of the exhibition.
Bolton: We're working on
the exhibition
design concepts still.
We're having the films
be the filter
between the art objects
and the high fashions.
Sometimes directly related,
and sometimes more of
a metaphorical device.
I would love the films
to be projected,
so that they're almost these
spectral figures
throughout the show.
Because I don't think this show
will have a linear narrative.
Now the structure of the show is more like a Chinese garden.
You have an entrance,
but then you're free to walk.
That's a really good point.
Kar Wai:
So, I would use this medium
to create a continuity
and, also, the expression.
Bolton: There's two venues
for the exhibition.
We have
the Costume Institute galleries
in the basement of the museum,
and then we also have
the Chinese galleries
on the second floor.
The Chinese galleries themselves weren't designed
for costumes,
they were designed for
flat works of art.
So incorporating costume
within them
is challenging,
to say the least!
Mike Hearn: We have over
50 galleries
of Asian art at the Met,
so it's probably the most
comprehensive collection
of Asian art anywhere.
There are bigger collections of
Chinese art in China obviously.
There's better collections of
Cambodian art in Cambodia. But we do a pretty good job.
What I want to do is
do these 20-foot plexi-rods of
different sizes of that
naturally bend and light them.
So this is the first room
that you see.
Yes, bamboo forest.
The bamboo platform comes
all the way out here,
then it turns.
The height of the bamboo
goes just underneath
- the Arthur Sackler...
- Bolton: Gallery.
Nathan Crowley:
As you walk to the great
early Buddha sculpture hall,
you are transported
into another world.
We tried to show Chinese art
from the perspective
of the Chinese themselves.
It's not Disneyland. I'm gonna put a
14-foot wide platform
by 12-foot platform here.
Cover this with a grey mirror.
I think Mike thought it might
look a bit too Disney.
We're gonna have panels anyway.
I think we just make them.
Bolton: The curators in
the Asian Art Department
were worried about
some of the topics
the exhibition was addressing.
It opens up debates
about colonialism,
Orientalism,
which could be interpreted
as being racist.
Hearn: For the West,
it didn't matter whether we're talking about
China, Japan, Korea.
All of that was somehow
lumped together as "Oriental."
And I think there's still
a really strong sense
that China has been
taken advantage of,
maybe misunderstood,
by the West.
Isn't this place marvelous?
Look at those faces.
Hindu, Chinese, Portuguese,
Filipinos, Russians,
Malaya.
I didn't think such
a place existed
except in my own imagination.
Bolton: So many designers
reference China
through the films of the 30s.
It's the China
that is the stereotype. And I want to sort of
deconstruct those stereotypes.
And tease out some of the
complexities and the dangers,
but also the romance of them,
as well.
Anna May Wong was
a Hollywood starlet
in the 30s and 40s,
who was fated to play
stereotypes of
the Chinese woman.
And it's either
the Lotus Blossom, or the Dragon Lady,
which is basically
an Orientalized femme fatale.
Don't do anything foolish.
The Dragon Lady is a figure
who projects our fears
and desires and
anxieties onto you.
She is quasi-matriarchal,
she is financially independent,
she's sexually liberated.
She in a way lends herself
to a feminist interpretation...
...because the Dragon Lady has become a way to represent
any powerful woman.
I though the gentleman in the
black night gown was the boss.
Who, Money Bags?
He's an errand boy.
The real boss is
a remarkable lady,
the most cold-blooded
dragon you will ever meet.
She'll devour you like a cat
swallows a mouse.
I've never seen
anything like it.
You walk in and this
is what you see?
It's not possible.
This is the reception area?
Man: This is when you walk in...
The racks?
I need to look at a plan.
This is not what you want to see
when people walk in.
Okay, so this has to go. Xavier,
are you listening to me?
- Yes.
- Okay.
All this furniture here
should go.
Get rid of all that.
It has to look like an area
that you walk into.
- That it's professional.
- Yes. Not like a second-hand
vintage store.
No, no, no,
in the closet.
What about the lobby furniture?
I didn't even look at that.
This is making me feel
violently ill.
Take the whole thing out.
It's horrible.
It's just gonna give people
a headache.
Are we able to soften it
a little bit so it's not...
So it doesn't look like a disco.
(indistinct speech)
Let me say something about
the Dragon Lady image.
Anna has a public image.
Hi, thank you for joining us.
Anna Wintour, welcome to CNN.
Luhrmann: A lot of that is
absolutely true,
but I do think that if
Anna was a man,
there might be
less focus on that.
Because of your success
and your determination,
you've earned a reputation of
being intimidating.
Is that unfair?
Um, I think I'm decisive,
and I like to get
things done quickly,
so if that comes across
as intimidation, I'm sorry to hear it.
There are so many
different stereotypes and...
I...
...think if one is bothered
by it,
...it's a little bit fruitless
because it's out there.
Inevitably, I have to ask you
just one question about
Devil Wears Prada.
A former assistant
wrote the book,
later turned into a movie.
Do you feel that that
was a breach of trust?
Ah, well...
It's part of life.
Stereotypes always
are going to exist,
is what you do with them,
what you make of them.
I think that she brought
attention to fashion,
in a way... You can look at
it in a negative way,
or in a positive way.
I choose to look at it
in a positive way.
In some ways, I think
I should be grateful to her.
Luhrmann: I've seen her recently
play herself,
and she plays the person
everyone thinks she is. But it's a character.
It's kind of her "work armor."
(indistinct conversations)
Man: There's an updated
decor concept.
We've floralized
quite a lot of the design.
This is one idea.
And now this is the other.
That might be a bit much
for the carpet.
I think that we can...
- Tone it down.
- Exactly.
That's a lot of flowers.
What are the flowers underneath?
- Looks like wisteria.
- It's wisteria, yes.
Wisteria and bamboo.
What about pale lilac rather...?
We can do pale.
Cause I think pale
would look prettier
with the blue
than that dark color.
- I don't like that combination.
- With this color.
- But pale.
- Yes.
- We can go back to this.
- Yeah, we'll talk about it.
- Temple of Dendur...
- Wow...
Don't know about that.
Man: What aren't you sure of?
I don't see how you can compete
with the temple.
Whatever you put there
is gonna look fake.
Man: There's very little we can do.
This is gonna look like
a Chinese restaurant.
I just don't see how
you can compete with that.
- Yeah, no.
- I mean it's, well...
If it was at night,
you have more of a chance.
Yeah.
So my advice is,
I would keep to the bridge,
- I'd definitely do the lilies.
- Bolton: The lilies.
And some decoration and then
some Chinese-type furniture.
Okay, thank you.
Bolton: We haven't yet finalized
the design of the exhibition.
We're end of December
at the moment,
so that's pretty late,
in fact, it's very late.
Campbell:
One of the big challenges
is the short time period
in which
we are pulling
the exhibition together. It's the largest costume
exhibition we've ever done.
I really want the pace
to change
when you go through,
so I like the fact that
this is quieter
and more reflective.
And here,
- it's just sensory overload.
- It's just a drawing.
Bolton:
It's proving difficult,
not just because of the size
and scope of the exhibition,
but there's a lot of
conceptual challenges
and political hurdles.
(speaking Chinese)
Bolton: They're constantly being
brought up
by the Asian Art Department.
Probably this one...
Hearn: What is key for
the success of all of this
is that there is some
conversation with
the Chinese works of art, so that it is not just wallpaper.
I think bringing
Western fashion
into the Chinese galleries
could be perceived as
a misinterpretation of
who the Chinese are,
what Chinese culture is about.
- (elevator dings)
- (indistinct speech)
This area is fashion
inspired by Imperial China.
So the idea is
the Chinese objects will be
in the perimeters
in the cases and
the fashion's in the middle,
that's the constant
you can see throughout.
We put a color theme
to each of these rooms
by using a light source
around those objects.
So we go from blue
probably to gold
and over to red.
The different light
colors the rooms.
Is that a bit rainbow?
Maybe...
Bolton: You don't want to be
fighting with the objects.
It'd be nice if it was a very
subtle glow because otherwise,
your eyes are being dilated
by the light in the-- You don't want it to look
like an amusement park.
Yeah.
All right, let's go on.
So now we go
into the bamboo forest,
so we moved on and become
a little more surreal,
by using lit plexi-rod.
It transfers the light
all the way through the rod.
I'm hoping over 20 foot
it would still maintain
a lot of that light.
Bolton: That's great.
And you're okay, Mike?
What we want to be careful about
is just making sure that
between the costumes
and the bamboo forest,
that we don't completely
obscure the sculptures there.
My goal is just
to make sure that
the Chinese objects
really look their best,
and that they aren't
overshadowed or
demeaned by whatever
we do design-wise.
But obviously for the run
of this exhibition,
those objects are
going to be not...
They're gonna be
less accessible.
But there's plenty of other
things for people to see.
I generally like the idea,
but I just want to
exercise as much discretion
as possible,
so that nobody comes around and just says
we're using Chinese art
as just a stage prop.
In the architectural drawings,
I created all these sight lines
to the artwork.
I think there's 700 rods.
Do you think we need that many?
Yeah, I think we might need to
go to a thousand.
Well, yeah, but it takes
a lot to fill a room,
and your room is enormous.
At first, I thought
we'd need 3,000 so...
Which seems like a lot,
but it's not.
Are these tablecloths all
going to be different colors?
Yes, so these tablecloths
are going to be
- the colors of the cushions.
- Yeah, I like those colors.
- Yeah.
- Oh...
- (doorbell rings)
- Okay.
- How are you?
- Hello.
- Hi.
- Hi.
- So much to talk about.
- I know.
Can I ask this question?
How "Chinesey" like...?
We can show you.
Like, how chinoiserie is it?
Is the whole thing?
Let me show you a rendering.
Wintour:
What do you think about this,
as you walk up the steps?
Raul vila:
Dragons when people arrive.
So that's why... It's more like an entrance,
like, "Hey, you're in China."
Dragons might be
a bit too obvious.
Can I say this?
I think it's
fantastically strong,
and I think it should be strong.
Right?
But the reason
I'm slightly reticent is,
in terms of the crowd coming,
how much
classical Chinese imagery
do you think they expect?
What they're gonna see
when they walk in.
When you go inside the
great hall, you see this.
Now that I think is
unassailably beautiful.
They say "China" without saying
"Chinese theme park."
I think the double dragons
at the front
belong to another show.
Right?
And by the way,
the water slide at the end
of it is awesome, right?
- Okay?
- (laughter)
Is this based
on a Chinese something?
Anna, it's the "something" part
than I'm worried about.
The complexity of the subject
matter itself requires
delicate handling
so we're not misunderstood. We're working around
the main mine fields.
How many pieces in
the exhibition?
You already got everything
you want to borrow from China?
We're just waiting to hear
from the Imperial Palace.
It would be ideal
to get a Mao suit
worn from one of
the Communist Party members
during the Cultural Revolution.
But, I think, politically,
I think it's difficult.
Mao is an icon, and so there's
a limit to what our Chinese
friends will tolerate in terms
of how Mao is treated.
- It has to be respectful.
- I think so.
Of course, something is probably
going to blow up at any moment.
The building with all the flags
is the National Museum.
Then the one on
the other side of the flag
is the Great Hall of the People.
And this is the entrance to
The Forbidden City.
So you'll see the Mao portrait.
It's incredible.
On display next to me is a dress
by Roberto Cavalli, whose colors and motifs
pay obvious homage
to Chinese
blue and white porcelain.
Fashion is about ideas.
The way we live.
(indistinct conversation)
Campbell: Guys, you really have
your work cut out.
Our aim is to beat
McQueen numbers.
Bolton: "China,
Through the Looking Glass,"
I think it's going to be
inevitably controversial.
There's going to be dissenters.
But I'm not afraid of
controversy.
And I think the show should be
controversial and provocative.
- Hi!
- Hey...
- Good to see you again.
- Good to see you.
Bolton: So here is where I'm thinking about putting Mao,
the Buddha gallery.
It's the only space I can think
about putting him.
I think if we can have
the Mao jacket sculpture here,
that would be the centerpiece,
focusing on the idea of
changing nature
of deities within China and
the idea of monumentality...
You'd be able to take out
all these Buddhas here?
We'd keep the Buddhas in.
And you put Mao with
all these Buddhas?
Yeah.
I think it makes sense
intellectually because of
the deification of Mao in China.
I think it would be surprising
to have Mao in that space.
And it makes sense.
You have some hesitancy
still, Kar Wai,
about the Buddhist gallery.
- Yeah.
- You still feel it.
You still feel Mao
might not work there?
Because I think it will be...
First of all, it will be
an insult, too sensitive
for like, not the government,
besides that, it's the Chinese
and also the Buddhists.
And I'm thinking...
Is it nice to get
some controversy though? Maybe not the way that you want.
Not in this particular context.
Why don't we just put it
just before you walk into
this big Buddhist hall.
You have this Mao section.
- Nice idea, actually.
- Yeah.
There's a lot to see.
The material is so rich.
But try not to make
the show too busy.
Because seeing too much
is seeing nothing.
I think we are all looking
forward to this exhibition.
But also have
a lot of questions.
From the little we can gather,
it seems like there's a lot of
symbols about dragons
and Ming vases.
Why is that?
And anything else,
because I, honestly,
I don't want to see
another Ming vase.
I love blue and
white porcelain so
I'm happy to see it
in the exhibition.
I think a lot of
people's questions will be
it seems like the more
contemporary version of China.
It's not really included
in this kind of
imagery, repertoire...
It's not,
you're absolutely right.
That's not the focus
of the exhibition, modern China. - It's very much on the history.
- Reporter: Yes.
You mention a lot
about fantasies,
but fantasy always entails
misconstrued,
misinterpretation, reality...
So how the Western
perceive Chinese
and how Chinese perceive
their own culture
will be quite different,
from what I gather.
Were you questioning the idea
of fantasy and fashion?
I think if we don't have
fantasy in fashion,
then fashion will never change.
Of course, we all will love to
embrace fantasy in fashion,
but fantasy is
very likely to also entail
misinterpretations
or misconceptions.
So, as a curator, you must
have thought about that.
Yeah, but I think, as Anna says,
all fashion tells stories.
Every item in the exhibition
tells its own story.
All you're seeing in
the exhibition
are designers celebrating
actually Chinese culture.
We're also including the work
of several Chinese designers,
like Guo Pei and Laurence Yu.
Chinese designers also gravitate
towards the same sort of symbols as Western designers.
It's not exclusively about
the West appropriating
Chinese symbols.
- Thank you.
- Bolton: Thank you.
I think she was really
politicizing it.
...the idea of the West just
plundering
the East for inspiration.
Or the fact that
it's all about the past.
Yes. She just wants everything
to start in 1949
- Woman: Are you good to start?
- (chuckles) Yes.
(speaks Chinese)
China went through
a unique period in its history.
During this period of history,
many Chinese destroyed
their own tradition.
But I feel today, it's changing.
I want to integrate
traditional Chinese culture
with modern aesthetics.
Eastern and Western cultures
collide together. We want to find the wisdom
left by our ancestors.
So now, I am using my skills
to create something
for the nation.
As if I were making a
wedding dress for my country
with love in my heart.
How's the Guo Pei piece?
- Is it heavy?
- Very heavy.
Bolton:
Beijing seems like a dream now.
I was panic-stricken
when I came back
about how much work
we have to do. Such a crisis point in terms
of concerns
about possible responses
to the exhibition worldwide.
All the Chinese, in the last
few hundred years,
we were always
looking backward,
we forget progress,
modernization.
So the new generation of Chinese
have benefitted
from modernization.
They were afraid
your exhibition
is too much only the past.
A lot of Chinese,
they're wondering
why all this dragon rope,
the beautiful coating,
not Chinese modern things...
Modern film, modern art...
How would you represent
through fashion, modern China?
How would you represent that?
The show is also posing
questions like,
what is the contemporary
Chinese aesthetic?
Because there's none
at this point.
Not yet.
In the making.
- So this is in the making?
- Yeah.
So, in a way, looking back doesn't mean you are nostalgic.
I think
the only way to move forward
is not to forget
about your past.
We confront the idea
of the orientalist
stereotyping of China.
Particularly through
the character, Anna May Wong.
But also talk about
the genuine reciprocity
between China and the West.
We've just got approval
to start building.
So we're on a super-tight
time frame.
(chuckling)
Incredible.
Incredible.
I think the objects
that we've chosen
are really compelling,
really seductive,
and once you overlay them
with the curatorial narrative,
it could be extraordinary.
- Andrew. - Hey, Mike, how are you?
My biggest concern, Andrew,
frankly,
is just to make sure that people
don't find the intensity
of the installation,
and the kind of...
Shall we say the imposition of
the design
so powerful,
that it overshadows
the intellectual content.
I think what happens with this
is it diminishes the focus on
the intellectual content,
and it just raises the level of,
well, this is all about...
...creating a sense of hype,
which is different from
what your goals are,
and what my goals are.
Bolton: It's a little bit
frustrating because
sometimes there's not an
overall understanding
of the narrative of the show,
but also the complexity
from the design prospective.
So it's just...
Yeah, a bit frustrating. I try not to listen too much
to other people in terms of
what they expect
the show to be
and to try and trust
my own judgment.
Many people have a superficial
understanding of fashion.
People underestimate the power
of clothes to tell stories,
or to speak to people.
There is the perennial debate
about whether or not
fashion can ever be art.
It has, in some instances, to do with intention,
that when a designer is
creating something,
they think they're creating
an art work.
Most designers, however,
don't approach it that way.
I never, never, never dreamed
that my clothes should be
in a museum.
I think that fashion is
supposed to represent
what's happening in society,
politically, economically...
The clothes have to live.
It's a little boring,
that designers
say they are artists, especially
when they say it themselves,
thinking, "You're an artist,
one should not be on a runway,
but one should be
in a gallery."
So go to a gallery.
What we do is applied art.
Chanel never said that
she was an artist.
She was a dress-maker.
Madame Vionnet was a dressmaker.
Madame Lanvin was a dressmaker.
They wanted to dress
a certain kind of society.
They were happy and flattered
when those women bought
those dresses.
Koda: Of course, not all fashion is art.
It's not.
Some of it is
purely commercial.
But we still struggle
at the Costume Institute,
because as Americans,
there's a kind of
puritanical tradition.
And we hate the notion
that there might be commerce
associated with anything,
because somehow that
makes it less pure.
But as the definitions of art
have become more elastic,
you know, post-Dada,
post-Warhol,
we're no longer bound by
the 19th century categories
of fine versus applied art. We never give up on this idea
that something transcendent
can be expressed in that same
very prosaic thing
that you wear.
Bolton: I would certainly
classify Lagerfeld
as an artist, even though
he always refutes it.
The application
of his embroideries,
it's an artistic expression.
(indistinct conversation)
When you discover someone
like John Galliano, you really are in the presence
of a true artistic genius.
This is strange.
This is like seeing a child you
haven't seen
for a very long time.
Some of those stitches
you're not allowed to do anymore
because they'll turn you blind.
It's not for me to say
it's art or not,
but, certainly, the way
we apply some things
and the inspiration we took...
We did some wonderful things.
Wonderful things.
Koda: There is something about
the human impulse
to communicate and express.
An encyclopedic museum
like the Met
attempts to gather together
the most extraordinary
manifestations
of those impulses.
Keith, it's Sylvana.
Can you give me a call back? I just want to talk about
Rihanna's budget. Call me. Bye.
So, Rihanna...
- Keith: (over phone) Yeah.
- We can't lose her, right?
So, is it just that she has
a larger crew than Kanye did?
She has a massive team
that she travels with,
and that's how she rolls.
Originally, the budget was
over (bleep) hundred thousand.
I told not to even send it
to me until they worked on it,
because it was a non-starter,
so they went back, and they sent me a budget
that lowered it (bleep)
hundred thousand.
And I said, you know,
this is a charity so...
She's expensive, period.
We knew it, we just didn't
realize how expensive.
So, I think talk to Anna
and see,
you know, if she can
set that gentle note,
thanking them,
but at the same time...
- Gentle nudge.
- Anything you can do. Yeah.
I'm breaking out
in hives right now.
(phone ringing)
Hi.
Okay, I don't know what to say.
I have no answer.
She is one of the biggest acts
in the world.
It's about twice as much
as any performer we've ever had.
They're not interested in making
it come down any further.
They feel that
they've done a lot.
So it's gonna take
a higher level ask...
You know, from you.
(chuckles)
Yes, that would be perfect.
Luhrmann: We live for
a cultural experience,
to feel like we're not alone,
to learn something
about ourselves,
to revel in the human journey.
But of course, there's glamour, and of course there's...
"What are the parties like?"
And there's gossip.
But if it takes a little bit of
Rihanna dancing on the tabletop
to get the attention,
then so be it.
And then Jennifer Lawrence
comes up and speaks,
Guong Lee speaks,
and then Jennifer Lawrence says,
"Ladies and gentlemen...
...Rihanna."
Wintour:
In the world that we work in,
you need the mixture of art
and commerce.
You need both.
Too much of one or the other
would not work. They have to exist...
hand-in-hand.
If you could say one brief thing
about two cultures
coming together.
That's what I want to say again.
I want to say thank you.
- Two cultures.
- Yeah.
You're gonna be incredible.
Beautiful.
I can't wait.
I feel better now.
No, no, no.
It's gonna be amazing.
It's always so calm up here.
That's because nothing's
going in.
Wow, it's a lot of work.
Bolton: So we can't install
until the lights arrive, okay?
The lights are one week late.
Why are they late?
Because they're not ready?
I don't know.
It's beyond me why.
We're already eight days late
on the panels delivery,
according to the schedule.
We just did the math,
at this rate, we're talking
about 6.8 days...
Middle of next week.
And obviously that doesn't work.
We gotta be realistic,
that we know what we're doing.
We're out of time.
How much overlap is there
between building
and art installation? There can't be any.
So you've got ten days.
It's flat out now until we open.
Bolton: We just underestimated
the scale of the show.
It's like putting three shows
on at the same time.
I, unfortunately, have a very
organic approach to curating,
so I tend to change things
as I go along.
This time around,
we're driving everyone crazy.
And what is the plan for the
show in terms of lighting?
Tomorrow, can we start working
on these two galleries?
Whenever we can get to
something, we do it.
- That's... - Who is going to tell you when?
We walk around and
around and around and we look,
and we say, "We can do that."
And we go and do that.
- But we have like 15 galleries.
- Clint Coller: I know.
It's a huge space.
We need them to absolutely
place the mannequins.
- This is...
- This is something that...
We have to talk to Andrew
about this.
Right.
Kar Wai: Andrew...
- Meet five minutes with me.
- Bolton: Okay.
At some point, I just need you
to give me mannequins.
- Mm-hmm.
- Because without the dresses,
and that's fine,
but you have to tell me,
which directions
the mannequins are facing.
- Mm-hmm. Okay.
- Can you do that?
Yeah.
The schedule that they
let us know today,
it means we have, basically,
two days to install
the whole exhibition.
We only have a
rehearsal for the temple?
Worse-case scenario, yeah.
Monday, you don't have
any rehearsal?
No.
There's no time on Monday,
we have to do that Sunday.
The temple's open on Sunday.
You're kidding, that's not possible.
- Why?
- Why?
Because we need to rehearse.
He needs to be with Rihanna.
We have a lot to do.
We should close it.
It just means that from the
general public's point of view,
there is absolutely
no access
to the entire
north end of the building...
That's the...
That's... All the...
They'll come back next week.
Please, otherwise, it's just...
Raul is going to have to be up
three nights in a row.
- It's not human.
- (laughter)
Okay, the public will come back.
- All right, anything else?
- No, I think we've covered it.
It was Anna's
understanding that,
if he was paying the balance,
we weren't going
to add those seats.
Obviously it's more money
for the museum,
but the problem is we want to
keep this an intimate setting because that's why
people come to this.
We're extremely appreciative,
I just...
I... I don't know what to do,
We just don't have the seats.
Wintour: Okay, I could swap
Baz with Harpers.
And where is Harvey?
Harvey's right here.
He won't like that.
Can we put somebody
better here
and move them there?
It doesn't have to be Harvey.
I think Anne Hathaway
should be here.
We're struggling to make
this work right now.
We still have three people that
don't have seats at the moment.
Can we block off the middle part
and in here, just make
a little hole here?
Because if we do something
in between these two pillars,
this is what
they're concerned about.
This is not art.
This is a pillar.
Oh no, it is Tiffany.
- Those are the Tiffany pillars.
- Expensive pillars. Wintour: We're trying to work
with you guys.
You told us what we were trying
to do here was first possible
then it's not possible.
And then we move the tables.
Woman: You have to understand...
You are basically scrubbing
Engelhardt Court of all the art.
Wintour: Yes... But this is not
actually about that tonight.
It's actually about raising
money for the museum,
which we have done.
Nathan?
Do the lights work?
We'll know
in the next two hours.
What happens if they don't?
Yes, that's better.
Once you see those together...
Incredible.
We'll be finished, you know,
in the next hour.
Okay, you'll be finished by
the end of the day though?
I mean, we'll finish by...
Before we leave tonight.
(indistinct speech
in background)
Okay, okay, okay.
Talley: The dress is beautiful.
- It's so beautiful.
- The dress fits.
- It fits?
- It fits.
Maybe too tight here.
Yeah, that's what
I was thinking, maybe...
Here, I'll deal with that.
Talley: The color is superb on you.
And what do you think of
the bracelet?
Mom only like diamonds.
Talley: So now you should walk.
Walk out of the room.
Excellent!
Sexy and soign.
It's very beautiful.
A superb dress.
Luhrmann:
Anna is kinda beyond legacy.
I mean, she's got a legacy.
She could disappear
to Alaska now
and never be seen again,
dressed as Nanook of the North,
or something,
and, you know,
she's got a legacy.
She sent me
the fitting pictures...
Luhrmann:
She's a big business entity.
But the whole idea
with the Met Gala...
it's not a
commercial consideration.
It's a cultural consideration.
I don't pretend to be
a fashion historian, but I think
fashion should be recognized
when you see how
it touches people
and moves people.
I mean, what more
can you ask from art?
- My God.
- (gasping)
Oh, my God.
She's gonna die,
has she seen it?
Man: No she hasn't been
here yet.
My God...
(chuckling)
We did it!
I'm gonna cry.
Unbelievable!
Wintour:
Does this go to the top?
Unbelievable.
Best one ever.
How many roses?
250,000.
(laughs)
(applause)
(clears throat)
Good morning.
"China:
Through the Looking Glass"
is almost three times the size
of our usual spring shows.
In total, there are over
150 costumes and accessories,
and over 40 designers.
- (indistinct speech)
- (cameras clicking)
What a relief that's over with.
- Yeah, but...
- (smashing)
(giggling)
Is that good luck?
- It wasn't a mirror.
- I'm sure it is.
Special kudos to Andrew for surviving.
It works so beautifully
in the galleries.
It really does.
I couldn't agree more.
I'm thrilled.
I love you.
Was the speech ok?
Really good. Yeah.
Did I sound like
the Queen of England?
No!
(mocking laughter)
I'll see you later.
Probably about two-ish.
So this is HandM.
This is Veronica.
Vivienne.
And this is Cartier.
That's the best solution,
and then the small one is
in the middle, right?
Okay, right.
- Yeah.
- Let's move this in a bit.
Yes.
This is such a bad table, but
someone's gotta take
this table.
But no celeb, right?
Chloe Sevigny, Solange Knowles.
Oh.
But they'll talk to who?
Odell Beckham.
Durrett: It's tight,
but it's always tight.
Wintour:
These are fun people, right?
It's fine.
Yeah.
This is fine.
(laughing)
He's like, "What are you
talking about? What happened?"
What is this?
Nylon?
- Durrett: No
- Silk.
- Pure silk.
- Made in China.
(cheering)
Alright, George, let's do this.
Let's get this thing going. What the fuck is this?
The other leg.
Let's see the legs.
- (chuckles)
- Thank you, darling.
(cheering)
Talley: Come over here, baby,
come to me.
Only you can wear
a dress like this.
The body rocks.
What do you do
to keep the body rocking?
What do you do?
Are you getting good pictures
of the dress and everything?
Chloe Malle: I was worried
people would take
Chinese-inspired and do
something wildly offensive
and actually people
have been very creative
and done some
really beautiful things.
Some major headwear.
(cheering)
Do you all love Chinese food? I do.
- He doesn't. What do you like?
- No, I love Chinese food.
What's your favorite dish?
I like fried chicken wings
and General Tso's chicken
with some shrimp,
and chicken fried rice.
- I know you work for Vogue...
- (laughs)
He works for Vogue,
but you better tell the truth.
Anne Hathaway is heaven.
Looks so good, yeah.
Amanda Seyfried and Justin Long
look adorable together.
She's in custom Givency couture.
(screams)
Cher? I want Cher.
Someone help me!
Could you help me?
Come on here, baby.
Come to me.
Why did you let that happen?
Can someone go tell Sally that
the Clooneys did not stop?
Go tell her now.
You know the Clooneys
didn't stop.
So let Anna know that.
George said hello
but Mrs. Clooney
did not stop
in her Galliano dress,
I told Sally.
We got Justin Bieber, OK?
Sale bte! Sale bte!
Darling, wow!
How does it feel to be
one of the 100 most influential persons
- in Time magazine?
- Oh, thank you.
That is so brilliant.
I think it's so great
the way you're supporting
your step-father.
- Of course.
- It's really beautiful.
- It's really important.
- It really is.
We're here with dresses,
but, listen, after all...
(inaudible)
Hi, Pat!
We gonna party tonight
We gonna turn up tonight
Oh, yeah
Oh, yeah
Oh, yeah
Michael Kors:
The exhibit is this way.
Do you know how crazy I'd look
in a head piece like that?
You could pull
any head piece off.
Anna May Wong.
The first Asian movie star.
Wow!
That's Dior,
that's John's (Galliano).
Hudson: I want to wear that in my bedroom.
So good to see you.
Thank you for your flowers.
How's business?
- This was my dress, that one.
- Wow.
It's the white one.
It was a wedding dress.
That must be an old one.
1925, something like that...
- 1924.
- 1924, even earlier, yeah.
In 1925, it was smaller.
Not so big volume as there,
but it was short already.
You're so smart.
History, I know it.
- The history of fashion.
- Wow!
(inaudible)
That is Alexander McQueen.
They do a lot of work in wood.
That is also McQueen,
the bolero.
That could be McQueen,
I'm not sure.
It's Alexander McQueen,
for Givenchy.
It's nice mix with
all these things from China.
It's beautiful.
I love the Chinese inspiration.
Wow!
Man: What's the dress?
Did you get my message?
Justin Bieber: How do you think
that would look on me?
- Alicia Keys: Wow!
- Gaultier: Voil, that's mine.
Man: Wow, this exhibit... Your mood changes
from room to room.
It's remarkable.
Keys: Wow!
Gaultier: Oh, the porcelain.
Keys: Wow, look at this!
Gaultier: That's Galliano
for Dior, I think, no?
Keys: Guo Pei....
- So gorgeous!
- Oh, my God!
Oh, my God!
This room is a dream!
All the celadon but
with the black lacquer.
And look at these shapes.
Like when people say,
"You couldn't walk in it."
Who cares?
It's that beautiful.
Kate Hudson: I know!
(indistinct shouting)
(Nat King Cole
"Stardust" plays)
Talley: Oh, I love a girl
from humble beginnings
who becomes a big star.
It's like the American Dream,
that's how you do it.
And just keep going with it.
I want more train
and more train!
I want drama!
I want five people
picking up my thing!
This is the black Frozen!
This is the queen of the night!
(Nat King Cole
"Stardust" continues)
Queen of the night.
Breaking up is not enough,
it's not enough.
- Beautiful! - Thank you.
This moment, this fantasy!
It was made by Guo Pei.
It took two years to make this.
And let me just say...
You are wearing it
so beautifully.
You are so inspiring...
- Thank you.
- ...to so many people.
- Good night.
- Vocal rest.
Big night! Can't wait
to see you on stage!
- Thank you.
- Oh, it's got a pink lining.
Did you get the pink lining?
(Nat King Cole
"Stardust" continues)
I need to mainline
pinot grigio to my arm.
Have a Scotch.
Scotch in a glass? How classy.
Oh my God,
I'm gonna be all by my lonesome
just like high school.
You can sit with us,
sit with us if you want.
- Oh, my God!
- Oh, my God!
(gong sounds)
Campbell: Could I have your
attention for a moment, please?
The true star of this evening
is Andrew Bolton.
(cheering and applause)
Hello.
Bill Cunningham: Hello Andrew,
it's quite the success.
Hey! Thank you, Bill.
It's such a contemplative space,
it's very...
- Brilliant.
- Quiet.
When I think how they allowed this...
Poor Mrs. Vreeland.
They killed her with exhibition,
keeping it downstairs.
The Asian Art Department
has been
incredibly generous with us.
They have, yeah.
Twenty years late.
What's up, Met Ball?
(cheering)
Isn't it amazing how fashion
can bring two cultures together?
(cheering and applause)
I wanna give a round of applause
to everybody here tonight.
Anna Wintour, thank you so much
for having me.
Everybody ready to party?
(sings
"Bitch Better Have My Money")
(applause fades out)
("Wild is the Wind"
by Cat Power plays)
"Are you both there?
I'll be around 6:45,
Do I need to pick anything up?
I'm gonna say..."
- Starbucks.
- "Yes.
Big box of Starbucks."
Everybody looks shockingly
good this year.
Yeah, Chloe Sevigny
looked amazing.
- Spike Lee, he looks great!
- I know.
You gonna just die
over what Rihanna wore.
Martin Hoops: I can't wait to see it.
- Oh, my God.
- Boom!
That is excellent!
It's like a Disney movie.
Every single one of them.
Boom.
Yeah, she should be the cover.
Yes.
Look at her body guard.
Where? This guy?
He's brilliant.
He's holding her purse!
I would hold her purse, too.
I would hold it all night.
Malle: Oh, my God!
Hoops: Do you see any
resemblance, David,
between me and Clooney?
So he went bow tie-less.
That's what studs
like this do, David.
Me and George,
we know what we're doing.
Malle: That's cool.
Actually that is good.
Hoops: This is good.
Now you got her
in a gothic room,
medieval gothic.
Ecclesiastical...
(indistinct)
Am I being banned?
Go back to your room.
- Getting close.
- Go back to my room!
- We'll do this. - Malle: That's nice.
- Spread.
- Right.
- And then the last two.
- Great.
Hoops: I think it actually looks
really good.
Malle: Yeah, I do too.
I will bet everybody lunch here,
that when I lay out
that pomegranate,
she's gonna say,
"Oh, this is nice."
Yeah.
Okay, Martin, let's do this.
The pomegranates...
just perfect.
- Martin loves pomegranates.
- Yeah.
Me and AW have
a similar wavelength
in our brains.
She goes, you know,
"Big stars like Derek Jeter."
I said Jeter! I'm like,
of course, he's the captain!
I said he should get
a cover line. The captain?
I think that's almost
on the same par...
I told you, me and Anna have
same brain, the same brain.
Cher, Derek Jeter. I mean,
you gotta sell this thing.
This is not
a niche magazine, you know.
We gotta get the names
on there!
They said they're gonna
film the Met,
but it's not about the Met,
it's about this, right here.
This is going to be
the whole documentary.
That's it. Done.
from photographers)
(indistinct shouting)
Photographer:
Hold that right there, please.
(indistinct shouting continues)
Anna Wintour: The Met stairs,
you know,
that famous red carpet,
has grown in spectacle
over the years.
It's a kind of theater.
(man speaks indistinctly)
Fashion can create a dream,
create a fantasy.
But there might be some
questions about
whether fashion belongs in a museum like the Met.
Photographer 2: Rihanna!
(indistinct shouting continues)
(elevator dings)
Some people have a very 19th
century idea of what art is.
There are people
within the museum
who still dismiss fashion.
Thomas Campbell: When I
started off as a curator,
art was considered to be
painting, architecture
and sculpture.
Anything outside of that
was decorative arts and,
quite frankly,
looked down on.
Costume and fashion being
one example of that.
Wintour: The museum is
its own little world,
its own little city. Some more old-fashioned
traditionalists
are used to things being done
in a certain way and
maybe a Costume Institute
makes them a bit uncomfortable.
Harold Koda: Physically,
the Costume Institute is
subterranean.
And so the psychology of it
has always been that
we were in the north sector...
in a basement.
It was not seen, really,
as an art area.
(indistinct conversation)
Andrew Bolton:
Fashion is still considered more in the female domain
than something like painting.
I think that's the reason
why some people
are quick to dismiss
fashion as art.
Koda: Fashion seemed
frivolous and trivial
to the 19th century attitudes
about fine art.
But it's laden with concepts,
aesthetic principals,
the most refined techniques...
Everything that we subject the criteria of art to.
We're about clothing
as art works.
Wintour: It's rare to find
someone so creative,
that they can change the way
you look at an art form.
But McQueen definitely did.
Newsreader: Our top story:
Alexander McQueen
has been found dead
apparently committing suicide
at his London flat.
Newsreader 2: Brilliant
and controversial fashion designer...
Newsreader 3: The bad boy of
British fashion died an icon.
An inspirational designer
who helped transform
the fashion industry.
Newsreader 4: They were shutting
down his shops today,
and there were people fleeing
his shops crying.
(bagpipes playing)
(cameras clicking)
Campbell:
It was the immediate aftermath
of McQueen's suicide... Andrew came to me and said that
he had been thinking about
an exhibition.
Tom was reluctant initially.
He felt it was a bit ghoulish.
There needed to be some time
before we did an exhibition
of McQueen.
Wintour:
A lot of people felt that
an exhibition may not be
appropriate so soon after he,
he died in such
an awful way,
but Andrew is a real visionary,
and our job is to help him
execute his creative genius.
Campbell:
The combination of the objects,
the very theatrical
mise-en-scne,
the sound... (sound of rushing air)
There was an immersive
component to the exhibition
that took it to a new level.
The degree to which the show
became a phenomenon...
None of us
were prepared for that.
People queuing around
the museum.
It hasn't happened
for many years.
Wintour:
It touched a chord in people
that I'd never seen before.
Campbell: It redefined
exhibition-making in museums. Bolton: "Savage Beauty"
was the turning point
in terms of how art critics
began to view fashion,
and the first time they did
begin to see it as an art form.
When you're confronted
by genius,
it speaks to everybody.
McQueen was one of the most
provocative designers,
but I always saw this
incredible beauty
about his work and this deep romance.
He always tried to tap into
this juncture between
beauty and ugliness and terror.
And he had that ability
to use clothes to move you.
The McQueen show has become
a little bit
of an albatross in a way...
A millstone around my neck.
Because it's the show
that every show that
I've done subsequently
is measured against.
Invariably the reviews
in The New York Times...
"Not as good as
the McQueen show."
And it's sort of...
disappointing to read that
in print
because every show
has its own momentum.
I remember being at school, and we had a career adviser.
They went
around the class saying,
you know,
"What's your ideal job?"
And I said
my ideal job would be
curator in the
Costume Institute of the Met.
And I was about 17.
It really was
a dream come true.
I was just so seduced
by the romance
of getting lost
in the museum and
finding objects that you weren't expecting.
But my overwhelming emotion was
just being intimidated by
the museum and the curators.
I felt a bit of a fraud as well,
to be honest.
I felt as if I was gonna get
found out really quickly
that I wasn't actually
meant to be doing the job.
I still feel a bit like that.
This show that we're currently
curating is called
"China:
Through the Looking Glass."
It's a collaboration between
the Costume Institute
and the Department of Asian Art.
We want to show how
Western fashion designers
look to China for inspiration.
There is this ongoing dialogue
between the East and the West.
And fashion is easier
to understand
than language itself.
Every show I do
is quite personal
and I'm so tired of hearing how
McQueen is the most successful
show we've ever done. It would be nice if China
was able
to knock it off its pedestal.
Bolton: It's like the
Great Wall of China.
(Wintour chuckles)
- Let's start at the beginning
- Wintour: Wow!
- Wintour:
- It's huge. Yeah.
Bolton: We have a
whole section based on
blue and white porcelain.
Starting with a really early one
from Molyneux from the 20s.
- And then Sarah's from...
- Wintour: They were amazing.
Bolton: This is Guo Pei,
a Chinese designer.
Cavalli, Karl, Rodarte...
That leads into
St. Laurent's Chinese collection
- and his Opium scent.
- Okay.
We're borrowing one of those
from the St. Laurent archive.
But the big presence really
is John's Chinese collection
for Dior.
Oh, wow!
Look at the fullness.
Love his tailoring.
Bolton: Galliano is a designer
who is difficult to unpack.
Because he's collaging all these ideas
into a particular collection.
He's taken the idea of
the 18th Century panier,
which is normally at the side
of the gown,
and twisted it around
so its frontal.
He's doing so many references
to the Bowery, the Queen Mother.
Eighteenth century,
Peking opera, Kabuki.
He's an amazing storyteller
on the level of
fantasy and romance.
So I wanted to interview John
because he looks at China
constantly for inspiration.
What surprised me was how
consistent China was as
an inspiration in your work
and I just wanted to find out,
why China? I think it was
that sense of mystery and...
...danger, but only danger that
you've got that feeling
through portrayals
from Hollywood.
There's mixtures of Chinese
opera, geisha
and the Queen Mother...
I don't think I set out to
recreate China.
As you can see,
I certainly didn't achieve it.
So, it was a fantasized...
...vision of China.
A fictional character develops,
and I kinda, like,
start living it,
breathing it.
Paint the picture who she is,
how she looks by candle light.
Can you smell that
powdery lipstick?
I like to express my emotion
through the cut. Each time you cut a fabric,
it's a different
relationship you have to it.
It can be like
mercurial liquid oil.
Or like licorice.
The creative process
is my meditation.
Playing with textures
and shapes and volumes...
That's something that I love.
And because of that,
I am able to
to even think about
going back into an industry
where I've become an outcast.
That fantasy world that
I create is an escape for me.
(indistinct chatter)
Bolton: John weaves these
very personal
and seemingly bizarre narratives into his fashion.
It's quite easy to dismiss
fashion designer's
engagement with China,
as being inauthentic.
But I want to focus on these
works of art that are
extraordinary examples of
a designer's imagination.
You think about someone
like Saint Laurent...
He absolutely changed
the course of fashion history.
There's about 2,000 pieces
in total haute couture?
I think it's more. - Between 5,000 and 6,000.
- Six thousand.
- So beautiful...
- It's a Mondrian.
You've got so many of them.
Yeah, we have different
versions.
Bolton: The Mondrian dress,
with the idea of lining up
the stripes.
It's such tour de force,
isn't it?
Bolton: It looks very easy.
It's such a complicated thing
to achieve.
It's so radical.
Do you have the '71?
- Seventy-one fur, yeah!
- You do.
Yeah. Okay.
Bolton: The craftsmanship that
went Saint Laurent's clothes,
his usage of embroidery, the element of camp...
It's iconic.
Bolton: They are unquestionably
works of art.
Oh, my goodness,
I haven't seen that before.
It's very modern.
Unbelievable.
Bolton: I see so much
magic still in fashion.
It's just overwhelming.
A dream come true.
(chuckles)
Bolton: I grew up in
a small town in England.
And the only access
I had to fashion were
star magazines,
emerging in the 80s.
I just missed the punk movement.
The first movement that
I really engaged with
was New Romanticism.
Which was all about
gender blurring.
I remember seeing people
on the streets
thinking how they looked like
they'd arrived
from another planet.
But also how brave they were.
I was so impressed by the power
of fashion to confront gender
and sexuality.
That's never left me, anyway.
You're still that little kid
from Lancashire who...
...is totally in awe.
Ah, Lawrence,
where is Singh, please?
- Lawrence:
- Okay.
Wintour:
The Costume Institute and Vogue
have a long history together.
Diana Vreeland actually ran it
after she left Vogue.
Please don't stand there!
Wintour: We have one major party
every year to raise funds for
the Costume Institute.
The party supports
our operating budget
for the entire year.
Koda: The Met Gala
was the invention of
this small group of
fashion professionals.
It was relatively small,
but the department itself
was very small.
Bolton: Anna's taking it
to a different level,
in terms of the money that
she's raised over the years.
$120 million
for our department alone.
Michelle Obama: Thanks to Anna's contributions,
the exhibits at
the Costume Institute
have drawn hundreds
of thousands of visitors
to this great American museum.
(applause)
Since Anna Wintour has
taken over the Met ball,
it has become the Super Bowl of
social fashion events.
It starts with months
of preparations,
not just for the exhibit,
but for the actual Met Gala.
Woman: We're starting to plan
for the gala,
starting to organize
with everything.
Do we want to talk
about guest count right now?
I think we should keep
the number as low
as we possibly can.
We were 608 last year.
Okay,
we're gonna start with 500.
- Five hundred.
- Five hundred.
Five hundred.
And everybody is cutting their numbers, right, Harold?
- Do we need to talk about it?
- Yeah, we're trying.
There is the issue of
our partnership with
the Chinese Department...
That's another...
We really have to keep
the numbers down
and also the free seats.
There must be another way
that we can accommodate people.
You'll figure it out.
Anna is meticulously
vetting every single thing,
from the napkins, to the forks,
to the lighting...
The detail of the flowers,
the detail of the ushers,
the way they're dressed.
Everything has been vetted
by her for months
and weeks and months and weeks.
Okay, is there going to be
somebody literally here?
We have two people here.
Will there be
someone there too?
Yes, we have
literally an army up here. It's a full battle squad.
Andr Leon Talley:
She has her legions,
her generals,
who work at Vogue.
Hi, girls, the plan today
is just to walk through
the path that our guests
are gonna be taking,
and also to place you
in your positions.
So if you could make
your way up the stairs,
just stagger yourselves, girls.
Please scatter a few steps up.
Talley:
Now, the Met is a place
that you consider
very, very correct.
Very formal.
Anna has taken that
out of the Met.
Photographer: Happy!
Sylvana Ward Durrett:
We have Dave Franco,
and then who's the other one
you were saying?
Josh Hartnett.
What has he done lately?
Nothing.
You guys are set. You have great
carpet material right now.
Yeah, you have Kendall!
Michael Kors has
Liz Banks and Kate Hudson.
Prada has Emily Blunt.
Ralph has Anne Hathaway.
Versace has JLo.
Beyonc, Kim and Kanye,
Rihanna, Kara,
Amber Heard,
Chastain, Julianne Moore...
All of those people are us,
I believe, right?
Woman: Yes.
They want to come?
- We're not completely sure yet.
- Okay.
Baz Luhrmann: As an icon,
Anna is very unique.
On the face of it,
she's the editor
of a very powerful
American-based magazine.
She's the artistic director
of a whole stable of magazines.
But that is not really the
power of Anna Wintour.
Anna's gift
is bringing culture, both high and low,
to cross-fertilize.
- Hi, guys!
- Hey, Anna!
- You ready?
- Totally.
Okay, let's see the walk.
The Met Gala is a celebration of
a multi-cultural moment.
Pop and fine art mix in
the Metropolitan Museum.
Luhrmann: You can have an
acting icon next to
a musical icon,
next to a political icon.
It's like a giant aquarium
on that night.
Durrett: A lot of thought goes
into who sits next to who.
If they sat next to each other last year.
If they sat next to each other
at other events.
So much goes into it.
It's shocking.
A lot of power-brokering.
Alex has six seats,
he's bringing
Gaga, Miley, Zoe.
Here's Tory.
Durrett: Ah-hah.
She's looking for
one other guy.
And then Ricardo is
down here with Jessica,
Julianne and Beyonc.
So that's that.
What Anna has done is
understood that high fashion,
I mean, the most extraordinary
expression of this medium,
when it's paired
with celebrity,
becomes something
bigger than both. And that is
what happens on the red carpet.
When you see Rihanna
in a couture gown,
it's transcendent.
Talley:
Each celebrity has been chosen
to wear a gown by designers.
It's like assignments.
The Met, for me, means a lot.
It's the only red carpet I do.
Riccardo Tisci: Each designer
brings his own muse.
A singer, a friend,
a model, an actress.
You bring the person that most represents your aesthetic.
Koda: That attention all accrues
to the reputation
of the museum.
I thought he wasn't coming.
I know, but then he decided
he wanted to come.
Okay. Can he not be on his
cell phone the entire time then?
- Mm-hmmm.
- Maybe send him that message.
Loud and clear.
- Who's that?
- These are the two HandM people.
Wintour:
We shouldn't bury this table.
Seriously.
- Yes.
- That's not fair.
- Okay.
- Okay?
And then who are these people?
Those are people who
I'm hoping will go away.
Okay.
The exhibition, "China through
the Looking Glass,"
will present
an image of China
that is a fabulous invention.
Often film is the first lens
through Western designers
encounter Chinese imagery.
And the exhibition will explore the impact of movies
in shaping their fantasies.
The film perhaps that's had the
greatest influence on designers,
is Wong Kar Wai's
In the Mood for Love.
No one has made the chi-pao
look quite as beautiful
on screen as Wong Kar Wai.
In the Mood for Love,
I would see it many times
and I love it.
It was like a truly,
like, beautiful gesture.
The colors were fantastic.
It's after that that I did
my Chinese collection.
I think is must be like
one year after.
It's good even not
to go to the country!
It's better, I think,
like to see through a book, or to see all movie,
on the souvenir you have.
Bolton: We thought Kar Wai was
the right choice
to be the artistic director
of the exhibition.
Bolton: We're working on
the exhibition
design concepts still.
We're having the films
be the filter
between the art objects
and the high fashions.
Sometimes directly related,
and sometimes more of
a metaphorical device.
I would love the films
to be projected,
so that they're almost these
spectral figures
throughout the show.
Because I don't think this show
will have a linear narrative.
Now the structure of the show is more like a Chinese garden.
You have an entrance,
but then you're free to walk.
That's a really good point.
Kar Wai:
So, I would use this medium
to create a continuity
and, also, the expression.
Bolton: There's two venues
for the exhibition.
We have
the Costume Institute galleries
in the basement of the museum,
and then we also have
the Chinese galleries
on the second floor.
The Chinese galleries themselves weren't designed
for costumes,
they were designed for
flat works of art.
So incorporating costume
within them
is challenging,
to say the least!
Mike Hearn: We have over
50 galleries
of Asian art at the Met,
so it's probably the most
comprehensive collection
of Asian art anywhere.
There are bigger collections of
Chinese art in China obviously.
There's better collections of
Cambodian art in Cambodia. But we do a pretty good job.
What I want to do is
do these 20-foot plexi-rods of
different sizes of that
naturally bend and light them.
So this is the first room
that you see.
Yes, bamboo forest.
The bamboo platform comes
all the way out here,
then it turns.
The height of the bamboo
goes just underneath
- the Arthur Sackler...
- Bolton: Gallery.
Nathan Crowley:
As you walk to the great
early Buddha sculpture hall,
you are transported
into another world.
We tried to show Chinese art
from the perspective
of the Chinese themselves.
It's not Disneyland. I'm gonna put a
14-foot wide platform
by 12-foot platform here.
Cover this with a grey mirror.
I think Mike thought it might
look a bit too Disney.
We're gonna have panels anyway.
I think we just make them.
Bolton: The curators in
the Asian Art Department
were worried about
some of the topics
the exhibition was addressing.
It opens up debates
about colonialism,
Orientalism,
which could be interpreted
as being racist.
Hearn: For the West,
it didn't matter whether we're talking about
China, Japan, Korea.
All of that was somehow
lumped together as "Oriental."
And I think there's still
a really strong sense
that China has been
taken advantage of,
maybe misunderstood,
by the West.
Isn't this place marvelous?
Look at those faces.
Hindu, Chinese, Portuguese,
Filipinos, Russians,
Malaya.
I didn't think such
a place existed
except in my own imagination.
Bolton: So many designers
reference China
through the films of the 30s.
It's the China
that is the stereotype. And I want to sort of
deconstruct those stereotypes.
And tease out some of the
complexities and the dangers,
but also the romance of them,
as well.
Anna May Wong was
a Hollywood starlet
in the 30s and 40s,
who was fated to play
stereotypes of
the Chinese woman.
And it's either
the Lotus Blossom, or the Dragon Lady,
which is basically
an Orientalized femme fatale.
Don't do anything foolish.
The Dragon Lady is a figure
who projects our fears
and desires and
anxieties onto you.
She is quasi-matriarchal,
she is financially independent,
she's sexually liberated.
She in a way lends herself
to a feminist interpretation...
...because the Dragon Lady has become a way to represent
any powerful woman.
I though the gentleman in the
black night gown was the boss.
Who, Money Bags?
He's an errand boy.
The real boss is
a remarkable lady,
the most cold-blooded
dragon you will ever meet.
She'll devour you like a cat
swallows a mouse.
I've never seen
anything like it.
You walk in and this
is what you see?
It's not possible.
This is the reception area?
Man: This is when you walk in...
The racks?
I need to look at a plan.
This is not what you want to see
when people walk in.
Okay, so this has to go. Xavier,
are you listening to me?
- Yes.
- Okay.
All this furniture here
should go.
Get rid of all that.
It has to look like an area
that you walk into.
- That it's professional.
- Yes. Not like a second-hand
vintage store.
No, no, no,
in the closet.
What about the lobby furniture?
I didn't even look at that.
This is making me feel
violently ill.
Take the whole thing out.
It's horrible.
It's just gonna give people
a headache.
Are we able to soften it
a little bit so it's not...
So it doesn't look like a disco.
(indistinct speech)
Let me say something about
the Dragon Lady image.
Anna has a public image.
Hi, thank you for joining us.
Anna Wintour, welcome to CNN.
Luhrmann: A lot of that is
absolutely true,
but I do think that if
Anna was a man,
there might be
less focus on that.
Because of your success
and your determination,
you've earned a reputation of
being intimidating.
Is that unfair?
Um, I think I'm decisive,
and I like to get
things done quickly,
so if that comes across
as intimidation, I'm sorry to hear it.
There are so many
different stereotypes and...
I...
...think if one is bothered
by it,
...it's a little bit fruitless
because it's out there.
Inevitably, I have to ask you
just one question about
Devil Wears Prada.
A former assistant
wrote the book,
later turned into a movie.
Do you feel that that
was a breach of trust?
Ah, well...
It's part of life.
Stereotypes always
are going to exist,
is what you do with them,
what you make of them.
I think that she brought
attention to fashion,
in a way... You can look at
it in a negative way,
or in a positive way.
I choose to look at it
in a positive way.
In some ways, I think
I should be grateful to her.
Luhrmann: I've seen her recently
play herself,
and she plays the person
everyone thinks she is. But it's a character.
It's kind of her "work armor."
(indistinct conversations)
Man: There's an updated
decor concept.
We've floralized
quite a lot of the design.
This is one idea.
And now this is the other.
That might be a bit much
for the carpet.
I think that we can...
- Tone it down.
- Exactly.
That's a lot of flowers.
What are the flowers underneath?
- Looks like wisteria.
- It's wisteria, yes.
Wisteria and bamboo.
What about pale lilac rather...?
We can do pale.
Cause I think pale
would look prettier
with the blue
than that dark color.
- I don't like that combination.
- With this color.
- But pale.
- Yes.
- We can go back to this.
- Yeah, we'll talk about it.
- Temple of Dendur...
- Wow...
Don't know about that.
Man: What aren't you sure of?
I don't see how you can compete
with the temple.
Whatever you put there
is gonna look fake.
Man: There's very little we can do.
This is gonna look like
a Chinese restaurant.
I just don't see how
you can compete with that.
- Yeah, no.
- I mean it's, well...
If it was at night,
you have more of a chance.
Yeah.
So my advice is,
I would keep to the bridge,
- I'd definitely do the lilies.
- Bolton: The lilies.
And some decoration and then
some Chinese-type furniture.
Okay, thank you.
Bolton: We haven't yet finalized
the design of the exhibition.
We're end of December
at the moment,
so that's pretty late,
in fact, it's very late.
Campbell:
One of the big challenges
is the short time period
in which
we are pulling
the exhibition together. It's the largest costume
exhibition we've ever done.
I really want the pace
to change
when you go through,
so I like the fact that
this is quieter
and more reflective.
And here,
- it's just sensory overload.
- It's just a drawing.
Bolton:
It's proving difficult,
not just because of the size
and scope of the exhibition,
but there's a lot of
conceptual challenges
and political hurdles.
(speaking Chinese)
Bolton: They're constantly being
brought up
by the Asian Art Department.
Probably this one...
Hearn: What is key for
the success of all of this
is that there is some
conversation with
the Chinese works of art, so that it is not just wallpaper.
I think bringing
Western fashion
into the Chinese galleries
could be perceived as
a misinterpretation of
who the Chinese are,
what Chinese culture is about.
- (elevator dings)
- (indistinct speech)
This area is fashion
inspired by Imperial China.
So the idea is
the Chinese objects will be
in the perimeters
in the cases and
the fashion's in the middle,
that's the constant
you can see throughout.
We put a color theme
to each of these rooms
by using a light source
around those objects.
So we go from blue
probably to gold
and over to red.
The different light
colors the rooms.
Is that a bit rainbow?
Maybe...
Bolton: You don't want to be
fighting with the objects.
It'd be nice if it was a very
subtle glow because otherwise,
your eyes are being dilated
by the light in the-- You don't want it to look
like an amusement park.
Yeah.
All right, let's go on.
So now we go
into the bamboo forest,
so we moved on and become
a little more surreal,
by using lit plexi-rod.
It transfers the light
all the way through the rod.
I'm hoping over 20 foot
it would still maintain
a lot of that light.
Bolton: That's great.
And you're okay, Mike?
What we want to be careful about
is just making sure that
between the costumes
and the bamboo forest,
that we don't completely
obscure the sculptures there.
My goal is just
to make sure that
the Chinese objects
really look their best,
and that they aren't
overshadowed or
demeaned by whatever
we do design-wise.
But obviously for the run
of this exhibition,
those objects are
going to be not...
They're gonna be
less accessible.
But there's plenty of other
things for people to see.
I generally like the idea,
but I just want to
exercise as much discretion
as possible,
so that nobody comes around and just says
we're using Chinese art
as just a stage prop.
In the architectural drawings,
I created all these sight lines
to the artwork.
I think there's 700 rods.
Do you think we need that many?
Yeah, I think we might need to
go to a thousand.
Well, yeah, but it takes
a lot to fill a room,
and your room is enormous.
At first, I thought
we'd need 3,000 so...
Which seems like a lot,
but it's not.
Are these tablecloths all
going to be different colors?
Yes, so these tablecloths
are going to be
- the colors of the cushions.
- Yeah, I like those colors.
- Yeah.
- Oh...
- (doorbell rings)
- Okay.
- How are you?
- Hello.
- Hi.
- Hi.
- So much to talk about.
- I know.
Can I ask this question?
How "Chinesey" like...?
We can show you.
Like, how chinoiserie is it?
Is the whole thing?
Let me show you a rendering.
Wintour:
What do you think about this,
as you walk up the steps?
Raul vila:
Dragons when people arrive.
So that's why... It's more like an entrance,
like, "Hey, you're in China."
Dragons might be
a bit too obvious.
Can I say this?
I think it's
fantastically strong,
and I think it should be strong.
Right?
But the reason
I'm slightly reticent is,
in terms of the crowd coming,
how much
classical Chinese imagery
do you think they expect?
What they're gonna see
when they walk in.
When you go inside the
great hall, you see this.
Now that I think is
unassailably beautiful.
They say "China" without saying
"Chinese theme park."
I think the double dragons
at the front
belong to another show.
Right?
And by the way,
the water slide at the end
of it is awesome, right?
- Okay?
- (laughter)
Is this based
on a Chinese something?
Anna, it's the "something" part
than I'm worried about.
The complexity of the subject
matter itself requires
delicate handling
so we're not misunderstood. We're working around
the main mine fields.
How many pieces in
the exhibition?
You already got everything
you want to borrow from China?
We're just waiting to hear
from the Imperial Palace.
It would be ideal
to get a Mao suit
worn from one of
the Communist Party members
during the Cultural Revolution.
But, I think, politically,
I think it's difficult.
Mao is an icon, and so there's
a limit to what our Chinese
friends will tolerate in terms
of how Mao is treated.
- It has to be respectful.
- I think so.
Of course, something is probably
going to blow up at any moment.
The building with all the flags
is the National Museum.
Then the one on
the other side of the flag
is the Great Hall of the People.
And this is the entrance to
The Forbidden City.
So you'll see the Mao portrait.
It's incredible.
On display next to me is a dress
by Roberto Cavalli, whose colors and motifs
pay obvious homage
to Chinese
blue and white porcelain.
Fashion is about ideas.
The way we live.
(indistinct conversation)
Campbell: Guys, you really have
your work cut out.
Our aim is to beat
McQueen numbers.
Bolton: "China,
Through the Looking Glass,"
I think it's going to be
inevitably controversial.
There's going to be dissenters.
But I'm not afraid of
controversy.
And I think the show should be
controversial and provocative.
- Hi!
- Hey...
- Good to see you again.
- Good to see you.
Bolton: So here is where I'm thinking about putting Mao,
the Buddha gallery.
It's the only space I can think
about putting him.
I think if we can have
the Mao jacket sculpture here,
that would be the centerpiece,
focusing on the idea of
changing nature
of deities within China and
the idea of monumentality...
You'd be able to take out
all these Buddhas here?
We'd keep the Buddhas in.
And you put Mao with
all these Buddhas?
Yeah.
I think it makes sense
intellectually because of
the deification of Mao in China.
I think it would be surprising
to have Mao in that space.
And it makes sense.
You have some hesitancy
still, Kar Wai,
about the Buddhist gallery.
- Yeah.
- You still feel it.
You still feel Mao
might not work there?
Because I think it will be...
First of all, it will be
an insult, too sensitive
for like, not the government,
besides that, it's the Chinese
and also the Buddhists.
And I'm thinking...
Is it nice to get
some controversy though? Maybe not the way that you want.
Not in this particular context.
Why don't we just put it
just before you walk into
this big Buddhist hall.
You have this Mao section.
- Nice idea, actually.
- Yeah.
There's a lot to see.
The material is so rich.
But try not to make
the show too busy.
Because seeing too much
is seeing nothing.
I think we are all looking
forward to this exhibition.
But also have
a lot of questions.
From the little we can gather,
it seems like there's a lot of
symbols about dragons
and Ming vases.
Why is that?
And anything else,
because I, honestly,
I don't want to see
another Ming vase.
I love blue and
white porcelain so
I'm happy to see it
in the exhibition.
I think a lot of
people's questions will be
it seems like the more
contemporary version of China.
It's not really included
in this kind of
imagery, repertoire...
It's not,
you're absolutely right.
That's not the focus
of the exhibition, modern China. - It's very much on the history.
- Reporter: Yes.
You mention a lot
about fantasies,
but fantasy always entails
misconstrued,
misinterpretation, reality...
So how the Western
perceive Chinese
and how Chinese perceive
their own culture
will be quite different,
from what I gather.
Were you questioning the idea
of fantasy and fashion?
I think if we don't have
fantasy in fashion,
then fashion will never change.
Of course, we all will love to
embrace fantasy in fashion,
but fantasy is
very likely to also entail
misinterpretations
or misconceptions.
So, as a curator, you must
have thought about that.
Yeah, but I think, as Anna says,
all fashion tells stories.
Every item in the exhibition
tells its own story.
All you're seeing in
the exhibition
are designers celebrating
actually Chinese culture.
We're also including the work
of several Chinese designers,
like Guo Pei and Laurence Yu.
Chinese designers also gravitate
towards the same sort of symbols as Western designers.
It's not exclusively about
the West appropriating
Chinese symbols.
- Thank you.
- Bolton: Thank you.
I think she was really
politicizing it.
...the idea of the West just
plundering
the East for inspiration.
Or the fact that
it's all about the past.
Yes. She just wants everything
to start in 1949
- Woman: Are you good to start?
- (chuckles) Yes.
(speaks Chinese)
China went through
a unique period in its history.
During this period of history,
many Chinese destroyed
their own tradition.
But I feel today, it's changing.
I want to integrate
traditional Chinese culture
with modern aesthetics.
Eastern and Western cultures
collide together. We want to find the wisdom
left by our ancestors.
So now, I am using my skills
to create something
for the nation.
As if I were making a
wedding dress for my country
with love in my heart.
How's the Guo Pei piece?
- Is it heavy?
- Very heavy.
Bolton:
Beijing seems like a dream now.
I was panic-stricken
when I came back
about how much work
we have to do. Such a crisis point in terms
of concerns
about possible responses
to the exhibition worldwide.
All the Chinese, in the last
few hundred years,
we were always
looking backward,
we forget progress,
modernization.
So the new generation of Chinese
have benefitted
from modernization.
They were afraid
your exhibition
is too much only the past.
A lot of Chinese,
they're wondering
why all this dragon rope,
the beautiful coating,
not Chinese modern things...
Modern film, modern art...
How would you represent
through fashion, modern China?
How would you represent that?
The show is also posing
questions like,
what is the contemporary
Chinese aesthetic?
Because there's none
at this point.
Not yet.
In the making.
- So this is in the making?
- Yeah.
So, in a way, looking back doesn't mean you are nostalgic.
I think
the only way to move forward
is not to forget
about your past.
We confront the idea
of the orientalist
stereotyping of China.
Particularly through
the character, Anna May Wong.
But also talk about
the genuine reciprocity
between China and the West.
We've just got approval
to start building.
So we're on a super-tight
time frame.
(chuckling)
Incredible.
Incredible.
I think the objects
that we've chosen
are really compelling,
really seductive,
and once you overlay them
with the curatorial narrative,
it could be extraordinary.
- Andrew. - Hey, Mike, how are you?
My biggest concern, Andrew,
frankly,
is just to make sure that people
don't find the intensity
of the installation,
and the kind of...
Shall we say the imposition of
the design
so powerful,
that it overshadows
the intellectual content.
I think what happens with this
is it diminishes the focus on
the intellectual content,
and it just raises the level of,
well, this is all about...
...creating a sense of hype,
which is different from
what your goals are,
and what my goals are.
Bolton: It's a little bit
frustrating because
sometimes there's not an
overall understanding
of the narrative of the show,
but also the complexity
from the design prospective.
So it's just...
Yeah, a bit frustrating. I try not to listen too much
to other people in terms of
what they expect
the show to be
and to try and trust
my own judgment.
Many people have a superficial
understanding of fashion.
People underestimate the power
of clothes to tell stories,
or to speak to people.
There is the perennial debate
about whether or not
fashion can ever be art.
It has, in some instances, to do with intention,
that when a designer is
creating something,
they think they're creating
an art work.
Most designers, however,
don't approach it that way.
I never, never, never dreamed
that my clothes should be
in a museum.
I think that fashion is
supposed to represent
what's happening in society,
politically, economically...
The clothes have to live.
It's a little boring,
that designers
say they are artists, especially
when they say it themselves,
thinking, "You're an artist,
one should not be on a runway,
but one should be
in a gallery."
So go to a gallery.
What we do is applied art.
Chanel never said that
she was an artist.
She was a dress-maker.
Madame Vionnet was a dressmaker.
Madame Lanvin was a dressmaker.
They wanted to dress
a certain kind of society.
They were happy and flattered
when those women bought
those dresses.
Koda: Of course, not all fashion is art.
It's not.
Some of it is
purely commercial.
But we still struggle
at the Costume Institute,
because as Americans,
there's a kind of
puritanical tradition.
And we hate the notion
that there might be commerce
associated with anything,
because somehow that
makes it less pure.
But as the definitions of art
have become more elastic,
you know, post-Dada,
post-Warhol,
we're no longer bound by
the 19th century categories
of fine versus applied art. We never give up on this idea
that something transcendent
can be expressed in that same
very prosaic thing
that you wear.
Bolton: I would certainly
classify Lagerfeld
as an artist, even though
he always refutes it.
The application
of his embroideries,
it's an artistic expression.
(indistinct conversation)
When you discover someone
like John Galliano, you really are in the presence
of a true artistic genius.
This is strange.
This is like seeing a child you
haven't seen
for a very long time.
Some of those stitches
you're not allowed to do anymore
because they'll turn you blind.
It's not for me to say
it's art or not,
but, certainly, the way
we apply some things
and the inspiration we took...
We did some wonderful things.
Wonderful things.
Koda: There is something about
the human impulse
to communicate and express.
An encyclopedic museum
like the Met
attempts to gather together
the most extraordinary
manifestations
of those impulses.
Keith, it's Sylvana.
Can you give me a call back? I just want to talk about
Rihanna's budget. Call me. Bye.
So, Rihanna...
- Keith: (over phone) Yeah.
- We can't lose her, right?
So, is it just that she has
a larger crew than Kanye did?
She has a massive team
that she travels with,
and that's how she rolls.
Originally, the budget was
over (bleep) hundred thousand.
I told not to even send it
to me until they worked on it,
because it was a non-starter,
so they went back, and they sent me a budget
that lowered it (bleep)
hundred thousand.
And I said, you know,
this is a charity so...
She's expensive, period.
We knew it, we just didn't
realize how expensive.
So, I think talk to Anna
and see,
you know, if she can
set that gentle note,
thanking them,
but at the same time...
- Gentle nudge.
- Anything you can do. Yeah.
I'm breaking out
in hives right now.
(phone ringing)
Hi.
Okay, I don't know what to say.
I have no answer.
She is one of the biggest acts
in the world.
It's about twice as much
as any performer we've ever had.
They're not interested in making
it come down any further.
They feel that
they've done a lot.
So it's gonna take
a higher level ask...
You know, from you.
(chuckles)
Yes, that would be perfect.
Luhrmann: We live for
a cultural experience,
to feel like we're not alone,
to learn something
about ourselves,
to revel in the human journey.
But of course, there's glamour, and of course there's...
"What are the parties like?"
And there's gossip.
But if it takes a little bit of
Rihanna dancing on the tabletop
to get the attention,
then so be it.
And then Jennifer Lawrence
comes up and speaks,
Guong Lee speaks,
and then Jennifer Lawrence says,
"Ladies and gentlemen...
...Rihanna."
Wintour:
In the world that we work in,
you need the mixture of art
and commerce.
You need both.
Too much of one or the other
would not work. They have to exist...
hand-in-hand.
If you could say one brief thing
about two cultures
coming together.
That's what I want to say again.
I want to say thank you.
- Two cultures.
- Yeah.
You're gonna be incredible.
Beautiful.
I can't wait.
I feel better now.
No, no, no.
It's gonna be amazing.
It's always so calm up here.
That's because nothing's
going in.
Wow, it's a lot of work.
Bolton: So we can't install
until the lights arrive, okay?
The lights are one week late.
Why are they late?
Because they're not ready?
I don't know.
It's beyond me why.
We're already eight days late
on the panels delivery,
according to the schedule.
We just did the math,
at this rate, we're talking
about 6.8 days...
Middle of next week.
And obviously that doesn't work.
We gotta be realistic,
that we know what we're doing.
We're out of time.
How much overlap is there
between building
and art installation? There can't be any.
So you've got ten days.
It's flat out now until we open.
Bolton: We just underestimated
the scale of the show.
It's like putting three shows
on at the same time.
I, unfortunately, have a very
organic approach to curating,
so I tend to change things
as I go along.
This time around,
we're driving everyone crazy.
And what is the plan for the
show in terms of lighting?
Tomorrow, can we start working
on these two galleries?
Whenever we can get to
something, we do it.
- That's... - Who is going to tell you when?
We walk around and
around and around and we look,
and we say, "We can do that."
And we go and do that.
- But we have like 15 galleries.
- Clint Coller: I know.
It's a huge space.
We need them to absolutely
place the mannequins.
- This is...
- This is something that...
We have to talk to Andrew
about this.
Right.
Kar Wai: Andrew...
- Meet five minutes with me.
- Bolton: Okay.
At some point, I just need you
to give me mannequins.
- Mm-hmm.
- Because without the dresses,
and that's fine,
but you have to tell me,
which directions
the mannequins are facing.
- Mm-hmm. Okay.
- Can you do that?
Yeah.
The schedule that they
let us know today,
it means we have, basically,
two days to install
the whole exhibition.
We only have a
rehearsal for the temple?
Worse-case scenario, yeah.
Monday, you don't have
any rehearsal?
No.
There's no time on Monday,
we have to do that Sunday.
The temple's open on Sunday.
You're kidding, that's not possible.
- Why?
- Why?
Because we need to rehearse.
He needs to be with Rihanna.
We have a lot to do.
We should close it.
It just means that from the
general public's point of view,
there is absolutely
no access
to the entire
north end of the building...
That's the...
That's... All the...
They'll come back next week.
Please, otherwise, it's just...
Raul is going to have to be up
three nights in a row.
- It's not human.
- (laughter)
Okay, the public will come back.
- All right, anything else?
- No, I think we've covered it.
It was Anna's
understanding that,
if he was paying the balance,
we weren't going
to add those seats.
Obviously it's more money
for the museum,
but the problem is we want to
keep this an intimate setting because that's why
people come to this.
We're extremely appreciative,
I just...
I... I don't know what to do,
We just don't have the seats.
Wintour: Okay, I could swap
Baz with Harpers.
And where is Harvey?
Harvey's right here.
He won't like that.
Can we put somebody
better here
and move them there?
It doesn't have to be Harvey.
I think Anne Hathaway
should be here.
We're struggling to make
this work right now.
We still have three people that
don't have seats at the moment.
Can we block off the middle part
and in here, just make
a little hole here?
Because if we do something
in between these two pillars,
this is what
they're concerned about.
This is not art.
This is a pillar.
Oh no, it is Tiffany.
- Those are the Tiffany pillars.
- Expensive pillars. Wintour: We're trying to work
with you guys.
You told us what we were trying
to do here was first possible
then it's not possible.
And then we move the tables.
Woman: You have to understand...
You are basically scrubbing
Engelhardt Court of all the art.
Wintour: Yes... But this is not
actually about that tonight.
It's actually about raising
money for the museum,
which we have done.
Nathan?
Do the lights work?
We'll know
in the next two hours.
What happens if they don't?
Yes, that's better.
Once you see those together...
Incredible.
We'll be finished, you know,
in the next hour.
Okay, you'll be finished by
the end of the day though?
I mean, we'll finish by...
Before we leave tonight.
(indistinct speech
in background)
Okay, okay, okay.
Talley: The dress is beautiful.
- It's so beautiful.
- The dress fits.
- It fits?
- It fits.
Maybe too tight here.
Yeah, that's what
I was thinking, maybe...
Here, I'll deal with that.
Talley: The color is superb on you.
And what do you think of
the bracelet?
Mom only like diamonds.
Talley: So now you should walk.
Walk out of the room.
Excellent!
Sexy and soign.
It's very beautiful.
A superb dress.
Luhrmann:
Anna is kinda beyond legacy.
I mean, she's got a legacy.
She could disappear
to Alaska now
and never be seen again,
dressed as Nanook of the North,
or something,
and, you know,
she's got a legacy.
She sent me
the fitting pictures...
Luhrmann:
She's a big business entity.
But the whole idea
with the Met Gala...
it's not a
commercial consideration.
It's a cultural consideration.
I don't pretend to be
a fashion historian, but I think
fashion should be recognized
when you see how
it touches people
and moves people.
I mean, what more
can you ask from art?
- My God.
- (gasping)
Oh, my God.
She's gonna die,
has she seen it?
Man: No she hasn't been
here yet.
My God...
(chuckling)
We did it!
I'm gonna cry.
Unbelievable!
Wintour:
Does this go to the top?
Unbelievable.
Best one ever.
How many roses?
250,000.
(laughs)
(applause)
(clears throat)
Good morning.
"China:
Through the Looking Glass"
is almost three times the size
of our usual spring shows.
In total, there are over
150 costumes and accessories,
and over 40 designers.
- (indistinct speech)
- (cameras clicking)
What a relief that's over with.
- Yeah, but...
- (smashing)
(giggling)
Is that good luck?
- It wasn't a mirror.
- I'm sure it is.
Special kudos to Andrew for surviving.
It works so beautifully
in the galleries.
It really does.
I couldn't agree more.
I'm thrilled.
I love you.
Was the speech ok?
Really good. Yeah.
Did I sound like
the Queen of England?
No!
(mocking laughter)
I'll see you later.
Probably about two-ish.
So this is HandM.
This is Veronica.
Vivienne.
And this is Cartier.
That's the best solution,
and then the small one is
in the middle, right?
Okay, right.
- Yeah.
- Let's move this in a bit.
Yes.
This is such a bad table, but
someone's gotta take
this table.
But no celeb, right?
Chloe Sevigny, Solange Knowles.
Oh.
But they'll talk to who?
Odell Beckham.
Durrett: It's tight,
but it's always tight.
Wintour:
These are fun people, right?
It's fine.
Yeah.
This is fine.
(laughing)
He's like, "What are you
talking about? What happened?"
What is this?
Nylon?
- Durrett: No
- Silk.
- Pure silk.
- Made in China.
(cheering)
Alright, George, let's do this.
Let's get this thing going. What the fuck is this?
The other leg.
Let's see the legs.
- (chuckles)
- Thank you, darling.
(cheering)
Talley: Come over here, baby,
come to me.
Only you can wear
a dress like this.
The body rocks.
What do you do
to keep the body rocking?
What do you do?
Are you getting good pictures
of the dress and everything?
Chloe Malle: I was worried
people would take
Chinese-inspired and do
something wildly offensive
and actually people
have been very creative
and done some
really beautiful things.
Some major headwear.
(cheering)
Do you all love Chinese food? I do.
- He doesn't. What do you like?
- No, I love Chinese food.
What's your favorite dish?
I like fried chicken wings
and General Tso's chicken
with some shrimp,
and chicken fried rice.
- I know you work for Vogue...
- (laughs)
He works for Vogue,
but you better tell the truth.
Anne Hathaway is heaven.
Looks so good, yeah.
Amanda Seyfried and Justin Long
look adorable together.
She's in custom Givency couture.
(screams)
Cher? I want Cher.
Someone help me!
Could you help me?
Come on here, baby.
Come to me.
Why did you let that happen?
Can someone go tell Sally that
the Clooneys did not stop?
Go tell her now.
You know the Clooneys
didn't stop.
So let Anna know that.
George said hello
but Mrs. Clooney
did not stop
in her Galliano dress,
I told Sally.
We got Justin Bieber, OK?
Sale bte! Sale bte!
Darling, wow!
How does it feel to be
one of the 100 most influential persons
- in Time magazine?
- Oh, thank you.
That is so brilliant.
I think it's so great
the way you're supporting
your step-father.
- Of course.
- It's really beautiful.
- It's really important.
- It really is.
We're here with dresses,
but, listen, after all...
(inaudible)
Hi, Pat!
We gonna party tonight
We gonna turn up tonight
Oh, yeah
Oh, yeah
Oh, yeah
Michael Kors:
The exhibit is this way.
Do you know how crazy I'd look
in a head piece like that?
You could pull
any head piece off.
Anna May Wong.
The first Asian movie star.
Wow!
That's Dior,
that's John's (Galliano).
Hudson: I want to wear that in my bedroom.
So good to see you.
Thank you for your flowers.
How's business?
- This was my dress, that one.
- Wow.
It's the white one.
It was a wedding dress.
That must be an old one.
1925, something like that...
- 1924.
- 1924, even earlier, yeah.
In 1925, it was smaller.
Not so big volume as there,
but it was short already.
You're so smart.
History, I know it.
- The history of fashion.
- Wow!
(inaudible)
That is Alexander McQueen.
They do a lot of work in wood.
That is also McQueen,
the bolero.
That could be McQueen,
I'm not sure.
It's Alexander McQueen,
for Givenchy.
It's nice mix with
all these things from China.
It's beautiful.
I love the Chinese inspiration.
Wow!
Man: What's the dress?
Did you get my message?
Justin Bieber: How do you think
that would look on me?
- Alicia Keys: Wow!
- Gaultier: Voil, that's mine.
Man: Wow, this exhibit... Your mood changes
from room to room.
It's remarkable.
Keys: Wow!
Gaultier: Oh, the porcelain.
Keys: Wow, look at this!
Gaultier: That's Galliano
for Dior, I think, no?
Keys: Guo Pei....
- So gorgeous!
- Oh, my God!
Oh, my God!
This room is a dream!
All the celadon but
with the black lacquer.
And look at these shapes.
Like when people say,
"You couldn't walk in it."
Who cares?
It's that beautiful.
Kate Hudson: I know!
(indistinct shouting)
(Nat King Cole
"Stardust" plays)
Talley: Oh, I love a girl
from humble beginnings
who becomes a big star.
It's like the American Dream,
that's how you do it.
And just keep going with it.
I want more train
and more train!
I want drama!
I want five people
picking up my thing!
This is the black Frozen!
This is the queen of the night!
(Nat King Cole
"Stardust" continues)
Queen of the night.
Breaking up is not enough,
it's not enough.
- Beautiful! - Thank you.
This moment, this fantasy!
It was made by Guo Pei.
It took two years to make this.
And let me just say...
You are wearing it
so beautifully.
You are so inspiring...
- Thank you.
- ...to so many people.
- Good night.
- Vocal rest.
Big night! Can't wait
to see you on stage!
- Thank you.
- Oh, it's got a pink lining.
Did you get the pink lining?
(Nat King Cole
"Stardust" continues)
I need to mainline
pinot grigio to my arm.
Have a Scotch.
Scotch in a glass? How classy.
Oh my God,
I'm gonna be all by my lonesome
just like high school.
You can sit with us,
sit with us if you want.
- Oh, my God!
- Oh, my God!
(gong sounds)
Campbell: Could I have your
attention for a moment, please?
The true star of this evening
is Andrew Bolton.
(cheering and applause)
Hello.
Bill Cunningham: Hello Andrew,
it's quite the success.
Hey! Thank you, Bill.
It's such a contemplative space,
it's very...
- Brilliant.
- Quiet.
When I think how they allowed this...
Poor Mrs. Vreeland.
They killed her with exhibition,
keeping it downstairs.
The Asian Art Department
has been
incredibly generous with us.
They have, yeah.
Twenty years late.
What's up, Met Ball?
(cheering)
Isn't it amazing how fashion
can bring two cultures together?
(cheering and applause)
I wanna give a round of applause
to everybody here tonight.
Anna Wintour, thank you so much
for having me.
Everybody ready to party?
(sings
"Bitch Better Have My Money")
(applause fades out)
("Wild is the Wind"
by Cat Power plays)
"Are you both there?
I'll be around 6:45,
Do I need to pick anything up?
I'm gonna say..."
- Starbucks.
- "Yes.
Big box of Starbucks."
Everybody looks shockingly
good this year.
Yeah, Chloe Sevigny
looked amazing.
- Spike Lee, he looks great!
- I know.
You gonna just die
over what Rihanna wore.
Martin Hoops: I can't wait to see it.
- Oh, my God.
- Boom!
That is excellent!
It's like a Disney movie.
Every single one of them.
Boom.
Yeah, she should be the cover.
Yes.
Look at her body guard.
Where? This guy?
He's brilliant.
He's holding her purse!
I would hold her purse, too.
I would hold it all night.
Malle: Oh, my God!
Hoops: Do you see any
resemblance, David,
between me and Clooney?
So he went bow tie-less.
That's what studs
like this do, David.
Me and George,
we know what we're doing.
Malle: That's cool.
Actually that is good.
Hoops: This is good.
Now you got her
in a gothic room,
medieval gothic.
Ecclesiastical...
(indistinct)
Am I being banned?
Go back to your room.
- Getting close.
- Go back to my room!
- We'll do this. - Malle: That's nice.
- Spread.
- Right.
- And then the last two.
- Great.
Hoops: I think it actually looks
really good.
Malle: Yeah, I do too.
I will bet everybody lunch here,
that when I lay out
that pomegranate,
she's gonna say,
"Oh, this is nice."
Yeah.
Okay, Martin, let's do this.
The pomegranates...
just perfect.
- Martin loves pomegranates.
- Yeah.
Me and AW have
a similar wavelength
in our brains.
She goes, you know,
"Big stars like Derek Jeter."
I said Jeter! I'm like,
of course, he's the captain!
I said he should get
a cover line. The captain?
I think that's almost
on the same par...
I told you, me and Anna have
same brain, the same brain.
Cher, Derek Jeter. I mean,
you gotta sell this thing.
This is not
a niche magazine, you know.
We gotta get the names
on there!
They said they're gonna
film the Met,
but it's not about the Met,
it's about this, right here.
This is going to be
the whole documentary.
That's it. Done.