Here’s a film suggestion for your next free night at home on the couch. A behind-the-scenes type documentary about putting on the Costume Institute’s annual exhibition called The First Monday In May. I saw it last night in this cinema and I can’t recommend it enough. It’s so captivating, in fact, there were even a few moments I forgot I was in a cinema, not in the film.
It gives us a backstage look into just how hard it is to pull off New York City’s most ambitious fashion exhibition and lavish fundraiser party. In this case, its most popular show in history – ‘China: Through the Looking Glass’ – and the event’s opening-night celeb-packed fancy dress party, the Met Gala, which takes place on, of course, the first Monday in May.
It’s mesmerising from start to finish. Slow-motion opening shots of Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Lawrence posing on the red carpet, draw us in to the story as it unfolds through interviews with the Costume Institute’s curator, Andrew Bolton, and scenes featuring American Vogue editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour (patron of the museum), in battle mode as she plans the perfect fashion party.
The amount of work involved is mind-blowing and serious issues are also raised, but for more of us, it’s a window into an exclusive world and an invitation to gawk at some of the world’s most beautiful and ornate fashion creations ever made. Here’s the trailer:
