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Each year, Vogue staff have the arduous task of reporting on the Met gala live from inside the Metropolitan Museum's halls. OK, it's also pretty glamorous, as far as assignments go. Over the years, we have helped lace up Rihanna's sandals, fanned out Lady Gaga's train, and helped escort guests through the exhibition while running back and forth to our “office” stationed in the museum's basement. Here, several editors share their best Met gala memories.
Mark Guiducci, Global Creative Editorial Director
In 2016, the Met gala celebrated the Manus x Machina exhibition, and more than a few guests arrived dressed as robots. But the thing I remember most from the night was decidedly human. Lorde, who goes by her real name Ella, attended with a broken wrist and asked everyone to sign it, like we were in high school. Which made that night feel like the world's most glamorous prom.
Liana Satenstein, Senior Fashion News Writer
I eat Wetzel’s Pretzels once a year when I go to The Met. It’s right next to the office’s subway, which I take uptown so I don’t have to sit in traffic. It’s the sweetest treat and really creates an intoxicating sugary stink. Anyways, here I am in May of 2019, touching down at The Met, chowing down on the best desert ever while wearing Sally Singer’s gilded Rochas suit and my own Tom Ford era Gucci shoes.
Whembley Sewell, Editor-in-Chief of Them
To me, the year of Camp: Notes on Fashion felt like such a rich, vibrant embrace of the expanse of my own identity. The affirmation of fantasy and joy I felt that evening—all while wearing the most incredible hot pink CJR suit—is indelible.
Remi Berger, Communications Manager
There are many unforgettable moments from the 2019 Camp: Notes on Fashion Met gala, but we will never forget our commute to the museum that evening. We were running late, and with a portion of 5th Avenue closed for the gala, we of course got stuck in standstill traffic. We decided to ditch our cab and sprint the eight blocks to the museum. Dressed in our full camp attire (sans footwear), we made a mad dash and arrived at The Met a little worse for wear, but thankfully were on time.
Christian Allaire, Fashion and Style Writer
My favorite Met outfit was in 2019 for the camp theme. I leaned into frills, sequins, and feathers—even put glitter in my hair. Wore an amazing Palomo Spain frill-neckline shirt, a beaded rose pin from Skye Paul, a feather Staud bag, and amazing Louboutin boots. My favorite Met memory of all time, though, was in 2018, when Madonna performed “Like a Prayer” about two feet away from me. Pinch me moment!
Steff Yotka, Senior Fashion News Editor
While the dressing up and the celebs are the fun bits of working at and lurking in the hallways of The Met, my favorite Met memories are always the preview tours I have with Andrew Bolton, the Wendy Yu Curator in Charge of the Costume Institute. We’ve been doing this for almost five years together, and each time is a complete delight. When I previewed the 2016 exhibition about Rei Kawakubo, I mentioned to Andrew that on the runway, a dress that linked two models looked extra funny because it seemed like the models were walking in opposite directions, he leapt right into the display and turned the mannequins’ heads away from each other. I like to think I had the teensiest impact on that exhibition. Camp: Notes on Fashion was special because I shared my tour with our fantastic photographer Hunter Abrams, and About Time was even more so because it was the first time I had seen Andrew; Nancy, the Costume Institute’s head of communications; and my colleague Mark Guiducci, our global editorial creative director, in almost a year!
Eliseé Browchuk, Production and Marketing Manager
For fashion's most extravagant evening of the year, I wore pajamas. Of course, my custom Olivia von Halle silk pajamas were adorned with Swarvoski crystal buttons, which paired perfectly with my sparkly Area bag. Alongside a few of my colleagues, I was assigned to escort guests to their dinner tables in the Temple of Dendur. I remember memorizing the place settings in my section eagerly waiting for attendees to arrive while we all refreshed Vogue.com's homepage to catch a glimpse at the outfits debuted on the pink carpet. Once guests made their way to the dining room, every minute felt like a pinch-me moment.
Willow Lindley, Accessories Director and Product Collaborations
My favorite Met look to date is definitely this fabulous gold Gucci suit I wore to Camp: Notes on Fashion. I was the most comfortable I’ve ever been attending the gala, that’s for sure, and I deeply wish I could’ve kept this chic suit.
My memories of that night mainly revolves around the sheer anxiety I felt when I was called on to give a tour of the exhibition to one of the co-chairs husbands, who was great and became my buddy throughout the night. I remember being very thankful I’d been to the press preview that morning as I didn’t want to give any wrong facts about the show. He was asking some very astute art and fashion history questions!
Fast forward and my other fun tidbit about this suit is that it popped up on a Real Housewife during a Met-themed luncheon. Delayed twins.