NIGHTLIGHT: May 3 Costume Institute Benefit Evening at Metropolitan Museum Celebrated ‘American Woman’

Costume Institute Gala Benefit
Monday, May 3, 2010

Celebrating American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity, an exhibition at
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, May 5 –August 15, 2010.
The exhibition and gala benefit are made possible by Gap.
Additional support is provided by Condé Nast.

Anna Wintour, in Chanel Haute Couture 

We love Anna!  We spoke to her in the morning:

http://www.whomyouknow.com/2010/05/peachy-at-met-exclusive-interview-with.html

Our coverage of the exhibition:

http://www.whomyouknow.com/2010/05/peachy-at-met-american-woman-fashioning.html

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s renowned Costume Institute Benefit—the annual black-tie dinner to benefit the Museum’s Costume Institute—took place on May 3, 2010, celebrating the exhibition American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity, on view from May 5 through August 15. This fundraising event is The Costume Institute’s main source of annual funding for exhibitions, operations, and capital improvements.

The exhibition and the benefit for The Costume Institute are made possible by Gap.
Additional support is provided by Condé Nast.

Co-chairs of the gala benefit were Oprah Winfrey; Patrick Robinson, Executive
Vice President of Global Design for Gap; and Anna Wintour, Editor-in-Chief of
Vogue.

The 725 dinner guests arrived at the Metropolitan Museum at 6:30 p.m. for an
inaugural viewing of the exhibition and cocktails in the Museum’s Carroll and
Milton Petrie European Sculpture Court. Dinner followed at around 8:30 p.m. in
The Charles Engelhard Court in the American Wing.

Décor
Rising from a leather-trimmed wicker basket in the center of the Great Hall and
towering over the guests was a 35 x 40-foot hot-air balloon inspired by the
Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, which also inspired the design of the panoramic
exhibition galleries. The Museum’s grand staircase, covered in red carpet and
lined with white birch trees, led guests from the Great Hall toward The Iris and B.
Gerald Cantor Exhibition Hall, where the exhibition American Woman:
Fashioning a National Identity is on view. The guests then proceeded to the Petrie
Court for cocktails and to the Engelhard Court for dinner.

Dinner guests found themselves in a room aglow with a summer sunset, an illusion
created by yards of yellow silk hung from the ceiling on three sides, complementing
a 26 x 31-foot yellow-and-burgundy hot-air balloon on the stage. Yellow French
tulips were planted around the stage, and white porcelain pitchers with yellow
parrot tulips served as centerpieces at tables with ivory linen table clothes, gold-
trimmed china, and wicker café chairs.

The design for the gala evening was created by Nathan Crowley and Raul Avila.

Menu
Turn-of-the-century American cuisine inspired the evening’s menu, which began
with baby lobster with basil sauce, and corn salad with cilantro and pepper
confetti. The first course was served with an Orogeny Chardonnay, Green Valley,
2007. The entrée, chicken hash vol au vent with foie gras and blacktruffles, and a mélange of spring vegetables, was served with Cain Concept, Napa
Valley, 2005. Assorted miniature cupcakes and chocolate-dipped strawberries was
served for dessert with coffee.
The dinner was catered by Glorious Food.

Entertainment
A short program during the dinner included remarks by Metropolitan Museum of
Art Director Thomas P. Campbell, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg,
and Oprah Winfrey. Ms. Winfrey introduced Lady Gaga (shown above), who performed four
songs.
Tables for the dinner, which had been sold out for several months, ranged in price
from $100,000 to $250,000.

About the Exhibition
American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity is the first Costume Institute
exhibition drawn from the newly established Brooklyn Museum Costume
Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It explores developing
perceptions of the modern American woman from the 1890s to the 1940s, and
how they have affected the way American women are seen today. Focusing on
archetypes of American femininity through dress, the exhibition reveals how the
American woman initiated style revolutions that mirrored her social, political, and
sartorial emancipation. Early mass-media representations of American women
established the fundamental characteristics of American style—a theme that is
explored via a multimedia installation in the final gallery.

GUESTS EXPECTED TO ATTEND THE EVENT INCLUDE:
Co-Chairs
Oprah Winfrey
Patrick Robinson
Anna Wintour
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Thomas P. Campbell, Director
Emily K. Rafferty, President

Guests
Malin Akerman
Jessica Alba and Cash Warren
Alessandra Ambrosio
Mark Badgley and James Mischka
Penn Badgley
Christopher Bailey
Elizabeth Banks
Kristen Bell
Maria Bell
Camilla Belle
Fabiola Beracasa
Jessica Biel
Kathryn Bigelow
Rachel Bilson
Mary J. Blige
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Diana Taylor
Mark Boal
Arriana and Dixon Boardman
Roberto Bolle
Eliza Reed Bohlen and Alexander Bohlen
Jamie Borchert
Kate Bosworth
Jon Bon Jovi
Bono and Ali Hewson
Amanda Brooks
Joy Bryant
Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady
Tory Burch
Lauren Bush
Naomi Campbell
Graydon Carter
Consuelo and Gianni Castiglione
Georgina Chapman and Harvey Weinstein
Hayden Christensen
Alexa Chung
Grace Coddington
Steven and Alexandra Cohen
Kenneth Cole and Maria Cuomo Cole
Lily Collins
Sean Combs
Abbie Cornish
Francisco Costa
Marion Cotillard
Katie Couric
Daniel Craig
Viola Davis
Rosario Dawson
Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy
Lee Daniels
Kristin Davis
Domenico and Eleanore de Sole
Lily Donaldson
Peter Dundas
Kirsten Dunst
Anh Duong
Lauren and Richard DuPont
Karen Elson
Jimmy Fallon and Nancy Juvonen
Emilia and Jose Pepe Fanjul
Vera Farmiga
Rachel Feinstein and John Currin
Frédéric Fekkai
Lisa Maria and Philip Falcone
Tina Fey
Bob and Randi Fisher
Bill and Sako Fisher
Tom Ford
Lady Gaga
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Greta Gerwig
Nicolas Ghesquière
Larry Gagosian
Whoopi Goldberg
Jeff Gordon
Maggie Grace
Sir Philip Green
Mamie Gummer
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Mariska Hargitay
Lady Amanda Harlech
Anne Hathaway
Dree Hemingway
Christina Hendricks
Carolina and Reinoldo Herrera
Tommy Hilfiger and Dee Ocleppo
Kate Hudson
Marc Jacobs
Iman
Chanel Iman
Janet Jackson
Mick Jagger
January Jones
Donna Karan
Liya Kebede
Calvin Klein
Michael Kors
Doutzen Kroes
Hugh Jackman
Riley Keough
Gayle King
Karlie Kloss
Jeff Koons
Zoë Kravitz
Diane Kruger and Joshua Jackson
Mila Kunis
Karolina Kurkova
Karl Lagerfeld
Padma Lakshmi
Derek Lam
Diane Lane
David Lauren
Dylan Lauren
Ralph and Ricky Lauren
Jude Law
Sean Lennon
Phillip Lim
Angela Lindvall
Blake Lively
Jennifer Lopez
Christian Louboutin
Anthony Mackie
Julie Macklowe
Eli and Abby Manning
Julianna Margulies
Marissa Mayer
Stella McCartney
Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez
Leighton Meester
Tamara Mellon
Eva Mendes
M.I.A.
Sienna Miller
Noah Mills
Margherita Missoni
Leslie and Julie Moonves
Demi Moore
Matthew Morrison
Thalia and Tommy Mottola
Roland Mouret
Kate and Laura Mulleavy
Carey Mulligan
Rupert and Wendy Deng Murdoch
Carolyn Murphy
Susan and Donald Newhouse
Thandie Newton
Mike Nichols and Diane Sawyer
Bill Nighy
Chris Noth
Edward Norton
Mehmet Oz
Thakoon Panichgul
Eva Longoria Parker and Tony Parker
Sarah Jessica Parker
Ronald Perelman
Katy Perry
Stefano Pilati
Chris Pine
Natasha Poly
Zac Posen
Miuccia Prada
Lee Radziwill
Emilie de Ravin
Bar Refaeli
Hilary Rhoda
Nicole Richie
Emma Roberts
Coco Rocha
Narciso Rodriguez
Desirée Rogers
Charlie Rose
Aby and Samantha Rosen
Emmy Rossum
Rachel Roy
Anja Rubik
Paul Rudd
Marina Rust
Zoe Saldana
Stark Sands
Alejandro Santo Domingo
Andrès and Lauren Santo Domingo
Allison Sarofim
Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts
L’Wren Scott
Chloë Sevigny
Bee Shaffer
Michael Sheen
Cindy Sherman
Brooke Shields
Eugenia Silva
Russell Simmons
Jessica Stam
Sebastian Stan
Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale
Kristen Stewart
Ben Stiller
Kiefer Sutherland
Taylor Swift
Jessica Szohr
Sophie Theallet
Justin Timberlake
Jonathan and Lizzie Tisch
Isabel and Ruben Toledo
Caroline Trentini
Donald and Melania Trump
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner
Stanley Tucci
Robin Tunney
Liv Tyler
Usher
Amber Valletta
Giambattista Valli
Fernando Verdasco
Donatella Versace
Diane von Furstenberg and Barry Diller
Lindsay Vonn
Alexander Wang
Vera Wang
Kerry Washington
Emma Watson
Elettra Rossellini Wiedemann
Rachel Weisz
Ed Westwick
Daria Werbowy
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley
Pharrell Williams
Jason Wu
Renée Zellweger
Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer and Eric Zinterhofer
Dasha Zhukova
Italo Zucchelli
May 3, 2010

Photographs are Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Howard Heyman took the photo of Anna, Don Pollard took the photo of Lady Gaga