This Met Ball was wild before it even began: Protestors planted posters to boycott sponsor Jeff Bezos; fake urine samples were scattered across New York to object to his instructing Amazon drivers to pee in bottles; and Anna Wintour’s dictums on what to wear extended to even Vogue editor Chloe Malle. The Devil Wears Prada 2‘s big weekend opening coincided with the Gala… but Meryl Streep sat it out, purportedly to protest against Bezos. And did anyone understand Met Costume Institute curator Andrew Bolton’s exhibition theme, “Costume Art: the Intersection of Fashion History and the Body as Canvas”? These concepts have become so obtuse, the theme dressing has either gone out the window — or become so extreme, it is costume.
