Sarah Jessica Parker and Bradley Cooper to Co-chair 2014 Met Gala
Hamptons actors Bradley Cooper and Sarah Jessica Parker will join Hamptons visitor Oscar de la Renta as co-chairs of the 2014 Met Gala in New York. Hosted by Vogue magazine and considered one of the city’s most important social events, the annual Costume Institute Ball celebrates the opening of the Metropolitain Museum of Art’s fashion exhibit, which runs from May to August each year.
The 2013 Met Gala followed a punk theme, to go with the Punk: Chaos to Couture exhibit, and guests wore an array of Sex Pistols era-inspired ensembles, complete with safety pins, tears and bondage accoutrements. In 2014, de la Renta, Cooper and SJP will look toward famous American couturier Charles James and next year’s exhibition Charles James: Beyond Fashion for inspiration.
The retrospective exhibition, Charles James: Beyond Fashion, will feature approximately 100 of the most notable designs produced by James over the course of his career, from 1929 until his death in 1978. The first-floor special exhibition galleries will spotlight the glamour and resplendent architecture of James’s ball gowns from the 1930s through 1950s with an elegant tableau celebrating such renowned clients of his as Austine Hearst, Millicent Rogers, and Dominique de Menil.
Guests at the gala should look to wear high-fashion, sculptural gowns and fabulous hats, as well as capes and coats with fur, embroidery, spiral zippers and other unique elements to reflect James’ inestimable style.
“James was an artist who chose fabric and its relationship to the human body as his medium of expression,” said Jan Glier Reeder, Consulting Curator in The Costume Institute, who is organizing the exhibition with Harold Koda. “In fact, a devoted James client once said, ‘…his work went beyond fashion and was a fine art.’
While de la Renta and Parker are fashion icons—one a designer, the other a living fashion plate—Cooper’s inclusion as co-chair is something of a mystery. Perhaps it’s just time for the Met Gala to add a hunky Hollywood co-chair? Maybe it’s just that Cooper and his mother (who’s sure to be his date) will charm ball guests, and those who look on vicariously in fashion magazines and blogs, as they dance and pose the night away. He does look great in a suit.
In celebration of The New Costume Institute and the exhibition, the Museum’s Costume Institute Benefit will take place on Monday, May 5, 2014. The evening’s main Chairperson will be Aerin Lauder, and Cooper, de la Renta and Parker will be joined by Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch, and Vogue EIC Anna Wintour. Raul Avila will provide decor for the 2014 Met Gala for his eighth consecutive year.
This benefit gala is The Costume Institute’s main source of annual funding for exhibitions, acquisitions and capital improvements.
Visit metmuseum.org for more info.