DOCUMENTARY; 1hr 31min
DIRECTED BY: Andrew Rossi
Rising star: Rihanna
The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute is the home of the world's most jaw-dropping closet, and its annual Met Gala is to fashion what spotlights are to stars. Dovetailing the two, on the first Monday of each May, the institute launches its latest eye-watering exhibition with a party to blow all other parties away. Director Andrew Rossi's focus is on 2014's "China: Through the Looking Glass" spectacular, curated by the virtuoso Andrew Bolton, working in tandem with Anna Wintour, American Vogue's editor-in-chief. Wintour is in charge of the shindig — not that shindig begins to touch the sides of the gala's dazzling razzamatazz, where galaxies of celebs hobnob with the sexily untouchable aplomb of Olympian deities descended.
High fashion as fine art or consumerist blowout? Who gives a flounce with pièces de résistance this exquisite. Not to mention designers in the storied class of John Galliano, Karl Lagerfeld and Jean Paul Gaultier, militaristic planning overseen by the crisply formidable Wintour, director Baz Luhrmann's chipper words of sartorial wisdom and, outshining them all, Rihanna, resplendent in a creation so monumentally unwieldy her bodyguard is reduced to toting her handbag. Stylin'.
