Thank you everybody for coming this morning. This is my favorite day of the year and also my most terrifying one, even several decades in. I sometimes hear it said that my first Met Gala was in 1995, but that isn't true. I first came here in 1982 when I was a fashion editor at New York Magazine and Mrs. Vreeland led the Costume Institute. My salary was such that I could barely afford a dress, much less a ticket. But my editor generously paid my way into the great hall, which in those days was where one could stand to be on hand as the celebrities exited their dinner. In other words, the cheap seats. I was thrilled. I went to Bergdorf's. I shut my eyes and I bought a beautiful Saharon cocktail dress for $900, several times my rent. I was a nobody that night, but it meant the world to me, a foreigner who had arrived in New York not so long before to be part of something so important to the city and to the daunting world of fashion where I was making my way.
I tell you all of this to help explain why it is so meaningful and full circle for me to be here to celebrate the dedication of the new Condé Nast galleries, made possible by the incredible generosity of the Newhouse family, a name for the founder of the company that has been a home for me and thousands of other working creative people for nearly 120 years.
I could tell you how much the Met has meant to the Newhouses and how much they mean to the Met, but I'll just say that their commitment to the Met, not just as a center for art but as a place for discovery, for children, for scholars, for visitors resting on the famous steps, a place for everyone, is deeply felt. The Newhouses are great entrepreneurs, but they understand that a city with only businesses in it, a city without art or without culture animating its institutions and its streets, would die. Their long-term commitment in a short-term world is what I admire the most.
Today I also want to honor the commitment of the fashion industry, which for decades has stepped up to support this museum and this city. Fashion came together for New York after 9/11, after the AIDS epidemic, and after the pandemic. Fashion leaders always come through, and the industry and the Met Gala have grown together. Years ago, this was a very small event and honestly we sometimes had to chase people to attend. Fashion, well, we were a bit of a curiosity. Now fashion is everywhere and belongs to everyone, whether or not they can afford to splurge on a beautiful summer dress, and we have no trouble filling the seats at the gala. And I want to reiterate Max's words that today's event will raise more for the Metropolitan Museum and the Costume Institute than any Met Gala in history.
I am so moved to see one of the galleries named for Thom Browne and a second one for Michael Kors and Lance LePere, as part of a world that has always shown up for the museum. They are among those who have shown up the most. Thank you, Thom. Thank you, Michael. Thank you, Lance. I also want to express my special gratitude on that note to Tory, to Tory Burch and Aerin Lauder too. All of you have spent years working for your well-deserved success and in giving back to institutions so generously now that you've achieved it. You are models not just as creative forces but to me as people of the highest integrity.
Even beyond the Costume Institute, designers understand how their work stands in the long history of art, from Saharan's Minoan dress to Marc Jacobs' recent collaboration with Anna Weyant. In many ways, that's what this year's exhibition, so brilliantly created by Andrew Bolton, is about. 'Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion' reweaves the threads of connection between art and fashion that designers for centuries have pulled through. It's about everybody and it's about every body — nude bodies and classical bodies, corpulent bodies and disabled bodies — and the way both fashion and art can shape our imaginations.
I like to think that the Met Gala too carries a piece of this city's imagination. It does good for New York beyond the museum, in the hotels that we fill and the local businesses that we keep busy — from caterers to God knows how many hairdressers and hardworking, unflappable New York drivers. It's a night about showing up in a generous spirit, and that spirit ripples out. The gala every year reminds the world that New York is still a place where people come together, glamorously of course on the red carpet, but also in the way newcomers stroll up and down Fifth Avenue, thrilled just to be here — a feeling I know very well.
So, none of it would be possible this year without four women. First, our co-chairs: Beyoncé, Nicole, and Venus Williams, each of whom have fought not just to succeed but to keep growing after that success. Lauren Sanchez Bezos, our honorary chair, far from simply lending her name, came to every important meeting, full of enthusiasm and good ideas. Lauren is willing to shake up society with risk-taking and an upbeat spirit that is as boundless as her energy. And she and her husband Jeff have shown with this event that they genuinely, genuinely care about giving back.
What struck me most about all these women is not just their bravery, but how fast they all keep moving. They have a willingness to change at a moment when we all agree that change is necessary. They are strengthened by experience but take on as many creative risks as someone who still has a name to make. In many ways, that's what the best fashion is all about — striking ahead, breaking new ground. It's what this show is about and what we try to make possible with the spectacular showmanship and, I hope, fun party tonight.
Thank you so much all for being here. Thank you to the entire Met team led by the incredible Max Hollein and to Condé Nast's Roger Lynch, who both recognize as much as anyone the significance of making our new galleries a reality. Their steadfast belief in our work makes many things possible. And thank you too to Anthony Vacarello and Zoë Kravitz for generously co-chairing our host committee, and to Saharon for allowing us to create such an incredible catalog. Thank you to all the teams across Condé Nast and especially at Vogue who worked tirelessly and brilliantly to make this event a reality.
So 1982 may well be back in the prehistoric era or somewhere in the Greek and Roman galleries, but I still feel the same charge of excitement that I felt back then. I would now like to introduce my friend and the Met's great supporter, Lauren Sanchez Bezos — a force for joy, a force for generosity, and I imagine the only one of our guests here today who can wear a bias-cut dress while banking a helicopter.
