Anna Wintour is offering an apology to those confused by this year’s Met Gala theme.
“This exhibition broke my cardinal rule,” Wintour, 74, said in an interview with Today’s Jenna Bush Hager on Monday, May 6. “When we came up with the title ‘Sleeping Beauties,’ it’s wonderful and poetic and romantic, but actually, it could be many, many things.”
Wintour shared that she went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute curator, Andrew Bolton, for dress code advice. “I said, ‘What are we gonna say to people to wear to this night?’ And he said, ‘Well, what about ‘Garden of Time?’” she explained. “So, I fear that we’ve unleashed a lot of confusion out there, and for which I deeply apologize.”
As for what she thinks celebs will sport on the red carpet, Wintour told Bush Hager, 42, “I imagine we’ll see a lot of flowers.” Wintour remained mum on whether she’ll be sporting florals herself, teasing, “Possibly.”
This year’s Met Gala celebrates the opening of the Costume Institute’s “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” exhibit. The night’s official dress code is “Garden of Time,” fitting with the exhibit’s collection of rare and historical fashion pieces.
“The idea of ‘Sleeping Beauties’ is taking these masterpieces from different periods, and because so many of them are very fragile, they are laid flat behind glass walls,” Wintour shared on Today.
While chatting with Bush Hager in the Costume Institute’s restoration lab, Wintour gushed about this year’s star-studded lineup of Met Gala cochairs. “We have Jennifer Lopez. I believe this will be her 14th visit to the Costume Institute opening,” she stated. Wintour went on to call cochair Bad Bunny “such an extraordinary lover of costume and fashion.”
Wintour also noted that she knows cochair Zendaya “will not disappoint” with her look before stating no one would “be a better prince than Chris Hemsworth to wake the sleeping beauties.”
After the interview, Bush Hager told her Today cohosts that her 11-year-old daughter, Mila, told her to ask Wintour whether Taylor Swift would be in attendance at Monday’s Met Gala. “[She said], ‘I hope she comes and enjoys the exhibit,’” Bush Hager recalled of Wintour’s cryptic response.
A source exclusively told Us Weekly last month that Swift, 34, and her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, are “not going to the Met Gala,” adding, “They might go as it gets closer, but for now, they are not going.”
In addition to this year’s cochairs, other confirmed celebrity guests include Kylie Jenner, Amanda Seyfried, Lea Michele and Rihanna, the latter of whom teased that she will keep her look “simple” this year.
“I think it’s gonna come to what my makeup and what my hair is going to do,” Rihanna, 36, teased in a recent interview with Extra. “We wanna play with that, but I have no idea what I’m gonna do with that.”
