The 2009 Costume Gala At The Met

Justin will be co-chairing tonight’s Annual Costume Gala At The Metropolitan Museum of Art with Marc Jacobs And Kate Moss. An extravagant affair, whose theme focuses on the body as an inspiration to great fashion, will be holding its Model Vs. Muse exhibit from Wednesday May 6th to August 9th. Check out more about the event below:

[The event] will, as always, be kicked off with a lavish formal gala that, with all of its celebrity-studded, bacchanalian extravagance, serves as the primary source of funding for the Costume Institute. The country might be in a recession, but glamour must go on.

This year, the benefit will be co-chaired by Justin Timberlake, model Kate Moss and Vogue editor Anna Wintour. Marc Jacobs is the exhibition’s primary sponsor and the honorary chair of the party. The list of names serves as a reminder of how deeply fashion has permeated every aspect of popular culture. Timberlake bridges the divide between fashion and music; Wintour mixes politics with style in the pages of her magazine; Jacobs incorporates the work of visual artists such as Richard Prince into his collections. And Moss is the consummate pitchwoman, selling whatever she happens to be wearing or holding, as well as marketing herself as an enigmatic arbiter of cool.

The exhibition focuses on the years 1947 to 1997 and is divided by decades. It includes iconic photographs from magazines such as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, as well as garments made famous by the models who wore them — such as Brooke Shields and the Calvin Klein jeans between which nothing, she said seductively, ever came.

The exhibition closes with a nod to one of Jacobs’ collections for Louis Vuitton that was inspired by Prince’s nurse paintings. The clothes, from spring 2008, were worn by recognizable models such as Naomi Campbell. But those famous faces were obscured. Jacobs’ clothes were virtually hidden underneath translucent nurse uniforms. The models weren’t selling themselves, but they weren’t really selling the clothes, either.

An optimist might conclude that this final installation represents a reassuring circling back by the fashion industry to the idea that the individual woman brings a garment to life. It’s the personality that ultimately matters.

You can read the full article [HERE].