Inside the 2026 Met Gala with Chase Sui Wonders

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1:45This is The Run-Through. I'm Chloe Mao. And I'm Cheminardi. And Joma sounds super psyched. I'm trying to catch up here. We're all trying to catch up. We're all catching our breath. And we are at the Met Gala with Chase Sui Wonders. Hi, guys. Hi, Chase. We're at the Met. Chase, my first met with Chase Sui Wonders. My first met, period. But also my first met with Chloe Mao. What are you wearing? I'm wearing Alexander McQueen. Oh, it's gorgeous. It is fabulous. Thank you so much. Thank you. We have a good color combo going between us. It's true. Yeah. It's beautiful. Very exciting. I will say my lip is bleeding from screaming, singing along to Stevie Nicks.

2:23Oh, I love that. I was like, I screamed. Yeah. I know. Yeah. So we just came from dinner and now we're on the other side of the museum at the Costume Institute. And there is this super spooky, fabulous Diana Vreeland doll in the Costume Institute library. She's like a life-size doll. Is she behind me right now? She's behind you right now. It's amazing. She's very important. She's very important. Yeah, because as the story goes, your auntie, Anna Sweet, bought that doll. Yes. And had that. And there's a great picture. We're just going to buy a Diana Breland doll. I don't know. Or maybe she had it made.

3:02I don't know. I need to get the full story. You need to get the full story. She might be up right now. There's an amazing picture of her with Naomi and another supermodel and the doll. Yeah. So apparently there was an Anna doll, but they don't know where it went. No way. They don't know where the Anna doll is. Oh, my God. We need to get our hands on that. Yeah, we do. The Met mystery we need to solve. What's that Met mystery? So I hear. I've heard. And then she donated it to the museum how long ago? 99. It kind of – I've seen her – she's shown me various photos of it cropping up in, like, different parts of the Vogue office, or, like, I feel like I've seen it from different perspectives throughout the years.

3:39And now we're here with it. And now we're here. We're going to have to get a picture with you and the doll. verdura cuffs. It's great. Incredible. She's lovely. Full face of makeup. Chase, tell me about the highlight of your night in three anecdotes. Short. There are so many. Pithy moments. I just have to say, like, this is my first met, but I am like, is it always like the best vibe ever? It's a very good vibe. It was very joyous. Everyone was so happy. Everyone, there was a real sense of community, which was really nice. And it was just so fun. So we were texting. I was on a group text around the podcast and it was like, who has eyes on Chase?

4:20Where's Chase? Where's Choma? And then I suddenly looked up and I see someone with a big bow greeting Rihanna and A$AP Rocky. And I was like, oh, I've got eyes on Chase. Do you want to set the scene? Okay, I'll set the scene. I'll set the scene. I mean, honestly, I can't reveal the scene, but I got to work with A$AP Rocky. Oh, wow. Yes, which was amazing. This must be in a film capacity? Who can say? Who can say? But he was lovely, better than you could ever expect him to be. And so we had a little reunion on the dance floor listening to Stevie Nicks. A Stevie Nicks reunion with A$AP. It was incredible.

5:04And then he stepped on my train and nearly ripped my dress. No one better. Exactly. No one better. I had a couple of those surreal moments. My beau got caught in a tree. I caught in some brush. And Emily Blunt kind of wonderfully generously helped me fish myself out. She freed me from my trap. From the bush? From the bush. She freed the bush. And so that was pretty incredible.

5:31honestly I had a really amazing moment with Tessa Thompson in the bathroom we were the only ones in the bathroom and I just hear her loudly ripping off her synthetic nails and just throwing them in the trash and it was so relatable and so beautiful and then we kind of like centered ourselves in the bathroom it was like I feel like the Metcalf is all about this big selfie in the bathroom every time I went to the bathroom one person in there just one powerful one powerful person that person being Tessa Thompson there was a lot more security around the bathroom this time too I think there was a lot more historically there's been some there was one amazing attendee of the bathroom handing out lifesaver mints incredible yeah I know she was an all-star she was very cool her name was Natalie oh I see I see shout out Natalie okay you crushed Excellent.

6:20She should get a promotion. Chase, I want to know if you knew who the performer was going to be. I had heard whispers. I had heard whispers. Of which one? Sabrina or Stevie? I did not hear whispers of Stevie, but when I saw her there, I was like, I bet you it's going to be Stevie. For a while, I thought it was going to be Madonna. And I just worked with Madonna, actually, recently. Wow. Also. Can we talk about that? I don't know. There's a lot you can't talk about. No, I think we can talk. I think we can. I worked with Madonna. Okay, we'll leave it at that. And she is the coolest person ever. So I knew she wasn't performing, but I did see her look ahead of time.

7:04She looked pretty good. What was she wearing? She was wearing Saint Laurent. Yes. But the hat was something. Well, it's inspired by a very niche painting that I'm now forgetting the name of. Madonna's dress was this sort of incredible swath of fabric painted, inspired by Leonora Carrington, female surrealist, who Madonna has referenced before in her Bedtime Stories music video, which Liam has, shout out, recognized from a reference in one of her music videos or one of her songs that I now forget which one. But we were very impressed in our Megala Diary chat that Liam immediately recognized that.

7:39That's very impressive. Yeah. Shout out, Liam. That's awesome. And she had seven people around her, seven YSL models around her. Right? She knows what she needs. She knows what she needs. And she asks for what she wants and she gets it. Yeah, she really does. Yeah. Chase, tell me about your fitting process for this fabulous lilac number. Okay, the fitting process was, honestly, it came together very last minute because I just got back from LA on night shoots filming the studio season two. so this came together maybe Saturday morning. Oh, wow. But did you know you were going to wear McQueen? I knew I was going to wear McQueen.

8:17Okay. But this was, yeah, this was not, this was very last minute. Okay. But I had just been to Pompeii. Have you guys ever been to Pompeii? Yeah, I've been to Pompeii. That's not where I saw this going. I know. Yeah, I'm like quite, I'm quite, where are you? I've been to Pompeii, but I'm not sure I'm going to get the through line. But not McQueen. Okay, the through line is like a bit of a stretch, but I feel like the question that this theme asks is like, what is the last time you were struck by a piece of art? And how has that kind of inspired you? And I went to Pompeii with my nephews and my mom, and we saw these wall murals that are these beautiful Roman women in these beautiful gowns.

9:03And they're all like natural pigments made of gemstone. And they're from like 200 BC. And I was just like, those are so cool and feel so modern. And even though they're literally over 2000 years old. So I wanted, I was like working in that color palette. And I wanted that sort of Grecian, Roman sort of look. But then kind of making it even more modern in Art Deco. and that's kind of where we were landing with my stylist and then tried to figure out a way to not free the nip and make it totally sheer because it's very sheer so I'm wearing a bodysuit underneath. Okay. That is on the verge of breaking.

9:41And so much great jewelry. A lot of great Tiffany jewels. A lot of great... They all sort of look like they're about to take off, like winged creatures in some way. They're about to fly away. Yeah. They're about to fly away. They're stunning though and they cost more than my life. I don't know where the security guard is, but he could be anywhere ready to rip this off. He's ready. It's actually Diana Freeland. It's Diana Freeland. You're right there. She's ready when you... What are these jewels? Oh, this necklace. I love it so much. It's incredible. It's Fred Layton. It's this Fred Layton antique daisy necklace.

10:16And I went to try it on with my four-year-old and she was so delighted. She kept like pawing it. And poor Rebecca Fred Layton was like, can you not touch the diamonds? Oh my God. And Alice was like, it's gorgeous. I was like, what are you, Fanny Price? It's gorgeous. But yes, we're big fans, and I'm very excited about it. It's incredible. What were your highlights? Who did you sit with, Choma? I sat with Glenn Martins, next to Glenn Martins. Designer of Margiela. Yeah, designer of Margiela. And Irina Shaikh, who was there with, and Alex Wang was on the other side of me, and she was wearing an incredible piece he'd designed, which was fab.

10:57With the clocks? Yes. It was so good. It was insane. It was a bra top that was made completely of watches. And it was very cool. I met her and I asked. I was like, what time is it? Perfect question. I should have. And she was like, I was up here. Exactly. And the Olympic pole vault, or who I saw at the Olympics, break the world record was there. Oh, my God. Wow. I know. Did plenty. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. and his wonderful wife. So that was cool. We have a powerful woman. Yes, yes. And Patrick Schwarzenegger was next to me too. He had a cane. Huh? He had a cane. He had a cane. You know who else had a cane?

11:40Look of the night in my personal book. Bad Bunny. Yeah. Do you know that we were seated with him and I was like, hello, sir. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hello, older sir. And then I realized, and it spooked me so much. You know that not only did it take him four and a half hours to put on this prosthetic elderly gentleman makeup. But he also was wearing contacts that made his eyes look more aged and glaucoma-like. Like this was a real commitment to the bit. There were a few of those. I mean, Heidi Klum, I did not recognize her. Can you tell us about this dress? I love it so much. Yes, it is Steve-O Smith, a designer who I adore in London.

12:20British designer. British designer. And he works primarily with kind of this idea of brushstrokes or drawings that are then embellished. Usually he works in black and white. I love the bugle beads. Yeah. So it took many days to embroider. So I only got it embellished. I only got it back on Saturday. Oh my gosh. So I was very relieved. It was quite a last minute but it was perfect and I love it yeah I've gotten a lot of compliments on this dress but I guess one of the highlights actually so Glenn who is the creative director Glenn Martins who is a creative director of Margiela was very anxious because he was dressing one woman and that one woman was Rihanna so he was getting constant updates from his phone he was showing me pictures of her and then he told me a very sweet story that a few days ago when they did they did three fittings with Rihanna.

13:16And a few, I guess maybe in the second fitting, Rihanna's son, three-year-old, turned to her and was like, Mommy, you just look so pretty. And she just completely melted. So she just looks, if you look in the pictures, she looks so happy. And then, of course, I had to have my Rihanna moment because I always try to remember that. Don't let Rihanna go way back. I love her. What? Yeah, so obviously. Wait, like you guys are friends? I've interviewed her several times. Got you, got you, got you. of time yeah and she's like so i saw her and she introduced me to asap rocky she was like this is choma who i've been telling you all about and i was like i almost like i was like so it was a very for me she looked beautiful she looked so beautiful yeah um so that was one of my one of my highlights for the night but there were many it's kind of hard to it's always feels it always feels like a bit of a blur in the end do you feel like you've seen enough people in person and in pictures to say some best dressed yeah i do i do i suppose one of the first people i saw was zoe kravitz i loved that pannier skirt that pannier skirt was so beautiful and it was saint laurent and she was she was she was actually with she was with um anthony vaccarello who is the creative director of saint laurent for half of the evening i think because they were very they were very chatty and talking and I was just like, she was one of the first people I saw and I was blown away.

14:42I thought she looked incredible. She also had these arm slits that she could put her hands, so she could pose with her hands on her hip. She looked fat. It was brilliant. They're useless pockets, but they're like perfect for posing. She looks so good. And then I ran into Gracie Abrams, who manages to make the most exquisite Chanel look. Just looks so easy. I know. Her haircut, I was staring at the hair i was like you must have to update this like get a trim every three weeks but it looks so good she needs to go full chenita o 'connor next she does she would cry she would rock that she would rock that she would totally carry it off she looked incredible you know paloma el sessor oh did you see her dress see her in person she showed me her dress a few days ago It was so good.

15:27It was so good. It was the new creative project of Francisco Rizzo, Francesco Rizzo, who was Marnie. And it was all up-cycled, right? Yeah, he used to be at Marnie, and he's now created this, he's calling it Bureau of Imagination. It's a converted warehouse cheese factory in Milan that he's turning into a maker's hub of all types, but he's also creating these one-of-a-kind pieces of one-of-a-kind clothing that are really pieces of art. And I thought it was so beautiful and hand-painted. So many people did hand-painted. So many people did direct art inspirations. I mean, I think Madame X wins for most inspos.

16:11Erdem and Claire Foy did it quite directly. Rosie Huntington and Whiteley did it very directly. And Lauren Sanchez-Bezos did it very directly. Everyone had the sergeant's, the strap off, which was the dramatic first way that he painted it. And then it was too scandalous. And so he repainted it with the strap on. And then it came off later. But all the scandalous ladies tonight had it off. Had it off. You gotta have it off. Yeah. Chloe, tell us about your look. I love this color. I was very, I love, I mean, I'm not alone in this, but I love the Frederick Layton pre-afterlight painting, Flaming June.

16:48and that sort of mango color of dress in it. And Colleen Allen is a young American designer whose work I really admire. And her color palette is quite similar and has these sort of persimmons and royal eggplants. And so I asked her if she would work with me on something that was sort of Flaming June inspired. It's so good. It's so stunning. It's so stunning. It's very evocative of that painting. Which is the greatest. It's such a beautiful job. Your hair is also perfectly done. Thank you. It's incredible. It was a journey. I had some like last minute, had to pull it out, pull it back, but I loved, yeah.

17:30More from Inside the Met Gala after the break.

17:44Hi, I'm Rebecca Ford. And I'm John Ross. And we're the hosts of Little Gold Men, Vanity Fair's podcast for film, TV, and awards lovers. And just because the Oscars are done, for now, doesn't mean we are. Join us every week for coverage of the biggest stories in Hollywood, interviews with today's brightest stars, and so much more. Listen to Little Gold Men every Thursday, wherever you get your podcasts.

18:13Wait, so do you guys pick who the musical guest is? No. Not us. Okay, so how does that work? How early do you guys know? I didn't know. And how well do you guys keep it? You didn't know until then? No, that's how we keep it secret. I don't like to know because everyone asks. And if I actually don't know, then no one, like the weekend before the Met, everyone's always like, no, really, just tell me. I hear it's so-and-so. I hear it's so-and-so. And if I truly don't know, then I can plead ignorance. Got you. I truly didn't know and nobody was going to tell me. Did you have inklings? I did the night all the few people were saying it was going to be Sabrina Carpenter.

18:50Yeah. I also, I know who needs to know. Right. Like Marley on our team always writes about the performance. She knows. She's connected with Sergio who's giving her the information. Everyone who needs to have all the pieces are set. Gotcha. It's a need to know basis. For sure. My clearance was not there. Absolutely. But I am a huge TV Next fan, so it was a very exciting surprise for me. People lost their minds. People lost their minds. Is it usually? I feel like everyone was on their feet singing along. Totally. Even Bruno Pavlosky, the CEO of Chanel, was doing a little two-step. He was doing a little jig.

19:25Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hadn't seen Beyonce until she got on stage. She made an outfit change. I know. I just saw a picture. It was like a rib cage. Yeah, she wore Olivier Ostang, who she's collaborated with for years and years and years, formerly of Balmain. And they have a longstanding personal relationship. So I'm not surprised that she went to him, because I think she had been toying with several names. I'd heard several designers say they were potentially working with her. And then she went with Olivier, which I think was really nice. because... No, it's nice. Yeah, because I think in the, you know, she's talked often about how in the beginning and her and Tina Knowles have talked often how about, you know, not many designers wanted to work with her at the beginning of her career because she wasn't well known enough.

20:12Yeah. And, but Olivier was one of the first. So it's a nice full circle moment for them. Chase, I know you're good friends with Sarah Pidgeon. Love. So did you guys get a chance to talk about your outfits beforehand? Yes, at length. there was a we've had several face times I mean I've had a whole journey because I was originally I'm going with I was going with Vogue and then I was going with Balmain at one point so I've kind of done like I've been a journeyman through the different designers at the mat and finally settled on this so at one point I like went to Arolda this vintage store in LA oh yeah yeah it's a great It's amazing.

20:54Yeah. And they have an incredible archive pieces. Incredible archive pieces. And I was trying on a bunch of stuff there. And anyway, so Sarah has been with me for every step of the way. Okay. I've sent her many, many iterations for what my final look could be tonight. And she also, she had her dress made in two different colors. So who did she go with? Loewe. Oh, so she went with Loewe. Fabulous. So we've, yeah, there's been a lot of back and forth. We were on FaceTime with each other until like 2 in the morning last night. I think it's good when you have a kind of a buddy to go through the process with, right?

21:27It's really amazing. Especially when you're doing it your first time. No, it was, and I feel like I got shepherded. I had two Met shamans, if you will. Right. Rachel Sennett, who has been before, so is a seasoned vet, and Sarah Pidgeon. Oh, cool. It's pretty, I can't complain. Well, there were some other first timers in the room. I saw the Blue Ivy. Did you get a chance to see her? No, I didn't know she was here. Yeah, she looked really incredible. I think she was wearing Balenciaga. She was wearing this white dress with a matching hooded jacket. Wow. And looked so, so sweet. Oh, my gosh. She is so talented.

22:05She really is. I love all those videos where her little sister, I think, is like on stage with Beyonce and is like trying to do something, like throw a tantrum. And Blue Ivy's like, stop, not right now, not right now. Mom's performing. she seems like a real one and she wears isabel marant healed sneakers which i also wear all the time hudson williams and connor story from he to rivalry made their met debuts and apparently when connor took his blazer off and showed off his um gun net polka dot salaral and his large biceps the paparazzi and crowds across the street just it erupted wow i mean that was so sure the team in the UK and my team were just, that's who they wanted to see.

22:48That's all they would ask me, are those boys going? Fascinating. I mean, those guys are so magnetic. Yeah, they're very, very hyper popular. Cher came for the first time in 11 years in Burberry, which she looked fabulous. Fabulous. Jafar Jackson, who plays Michael Jackson in the new movie, Michael, came with - I thought he did a good job in the movie. He looked, I haven't seen the movie yet, but I'm so excited. The voice is uncanny. He's so charming. And he wore this great Ralph Lauren look. I thought it was very sort of method dressing for his role, but looked super classy. Chase Infinity, it was her first met.

23:21Two chases, two first met. Two chases, two first met. She feels like she's been around, but she hasn't, right? She's brand new. Oh, she looked incredible in Tom Brown. She did look incredible in Tom Brown. So talk us through your experience. Did it match up to everything you expected? What's the run of show for someone who hasn't been as a first-timer? Walk us through. So what time did you arrive? I arrived really early and I think just to paint the picture, like I grew up in Detroit and I feel like my vision of New York was always like through the Met Gala photos. And like I feel like that was what I just assumed like all of New York was like.

23:58So I've definitely been building this up in my mind, but kind of have like kept a healthy distance away because I'm like I want to experience it for the first time fresh when I go. So I didn't, I don't think I like had necessarily expectations like concretely, but you walk in, it's an incredibly long walk through and you see the whole exhibit. And that part was really nice is being able to like mingle. I got to talk to like Lena Dunham about her book as we're standing in front of this like amazing like Alexander McQueen, like beautiful, that like leather for originally made for like paraplegics.

24:35Like that was incredible. so that part is so awesome to be able to like see the exhibit before anyone else with all these people you're fans of and now it's a new it's a new gallery so we're all seeing it for the first time oh my god yeah so the the condé amnasse gallery so it's a huge expansion of what was before that's incredible usually you had to go up the stairs but this was much yeah it's much different okay wow because it was right there as you walked in yeah and i got i got to the carpet at 5 30 which i think was that is a that's pretty early yeah so i think that was nice because it didn't feel like i wasn't waiting in line that long yeah and it wasn't so that part was it wasn't too scary it wasn't too scary and intimidating also shout out to everyone working at vogue everyone on the carpet who is working for vogue is very kind and very like nurturing i feel like they could they could spot the first timer glint in my eye they could tell i was a newbie and then you walk through the museum and that's a long walk to get a horn blows and then you walk to the Egyptian wing and it's this incredibly lengthy walk and I feel like at various times like sometimes you're walking alone and then like sometimes you like are walking with like next to Blake Lively and you like share a smile and accidentally step on her train.

25:54Yeah there was a lot of train traffic. There's a lot of train traffic. Oh I could stop behind Rachel Ziegler's rest for for at least a good 20 minutes oh my god on the way to dinner oh my god yeah because you want to be polite but it's happening to you too it's like there's some train etiquette that it's like that's like a whole lesson that's gonna be a whole nother podcast episode um and then you get into the room and it's so grand and like that the egyptian room is just so spectacular that was like always my favorite room to go to as a kid so to see it dressed up like that it's like stunning yeah it's pretty major and then I think there's a whole journey actually from getting to your table that you're assigned to like my table is quite like far away from the entrance so I think I took about an hour to get to my table who was at your table I didn't have a first course right oh so you missed the first course you missed the burrata I totally missed the burrata didn't even know it existed but yeah that was its whole like own journey it's like bopping around and seeing a lot of like a lot of familiar faces and friends which felt it's like it's a very friendly room janelle monet was to my right stunning yeah what was she wearing she was wearing because i didn't get to see up close it was a sort of commentary on technology from what i gather i didn't i don't know who the designer was but it was a bunch of cords kind of crawling up her neck and um yeah she had like like cd roms as her like nipple covers whoa okay and at one point i cut into my radish and it flew off oh dear the chair and yeah the radishes were very difficult and straight into straight into her cd rom her boob yeah but it was amazing we laughed about it afterwards and Nicole Phelps yes love Nicole Phelps and Cara Delevingne a very own and Cara who's a riot a riot an absolute riot I didn't get to see her tonight she was awesome she was rocking the live stream she was she had the earpiece in she looked like a Secret Service agent yeah it was a fun table we had a good we had a good vibe and then everyone got up as soon as Sabrina and Stevie Nicks got on stage yeah and it became a mosh pit did you get any advice from your friends who've been as to how to kind of navigate it i think a lot of people were like you're gonna black out on the carpet and i didn't i didn't i didn't really so do you guys like kind of taper your partying so that you can be kind of yes in check for the podcast my arrival time was 4 30 right and so i was in cocktails for three hours, which meant I had three margaritas over three hours.

28:40Perfect. Which was fine because I was having water in between, but it just, it means that I'm like ready for bed. Absolutely. But you're going to after parties. I'm going to go to the GQ after party or colleagues party. I'm going to stop by. Colleen Allen made me a beautiful like velvet drapey top with a silk skirt. Oh, that's so small. Oh, so you have a change? Yeah. You got a change. You got to change? Change? I got to change. No, but this dress is after-party ready. How is it after-party? I've got a train. Are you kidding me? I've got to hang it over my shoulder. Yeah, but that's fun. That could be its own sort of different look.