Your Met Gala Questions Answered!

0:05Welcome, everybody. We are so excited to be here and have you here. This is The Run Through. I'm Chloe Mal. And I'm Germanardi. And we are so grateful to everyone for joining us today, taping from Studio One at Condé Nast. We are mere days away from the Met Gala. In fact, we are the last day of April, anticipating the first Monday in May. And few people get the opportunity to see what goes into the colossal, magnificent undertaking that is the Met Gala. So we are very excited to have Vogue contributor Edie Kiernan-Bunzel and GQ's global fashion director, Miles Pope, here to take us behind the scenes of this year's gala and exhibition.

0:52Thank you for having us. Hi, thank you. So this year's, I guess, dress code and theme is tailored for you. And the exhibit is super fine, tailoring black style, which explores the intersection of style, Black Identity and Dandyism. And we have some really fabulous co-hosts this year. We have Lewis Hamilton, Coleman Domingo, A$AP Rocky, and Pharrell Williams. And it's been so amazing to see that come to life in the May issue. So Edie and Miles, can you introduce yourselves and tell us a little bit about your role in relation to the Met Gala? I think we should have Edie first. Hi, I'm Edie Kiernan Bunzel, and I'm a contributor at Vogue.

1:36Edie's being modest. Edie is the czar of the Met Gala. The Met Gala doesn't happen without Edie, so. Well, I used to work at Vogue full-time, and now I work on the Met Gala specifically, which has been so much fun. When I first started at Vogue almost 15 years ago, Edie was working as Anna's second assistant. Third assistant. Oh, I'm so sorry. Third assistant. She was quickly promoted to second assistant. And then I saw her rise. I remember your interview, Chloe, with Anna, when you told her that you like to sleep in your free time. That's true. It was not well received. But we powered through.

2:19Edie, you also were there for my interview. Yeah, I remember a lot of interviews. Edie was like the person that you wanted to see before you went into Anna because she was so calming. and she gave me like a lovely compliment about my outfit and I just felt like, okay, now I can breathe. I'm not going to have a panic attack. Edie was giving maternal poise a decade before she was a mother. But Edie, how long have you been working on the Met Gala? When did that become your fiefdom? Let's see. So I started as an intern in 2007 and then was in Anna's office in 2010. So I think I moved over to the events department in 2013.

2:57So we've gotten to see a lot of Met Galas, which has been, it's fun to see it evolve. Miles, what about you? You've been at GQ for how long now? Eight years come May. Wow. I started as an intern in the fashion closet. My first job out of college was Conde Nast and I've been here ever since. Lifer. Lifer. What's your experience with the Met Gala been? Because as everyone knows, the Met Gala is very much a Vogue event, but we are a global team and we always love to involve our GQ colleagues, especially for an exhibition like this year, which is so focused on menswear. Yeah. My first Met Gala working at actually was last year.

3:40I always like watch from behind the scenes all the amazing things Vogue does. Miles saved us. It was amazing. What did he do? I was pulling designers for the live stream, which was like really, really great and fun. It's just, I mean, we know so many of the designers. So it's just like, guys, you have to do this for us. Let's do it. And this year I'm doing the same thing. And this one is all about menswear. So I think we're really excited for this big men's met. There was one story in particular that we shared across both GQ and Vogue, which kind of unpacked that theme, the theme of dandyism. And I'd love to know what it was like pulling that together because I know La Roche styled it.

4:22Yes. There were about 40 people in it. Yes. I mean, tell us everything. I know Tyler Mitchell shot it. Oh my gosh. I thought it was such a beautiful shoot. It was such an incredible experience. This portfolio of like 40 creatives and, you know, a true explanation of black excellence is running in the May issue of Vogue and is running in the summer issue of GQ. and it really brought together this idea of community and this, you know, the concept of dandyism. I mean, Law styled it and I mean, some of us have worked with Law where we know him very well and he's a true icon in what he does and approaches every project with an arsenal of information and he truly has so much inspiration that he builds everything upon and I had the privilege of being on set.

5:11We did two days in LA, one day in New York. And to just see all of these people come together and know that they're being a part of something super special for both GQ and Vogue, it was truly incredible. Was there anyone that you were sort of excited to see or hadn't met before or who you were impressed by on the set? I mean, I'm a huge Dapper Dan fan. Anything Dapper Dan, I'm like fully on board with. Will you give those uninitiated among us a little Dapper Dan background? Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, I first got introduced to Dapper Dan at GQ when I first started. We did a kind of like a breakout portfolio of him, and then we shot him when he did his big collaboration of Gucci.

5:53And I've just been so inspired by how he dresses and his like take on, you know, transformative dressing and really using the art of fashion as like a character platform to like build a character for yourself and and he just has like a like a raw energy to him and he just has like a swagger like no one else and it's truly the embodiment of of a modern dandy and you know I've always there's so many different explanations to like what dandy means but I've always described it as like an attitude and the highest form of sophistication and Dapper Dan is a true embodiment of that and was amazing to see him like just on set and truly know that this was like his moment well I know I love I love the quote that you shared on your Instagram I'm from the poorest neighborhood in Harlem whenever I was lucky and fortunate enough to have something to wear I went to 125th street nobody went there who wasn't dressed at 125th street nobody knew I had rats nobody knew I had roaches and that for me was a birth of dandyism because I saw the power of transformation that could take place with clothes yeah that that quote meant something it's just like really close to me.

7:03I'm just having him have said that in the GQ article, it's just, just ties back to this idea of, of like dress can transform you and take you, take you somewhere. And this idea of dandyism, you can just build a character for yourself. And it's, it's high dressing. It's like how you want to see people dressed. And he takes such pride in the way he presents himself to the world. And it's all about the accessories and the fit, the pant length, the texture, the fabrications, the embroidery. That quote just really stood out to me. Did he like this? Did he instantly love the look? Was that the first look that was presented to him?

7:38We showed him a couple, but he saw this and was like, down. Like, this is what we're doing. And it's such an amazing moment, that whole... Is it completely embroidered? It's completely embroidered. For our listeners, we should explain that it has pink roses, or are those peonies? Yeah, pink roses, and it has like the vines throughout it, all hand embroidered. So Dolce & Gabbana is like couture collection. Right, right. And it's always a feat to get. So this was like a big moment for GQ and the Vogue team when we got this confirmed. And, you know, the way Law puts anything and everything together, you're like, wow.

8:17It's pretty special. I do want to know a little bit more about working with Law because we talk about him very casually because we are all very familiar with his work, but not everyone is. Will you give us a little background on the larger than life? On all things Law. Yeah. So, Law describes himself as an image architect. And I think that's the perfect way. I think he's trademarked. Trademarked it, like fully. It was really great. This was my second time really working with Law and the scale of this project was huge. So, him coming to us with this range of like inspiration, He had everything from like pictures from an archive that he pulled to like Instagram posts to like historical black history images.

9:04And he just comes to the table with such knowledge, not just about fashion, but about like American history, black history, and wanted to bring all of that to this. So it was truly incredible to see how he worked. I mean, his team working with him on this was rather large because it was such a like a mammoth of a project. but on set he would board everything. Every single look was like printed. Every inspiration look was printed and boarded. And it was so great. Can you explain what boarded means? On set at times we like print all of the key looks and like pin them to a board. So if you're walking talent or the photographer through anything, you can see it.

9:40It's kind of just a real life inspiration board or mood board. So to really look at that and see all of the images and research that Law put into this shoot was truly incredible. And it's something that I haven't seen before, and I've been doing this for a minute. So just having him approach this with such care and knowledge was really great to see. I have to say, in almost 15 years at Vogue, there's been a lot of ambitious, large-scale, multi-character shoots, but this is one of the most ambitious. and this was an amazing number of characters and luminaries and such a range. It was Spike Lee, Janelle Monae, Iowa Dabiri.

10:27What was it like? What was the vibe on set? Were there any funny or weird stories? What were different interactions between people? It was a party. I think it was so great to have everyone on set and there were some people who were really close friends of each other. There were some people who it was a first time meeting. Okay, who met for the first time and was excited to meet each other. Ooh. And who knew each other and were friends. Okay, so it was Keith Powers, Danielle Dudweiler. That image, they all didn't meet before. And that was, like, incredible. Because then you're all coming together in a picture and you're like, okay, we need to, like, vibe.

11:03And then, of course, you had Tiana Taylor and Janelle Monae who, like, knew each other. And, like, that was such an incredible moment to see. But the music on set was, like, no other. from like the soundtrack so the dj was one of law's assistants oh wow okay it was just like so great it was everything from like diana ross to whitney houston to luther vandross and like everyone was vibing so you knew when like the song came on you heard like some cheers and you're like okay we're ready for this photo like we have the right music let's get this going um so that was like a really big standout for me was just like seeing the true community of people and everyone was like, wow, we're like, we're like doing this for Vogue.

11:45Like let's, let's go big. And, um, the fashion was wild. We had all this amazing jewelry. It was just like a really great ambiance on set. It just exuded such like positive energy and knew that we were like making history. So it was great. So cool. I mean, you also worked on, um, ASAP Rocky's amazing cover. He's wearing Oswald Boateng in that beautiful green suit. Tell us, tell us about that. We spoke to Rocky recently and he was very excited about this. Oh my gosh. This was amazing. This was such a fun shoot. This is like an archived Oswald suit that Law and Oswald pulled together. And Oswald Bolting is, if not one of the only black Savile Row Taylor.

12:31He's just an incredible Savile Row Taylor. He was also the creative director of Givenchy Men's. Yes. So we couldn't do the shoot without him. So we had, his whole team was really collaborating with us throughout all of the shoots that you see in Vogue for the May issue. Coleman's wearing it. It's also in the portfolio. And then of course on ASAP. And this one just really stood out. Law really wanted something of some color and this screamed color and also like screamed dandy. And with all the accessories, the brooch, the watches, the ring, it was just like the perfect combination. and Law and ASAP had a conversation and Law walked him through all the confirmations and he was like, I'm ready for this.

13:09Wow, it's super fine. Yeah, it is, isn't it? It was really the definition of it. I mean, I feel like every single brooch in New York at every major fashion house is probably in the Vogue and GQ. Oh my gosh, yeah. And they're working their way back into this building. Truly. I was also very into the Dalmatians that ASAP went around with. Were they well-behaved co-stars? Very well behaved. Great co-stars. You know, we need them in the office always. That shoot was incredible. That shot was incredible. He's wearing a Jacquemus polka dotted coat, which was just walked the runway. We just pulled it.

13:46It was great. That was to see him on the street interacting with the dogs and just like embodying this persona of like just like owning this moment. I mean, A$AP owns every single moment he has. Let's be very clear. But that was just, this was great. This was one of my favorite shoots that I've worked on. So such a privilege to have been able to like collaborate with the Vogue team and like have Vogue bring GQ into this very special moment. Hi, I'm Rebecca Ford, senior awards correspondent at Vanity Fair and co-host of Little Gold Men. Oscar season is upon us. Little Gold Men takes you behind the scenes of the race for the biggest prize in Hollywood.

14:28There's a hundred wrestlers in the room, but only one can be Oscar nominated. Whether you're a movie lover or an industry buff, Little Gold Men from Vanity Fair has everything you need to know about this year's Oscar race. Follow and listen to Little Gold Men wherever you get your podcasts.

14:50I think you might be one of the few people who's seen storyboards of the actual exhibit. Yes. So tell, what can you give away? Ooh, I think everyone should like get excited. It's like a true moment. You're not giving too much away. Not giving too much away. What was the experience of, did you go or you've seen storyboards? Yeah, so I saw storyboards. Monica Miller, who's co-curating it this year, walked me and a few of the GQ team through the chapters of the exhibition and a few of key looks and the objet and decorative arts that she has in it. And it was really great to kind of go behind the scenes at the Met and really just have someone really walk you through it.

15:30So it was great to have the curator really walk you through all of the ideas, ask questions, ask like, is this being included? How did you feel about this? How did you secure this look? Like there are pieces that we haven't seen in such a long time. So that was really a privilege to be able to see that. And we went into that knowing that we'd be working on this issue with the Vogue team. So having that background in history was great to have. Wow. I was really impressed by the breadth of history, too, because it spans 300 years, if I'm not mistaken. Wow. And Monica is an academic herself. She's head of Africana Studies at Barnard College.

16:08And she's come to it with such an academic eye, but then brought it from the more historical period up to contemporary fashion. So I think it's really cool to see that trajectory. Absolutely. It's incredible. I can't wait to see it. Okay, so Edie, let's go back in time. You can say all that now that you know everything about Monica and everything about the exhibition, but it's the moment you learn what the theme and the exhibition is for the 2025 Met Gala. Okay. What is the next step? Next step is call Raul Avila, who has done the decor for years and years and years. and we start thinking about what the decor is going to look like, what we're going, it's always a big moment when we decide how we're going to sort of transform the information booth, which is when you first walk in, that's what we try and have to be our big wow moment.

16:58And we always try and bring in a different collaborator. So this year we spoke with Dodi Kazanjan, Vogue's art editor, and she said, well, you have to call Cy Gavin. He's the most incredible artist. His paintings are in the museum and Sai is creative directing a lot of the decor for this year. So it's so incredible to get to work with Sai. What's an example of one of the more dramatic transformations of the information booth? So I would say I thought the razor blade chandelier for Punk was amazing. Thousands and thousands of razor blades coming from the ceiling and then there were these neon pink roses down below.

17:38I thought that was really amazing. I have to say, it always blows my mind that Raul is one of the, like Edie, he projects calm no matter what the chaos under the surface. But Raul telling you about how 250 ,000 roses have to be brought into the museum for this event and each one hand inspected for bugs. Because God forbid, if one bug gets in that museum and starts eating a medieval tapestry, you better believe there's going to be a problem. Oh, God. So, I mean, just the time of inspecting every leaf of a rose. And re-inspecting and treating and, yeah. And also, Raul and his team only have basically the night before to put everything in, to install everything.

18:24So they just don't sleep. Yeah, Raul always says that starting like Saturday night, he and his team basically, they're on a no sleep situation. Yeah, exactly. That's something. It's remarkable because they only have the museum is open on Sunday, no? It is. There are parts of it that we start sort of sectioning off because we have to cover up the Nile in Egypt. Excuse me? Say that again. If you're familiar with the Temple of Dendur, there's essentially a mini version of the Nile, and that gets covered up. We sell tables on top of the Nile, basically. That was a pretty amazing statement. We have to cover the Nile in Egypt for the mat.

19:03So Denial is covered on Sunday, but Raul and his team don't get in to start building the floral centerpiece. So it's really like a mix of files of Basil E. Frankweiler coming in in the dark of night. Right. Okay. Wow. Yeah, even for a surprise performer, we always try and time it so that any rehearsals that have to be on site aren't when anyone could see them. And there's a lot of secrecy around it, but it's part of the excitement, I think, that it's a big surprise. There are a lot of big surprises. I want to know, speaking of surprises, when the guest list starts to come together. We start a pre-sale usually in September when we'll start calling around to a lot of brands and individuals who have supported us for many, many years.

19:48So we always try first to give them the first call. And that typically sells out in a matter of days where people will say, we'll take four tickets, one ticket, a table of 10 seats. And then probably December, January, we start getting some calls about, we'd love to bring these people. We think they're a great embodiment of the theme. And then that continues all the way through because inevitably there'll be drops or different fun puzzles that come up. Someone's in town suddenly. A couple of years ago, I got a call from, it was someone on Carla Bruni's team saying that her husband would like to come.

20:21Oh, my God. Did he come? Yeah, he came day off. Edie got a call, if I recall correctly, from a security person, a French security person who said, excusez-moi, le président is coming. And Edie had to call Anna and say, excuse me, Anna, did you invite a French president and not tell me? She's like, oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, I did. And he accepted, so good news. We'll adjust the seating chart. So the seating chart is a point of much myth and legend. It is a big white poster board with pink, blue, and purple little stickies. They're Velcro-backed pieces of paper that are moved like game board pieces around this amazing map of the Temple of Dendor and all the tables.

21:06And this goes up on an easel in one of the conference rooms at Vogue a month ahead of time? Usually a month ahead, yeah. And it is treated with great secrecy, but honestly, if you don't have eagle eyes, it doesn't really matter. People apologize when they come in. They say, I'm so sorry, I'm not looking. Can I just ask you a question if I put my back to the board? And then also, anytime I have to bring the board home, we cover it up. You say the board home? Oh my gosh, I waddle home with the board. Why? Why? Well, sometimes, you know, over the weekend or something, there could be an urgent seating.

21:39Oh my God. But people have taken photos of me out in the wild with this board. And I'm always, we cover it with a tarp to try and make sure, you know, there's no divulged information. How did you get in a cab with the subway? Oh, very awkwardly. Oh, my God. We also have to level up the tarp. We need to get you like a chic blanket. We used to have something super chic. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Perfect. But I do feel like people underestimate how much time is put into the seating chart. I mean, I see you and Anna Wintour, who is a busy woman, as are you, pouring over this day after day. What is some of the mental gymnastics that goes into putting this seating chart together?

22:24We are always trying to think about different configurations, about really Anna will go through every single person and say, okay, this person, what are they going to say to the person next to them? So do you have a list of like, I don't know, Pharrell loves to jog. Anna, big runner also. They can talk about marathons. Like what, is there like a list of interests? Honestly, Sasha Taylor on our team, the director of special events for Vogue, is so exceptional at knowing everyone's interest, who they've dated, who they've had flirtations with that are not yet confirmed. It is so incredible. It's one of Sasha's many, many talents.

23:00But I think you really have to think about that. or who had an awkward business situation because it's a confluence in a perfect world of the best of sports and tech and fashion and music and film. And there can be a lot of potential collaborations and maybe romances. That's a collaboration. Yeah, exactly. People have met their partners at the Met for sure. I think so. Absolutely. There's all these stories of people who meet at the Met. Yeah. Also, not just who people are sitting next to, but I loved, you told me a while ago that also people's sight lines are a consideration. Yes. And not being in the sight line of an ex.

23:40Yes. Or a new girlfriend being in the sight line of an ex. Wow. Yes. We've had complaints about that over the years. So it's something we really try and think about, even if it's six tables down and, you know. That's insane, Edie. Wow. It is. Oh, my God. But yes, so to answer your question, yes, we spend an agonizing amount of time trying to be as intentional as we can about the seating chart. And when does the seating chart close? Like when are you close? Are you done with the seating chart? The other really tricky thing is people constantly are texting saying, can you just tell me who I'm sitting next to?

24:13I'll say, I really can't because it's going to change right up until right before. Up until, right. To the night off? Yes, until minutes before. Where is the board on the Met? Like, is it brought to the Met? Yes, we bring it into the museum, cover it with our tarp just in case. And the other funny thing, too, is when we're leaving, the security guards always check to make sure that they look under the tarp. And I say, no, I swear it's not a painting. Because they think it's a painting? Yes. Oh, my God. Hilarious. Wow. Okay. I want to know a listener question, which is how do you decide the color of the red carpet?

24:52Hmm. Well, the creative decor team really decides that. It's almost always painted size. It's funny looking back at that picture of Rihanna from China Through the Looking Glass. It's evolved so much over the years because we used to have a red carpet. And now it's usually some sort of creative decor element. Last year was green. Last year was green, but sort of meant to look like moss, kind of coming out of an enchanted garden for Sleeping Beauty. It was moss. Let's be specific. And this year, a big surprise. We'll see. Wow. We get a lot of texts asking about that because people don't, we've had people ask what the Pantone shade will be.

25:36Wow, because they don't want to match because they don't want to blend in. So it's a coveted secret. Wow. It's not going to be pinstripe then in that case. I can't tell you. Choma's panicking. Hopefully not.

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26:24I mean, I think a lot of people don't realize that there's an entire bunker under the Met devoted to or called the War Room, where, Chloe, you spend a lot of the night. We do. And not just night. Because for security reasons, we need to be in the War Room, which is in the basement of the museum, by 2 p.m. so we are there set up with uh our computers our dongles our refillable water bottles everything that we need the levain order the levain cookie order food is a whole separate discussion we have lots of catering happening we also have a special delivery of levain cookies bonbon gummies and marie's cheese these are important things you guys do not play around No, no, no.