Costume Institute

Who knew socialite Fabiola Beracasa was such a stellar broadcast journalist? In addition to her tireless circuit of charity events, Ms. Beracasa took time out to host a sneak peek at the Met’s “blog.mode: addressing fashion” exhibit, which runs through April 13.

In this clip, Ms. Beracasa has a conversation with Andrew Bolton, curator of the Costume Institute for the past five years. And there are some very compelling featured pieces in the show: Vivienne Westwood’s bubblegum-pink gown, which was fashioned from a single piece of fabric; an interesting item designed by John Galliano for Dior; a “very controversial” item called the Incubus Necklace, which was made from five vials of human semen; and a backless, very revealing dress worn on the runway by model Sophie Dahl.

It's a bird...It's a plane...It's Anna Wintour! “Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy,” the name of a forthcoming exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum, will also be the theme of the museum's annual Costume Institute gala, where guests are likely to encounter quite the spectacle, reports WWD. Nathan Crowley, who is probably best known for his set designs for movies like Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Batman Begins and The Dark Night, has been hired as the museum’s creative consultant for an exhibit, which will launch on May 5, the same night as the costume fête. The exhibit’s superhero theme will also dictate the look and feel of the party—the aesthetics for which Mr. Crowley—along with Raul Avila—will decide. Giorgio Armani will be the gala’s honorary chair, alongside co-chairs George Clooney, Julia Roberts and, of course, Ms. Wintour.

On the morning of May 14th, a certain Dr. Henry Kissinger was remembering the time the late, great Patricia Taylor Buckley received a phone call at her house at about 8 a.m.

The hour, close friends like Dr. Kissinger knew, was far too early to be calling Mrs. Buckley from any place but a hospital.

When a voice on the other line explained that it was the President calling for her husband, William F. Buckley Jr., she shot back: “The president of what?”

Dr. Kissinger was with more than a hundred other mourners that morning at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Temple of Dendur who’d gathered for a service in honor of Bukley, who died last month at the age of 80.

The setting was fitting for a woman whom so many worshipped.

“We mortals need to be reminded of the finite nature of our scale,” Dr. Kissinger said. “The term ‘larger than life’ can be overused. In Pat’s case, it was an understatement.”

Reinaldo Herrera, husband of high-society fashion designer Carolina, briefly illustrated “the extraordinary fantasy world that Pat created” for her friends and family. She was, according to Mr. Herrera, as at home in the drawing room of a palace as she was in the kitchen, conversing with the “three Dominican ladies,” who cared for her affectionately for so many years.

Then, a few short remarks by the jeweler Kenneth Lane drew upon Mrs. Buckley’s incredible sense of style, which, Mr. Lane offered, was about a lot more than spending a fortune.

Caitlin Buckley, her granddaughter and the daughter of her surviving son Christopher, told a crowd that included Tom Wolfe and George Will about the woman she called “Nan,” who chided her for buttering rolls in mid-air and taught her the fine art of air-kissing.

Following a song by the Wiffenpoofs, Yale’s famed a capella troupe, Frederick Melhado, an investment banker and close friend to the Buckleys, recalled that in the final days of Mrs. Buckley’s life, he’d told his dying friend that he wished he had a magic wand.

At this, he said, Mrs. Buckley responded: “I know, but we all run out of magic wands, eventually.”  read more »

“I think movie parties are more fun,” said Chloë Sevigny, in a sweeping, strapless Kelly green gown by Balenciaga, at the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute gala on Monday, May 7. “I don’t know—I think here it’s very like a popularity contest. In the movies, everyone’s just kind of like—we’re all just glad to be working.”  read more »

As the model got ready to install her clothing collection at Barneys, yours truly tried to get himself out of a journalistic jam.  read more »