It is fashion's most prestigious night of the year, drawing the industry's elite. Now, a former Vogue employee claims to have uncovered the true motivation behind the Met Gala's meteoric rise: Princess Diana.
The Rivalry That Sparked an Obsession
Anna Wintour, Vogue's Global Editorial Director and Chief Content Officer for Condé Nast, took over the event at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1995. Originally known as the Costume Institute ball, it was transformed from a society dinner into one of the most anticipated events on the fashion calendar. According to Filipa Fino, former senior accessories director at American Vogue who worked with Wintour for seven years, this transformation was driven by a heated rivalry between Wintour and the late Harper's Bazaar editor, Elizabeth Tilberis.
Tilberis, who died of ovarian cancer in 1999, famously persuaded the People's Princess to attend the 1996 Met Gala as her guest and to appear on the cover of Harper's Bazaar's September 1997 issue. This, Fino claims, triggered a fierce competition. Wintour, who believed she should have been the one to accompany Diana to the ball, became consumed with the Met Gala.
"The princess died and it never happened and Anna had no way of getting redemption," Fino told The Times. "This seed of Anna never being able to host Princess Diana at the Met, and her vision of what it should be like – worthy of a princess – is what drove her from 1996 to today. She took on the Costume Institute Ball as her own personal project."
Fino further elaborated, "She's p***** off at God. She's p***** off at time. She's p***** off with history, which had Diana die before she got her a cover."
Diana's Memorable Appearance
When Diana attended the Met Gala on December 9, 1996, it was four months after her divorce and just eight months before her death. She wore a £10,000 midnight-blue dress trimmed with black lace, paired with a matching velvet opera coat. The dress was a fashion coup, as Diana was the first to wear a gown by Dior's new designer, John Galliano, from his highly anticipated first haute couture show.
She accessorized with her sapphire choker set in a triple strand of pearls and her Lady Dior bag, originally called the 'Chouchou' and renamed in her honor. The bag had been given to her on a 1995 visit to Paris by the then-first lady, Madame Bernadette Chirac, and became a firm favorite. Diana ordered it in blue the following year to "match her eyes."
Galliano and his team traveled from Paris to London three times for fittings, making their last visit on November 28, the designer's 35th birthday. He arrived at Kensington Palace to find that the princess had organized a cake and champagne.
The dress evoked mixed reactions. Fashion editor Hilary Alexander described it as "The most important dress since Liz Hurley wore her safety-pinned Versace." She wrote in the Daily Telegraph, "The whole idea of wearing a petticoat in public is new. We have seen actresses and starlets wearing underwear as outerwear, but for a princess to do it at a formal occasion is a different matter. It is a very sensual rather than overly sexy dress, and it is a million miles away from the more formal outfits she usually picks. It represents a new kind of royal dressing."
However, fashion critic Brenda Polan was less impressed, writing in the Daily Mail: "It was not so much haute couture as Oh! Couture. The problem, and there is no delicate way of saying this, is that it looked like she had accidentally stepped out in her nightie, which meant, of course, that she wasn't wearing a bra."
In a 2018 interview, Galliano revealed that Diana had chosen to remove the interior bustier. "It was a reflection of how she was already feeling," he told the Wall Street Journal Magazine. "Liberated."
The Evening's Events
Guests at New York's party of the year included designers Calvin Klein and Christian Lacroix, models Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Iman, and photographer Patrick Demarchelier. After sipping champagne and chatting with designers Vera Wang, Oscar de la Renta, Calvin Klein, and Bill Blass, Diana dined on sea bass, veal, and tarte tatin, seated between Tilberis and Galliano.
She slipped away before midnight, whisked in a stretch limo back to the plush Carlyle Hotel as dancing was set to begin, missing the furore on the dance floor where guests smashed glasses and split champagne. "It was a zoo, and I guess that maybe they didn't want to put her through it," said Mica Traynor, a fashion designer. "But I didn't feel she was actually here. I just wanted to see her dance once, but no luck."
Debutante Crickett Richards added, "People wanted to just look at her. They paid to see her, and, to all intents and purposes, she did not show up. It's a shame. She is so beautiful. I think she could have tried a little harder." However, Bianca Jagger said, "I don't think she ever intended to stay long, but I know she enjoyed herself. She looked marvellous."
