Tom Ford says he wishes Met Gala hadn’t ‘turned into a costume party’

Tom Ford has claimed the Met Gala has morphed into a “costume party,” with the designer recalling a time when the exclusive event “used to just be very chic people wearing very beautiful clothes”.

The American fashion designer and owner of the eponymous fashion brand Tom Ford discussed the Met Gala with former New York Magazine editor Amy Odell for her upcoming book Anna: The Biography, about Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour.

In an excerpt of the book published by Time on Monday, Odell shared the conversation that took place between herself and Ford about the state of the gala, which has been helmed by Wintour since 1995.

“The only thing about the Met that I wish hadn’t happened is that it’s turned into a costume party,” the designer said. “That used to just be very chic people wearing very beautiful clothes going to an exhibition about the 18th century.

“You didn’t have to look like the 18th century, you didn’t have to dress like a hamburger, you didn’t have to arrive in a van where you were standing up because you couldn’t sit down because you wore a chandelier.”

The designer’s comments appear to be directed partly at Katy Perry, who arrived at the 2019 Met Gala in a chandelier dress complete with lit light bulbs and a matching headpiece for the gala’s theme: “Camp: Notes on Fashion,” before changing into a hamburger costume later the same night.

Despite the criticism, Ford, Instagram’s Adam Mosseri, and Wintour will remain as honorary co-chairs of this year’s gala, while Regina King, Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds and Lin-Manuel Miranda will serve as co-chairs. The museum has also partnered with a number of film directors, including Martin Scorsese, Sofia Coppola and Ford to create “cinematic vignettes” to accompany the new exhibition.

Elsewhere in the excerpt, Odell shared Wintour’s own dismay with extravagant Met Gala outfits preventing attendees from sitting, as she recounted a conversation which reportedly took place between the 72-year-old global editorial director of Vogue and her longtime friend and former West Coast director of Vogue, Lisa Love, about Kim Kardashian during the 2019 Met Gala.

According to Odell, Wintour repeatedly asked Love: “Can you please tell her to sit down?” to which Love had to explain that Kardashian physically could not sit in her custom-made corset and custom latex Thierry Mugler dress, which featured dripping crystal droplets.

While Wintour wasn’t pleased with Kardashian’s inability to sit during the Met Gala’s sit-down dinner, she typically loves the fashion-forward outfits worn each year, according to Love. “It’s that English part of her. She loves a dress-up party,” Love said.

The 2022 Met Gala will take place on 2 May, and follow the theme: “In America: An Anthology of Fashion”.