Princess Diana rivalry that took Met Gala from socialites to influencers | Royal | News

Fashion’s biggest night of the year took place earlier this week and it has a Royal connection that few people know about. The Met Gala has been held since 1948 to raise funds for the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The institute does not receive any funding from the museum and therefore has the advantage of encouraging participants to donate. Now fashion houses are buying tables at the event (for around £280,000 per person) and inviting guests, with the approval of former Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. But the gala wasn’t always full of influencers and reality TV stars. Wintour took over the ball organization in 1995, amid an ongoing rivalry with Harper’s Bazaar editor Elizabeth Tilberis. The duo was struggling to make their magazine the best in the industry. Then, in 1996, Tilberis managed to do something Wintour could not; He persuaded Diana, Princess of Wales, to attend the Met Gala. Diana went to the event as Tilberis’ guest and subsequently appeared on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar in 1997.

According to Filipa Fino, former senior accessories director for American Vogue, this infuriated Wintour, and she never had the chance to equal Tilberis before Diana’s tragic death in 1997.

The former Vogue staffer said this pushed Wintour to make the Met Gala the biggest event on the social calendar, and she’s still motivated.

Fino said Times: “This seed of Anna was never able to host Princess Diana at the Met, and her vision of what it should be like – as befits a princess – is what has driven her from 1996 to today. She took on the Costume Institute Ball as her own personal project.”

The Met Gala has evolved from a fashion world’s know-how ball to a highly publicized event that attracts everyone from the music world like Madonna to influencers like Emma Chamberlain.

When Princess Diana attended in 1996, she wore a £10,000 midnight blue dress designed for Dior by John Galliuano, a sapphire choker set in a triple strand of pearls and the Lady Dior bag, originally called the ‘Chouchou’ and renamed in her honour.

Fashion editor Hilary Alexander described it as “the most important dress since Liz Hurley wore her safety Versace”, as it was unheard of for a royal to wear “underwear as outerwear” for a formal event.