It’s generally a mistake to expect a show like Sex and the City—or its Max reboot And Just Like That...—to function as a documentary-style glimpse into the worlds it represents (remember when Carrie said she made four dollars a word writing for Vogue on the original series? LOL!). That said, even as a Vogue employee, I was fascinated by the reboot’s presentation of the “Met Ball,” a.k.a. the Met Gala, and found myself desperate to know if literally anything that Carrie Co. said about it was actually true.
Despite working at this magazine for four years, I have actually never attended the Met Gala in person, so for help decoding the various rules and restrictions that go into the successful production of each year’s party, I turned to Sache Taylor, Vogue’s special events manager, with four big questions. Read her explanation of the wild and wonderful ways of the Met Gala below:
Is it really possible to switch up your attendance or date for the Met Gala at the last minute, as we see Seema and Charlotte do?
This would not be possible, as all guest names need to be submitted well in advance for approval.
How likely is it that someone would be getting fitted for the Met Gala or changing up their outfit in the days before/on the day of, rather than locking the look much earlier? (For context, in the episode’s final moments, we see Carrie ditch her pre-selected look and rewear her old wedding dress to the Met.)
It is likely that a guest would have their first fitting for the Met Gala the weekend before—some happen the night before or even morning of. I would say a majority of the guests probably have their look locked down earlier, but guests change their minds and usually have backups.
And could a guest just show up to the Met on foot, like Lisa Todd Wexley decided to do? Or do you have to arrive by car?
No, you are not allowed to walk to the Met. For security reasons it’s a hard rule.
Is it true that a non-famous person like Charlotte’s husband Harry Goldenblatt really wouldn’t have a chance of running into Rihanna, i.e. would have to enter the museum a different way?
All guests use one entrance and one exit for the Gala—there are no VIP areas at the Met Gala. Harry could have easily run into Rihanna.
