Even Power Players Aren’t Prepared for a White-Tie Met Gala

Anna Wintour arrives at the 2012 Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute gala benefit in New York. Photographer: Charles Sykes/AP Photo
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Anna Wintour’s order that all men attending the Met Ball wear “evening dress and decorations” has New York’s party set talking—and fretting.

With the May 5 fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute approaching, guests at galas this week revealed they don’t even own—or certainly don’t regularly wear—the required apparel: a black tailcoat, a waistcoat, a wing-collared shirt and white bow tie.