Every year the MET’s Costume Center – or “The Anna Wintour Costume Center” as it’s going to be called from now on- and Vogue team up to host a gala to celebrate the year’s fashion exhibit and gather funds for the museum. In this single night, everybody who is anybody is called to attend what has become the biggest fashion event of the season. Each year, a different theme inspires the exhibition and this year’s theme was Charles James. For those of you who don’t know, Charles James was a British designer who then moved to America in the late ’20’s and became “America’s First Couturier”. His creations mostly consisted in sculptural and articulated ball gowns and have inspired designers like Cristobal Balenciaga, Christian Dior and, more recently, Zac Posen. In honor of James’s esthetic, this year’s dress code was “white tie” meaning that men had to wear top hat and tails and women ball gowns. I clearly remember complaining about the lack of voluminous ball gowns at the Academy Awards and apparently fashion’s god (a.k.a. Anna Wintour) heard my prayer because at monday night's Met Gala there were ball gowns galore! Arizona Muse, Taylor Swift, Hailee Steinfeld, Emmy Rossum, Claire Danes, Suki Waterhouse and many more braved the infamous MET’s staircase in gorgeous, Jamesesque ball gowns and impossibly long trains, but it was co-chair, Sarah Jessica Parker’s Oscar de la Renta gown that wowed me. Granted, maybe the hair was a tad too much, but the dress was impeccable with its full skirt, signed train and even a touch of Charles James’s iconic Clover Leaf ball gown; besides, you know what they say, go big or go home and SJP definitely went big! If some, like Zac Posen (and myself) were thrilled with this theme, others weren’t so much. When asked what Charles James meant to him, Tom Ford jokingly said “it means big dresses you cannot get close to! Women could not get pregnant in a Charles James dress. I’m serious! I keep trying to kiss these women and it (the dress) makes you automatically bow”. Tom Ford wasn’t the only one to have some difficulties with the dress code. Actresses like Rosamund Pike, Michelle Williams, and Elizabeth Olsen wore short dresses while Cara Delavigne, Kristen Wiig, Amber Valletta and Janelle Monàe opted for more comfortable looks with a touch of drama, choosing to wear pants instead of the required dress. One look that had people talking was for sure Lupita Nyong’o’s breezy netted Prada dress: personally, I didn’t like the dress or the accessories, but Lupita’s attitude was so laid back and happy that it made me like the outfit a little bit more. Between so many amazing looks, it really was a struggle to choose the best ones and, even though I liked many outfits per se – see Emma Stone’s beautiful hot pink Thakoon two-piece dress- I chose the ones that tried to stick to the dress code while still looking incredibly good and adding a little twist to it!

From left : Prabal Gurung, Giles, Matthew Williamson, Chanel, John Galliano, House of Holland

Giorgio Armani

If you think that pink equals girly, fluffy and romantic Tom Ford and Azzaro are going to prove you wrong with short, sleek, sexy dresses and the same are going to do Marc Jacob’s funny and sporty jumpsuit and Armani’s ready-for-work jackets. Of course, there’s also plenty of that fluffy, girly and romantic pink we were talking about in Antonio Berardi’s, Oscar de la Renta’s and Temperley London’s collection and I dare anybody to resist the urge to grab a tiara and play princess once they see Zac Posen’s blush pink ball gowns. I understand that to many of you the idea of wearing head-to-toe pink might be a little, shall we say, unsettling, so, instead of wearing pink clothes, why don’t you start with pink accessories? A pink bag, a scarf, pink shoes or even some pink nail polish are definitely going to do the trick! So, as Maggie Prescott brilliantly put it “I wouldn’t presume to tell a woman what a woman ought to think, but tell her if she’s got to think: think pink”!

L'evento che tutti quanti stavamo aspettando con trepidazione è ormai giunto. La stagione delle premiazioni è ufficialmente cominciata e fino alla notte del 2 marzo, quando si svolgeranno gli Oscar, il mondo intero seguirà questi eventi chiedendosi con ansia chi vincerà cosa e soprattutto chi indosserà chi. Ok, forse sto un po' esagerando ma credo che comunque tutti noi, per passione, per noia, per curiosità e anche forse per invidia ci troveremo in uno di questi giorni davanti al computer a scorrere le immagini dei red carpet e a commentare i look scelti dalle star non riuscendo magari a trattenerci da un "ma cosa si è messa quella?" o, più spesso che non, da un  "datemi quell'abito e nessuno si farà male". Quest'ultima è stata una delle frasi da me predilette ieri sera quando, avvolta in una coperta all'una del mattino, ho seguito il red carpet dei Golden Globe Awards. Se qualcuno mi chiedesse di riassumere in tre parole il red carpet di ieri sera (cosa che nessuno fa) sicuramente direi "rosso, semplice e color-blocking". Infatti, contrariamente alle solite stravaganze, la maggior parte delle attrici ha prediletto abiti semplici, senza fronzoli inutili, audaci e raffinati abbandonando i tradizionali - e spesso esagerati- abiti a sirena o da principessa. Questo rigore nelle linee si è tradotto in un certo rigore nei colori; bianco, nero ma soprattutto rosso sono stati i colori principali anche se non sono mancate alcune eccezioni come l'abito giallo canarino di Lena Dunham. Le grandi assenti di questo primo red carpet sono state invece le stampe che hanno lasciato il loro posto al color-blocking cioè all'accostamento di due o più colori in un unico abito come hanno fatto Amy Adams, Sandra Bullock, Taylor Swift e Aubrey Plaza. Anche se ci sono stati casi di spiacevoli scelte, abbiamo avuto anche look meravigliosi e degni di nota. Eccovi quindi i migliori!