Parties You Will Never Get Into

With celebrities dominating magazines nowadays, one feels nostalgic for times when real models graced their covers. In honor of fashion’s most inspiring faces and bodies, The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art has dedicated their spring exhibition to models.

Titled “The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion,” the exhibition runs from May 6 through August 9, 2009. It formally opened May 4 with a gala benefit attended by a large throng.

Marc Jacobs served as the gala’s Honorary Chair. His co-chairs were Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour; singer Justin Timberlake; and supermodel Kate Moss.

Ninety-six of Moss’ peers, including current supermodel Gisele Bundchen and model-turned-host Heidi Klum, gushed forth into the museum’s Tisch Galleries for the exhibition. “Muse” exhibits around 80 fashion creations dating as far back as 1947 and as recent as 1997. It features such models as Twiggy, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Amber Valletta, Lauren Hutton, Suzy Parker, Shalom Harlow, Jean Shrimpton, Veruschka, Nadja Auermann, Lisa Fonssagrives, Peggy Moffitt, Janice Dickinson, Beverly Johnson, Jerry Hall, Helena Christensen, Sunny Harnett, Brooke Shields, and Dorian Leigh.

Moss wore a golden turban and a high-hemmed Marc Jacobs lamé toga to the event, while Bundchen donned a blue sequined Versace. Designers like Carolina Herrera, Jason Wu, John Galliano, Stella McCartney, and Donatella Versace also walked the red carpet.

Still, mainstream celebrities studded the event. Renée Zellweger, Jessica Alba, Kate Beckinsale, Liv Tyler, Anne Hathaway, Katy Perry, Victoria Beckham, Blake Lively, Ashley Olsen, Mary-Kate Olsen, Eva Mendes, Kate Bosworth, and Rachel Bilson all enjoyed their model turns on the carpet. On the unconventional hand, Madonna stopped museum traffic with thigh-high boots, blue barmaid dress, and towering bunny headgear by Louis Vuitton, while Rihanna cross-dressed in a Dolce & Gabbana tuxedo.