Anna Wintour opens up about organising Met Gala: 'We worked very closely with the Vatican'

The artistic director for Condé Nast also discussed her favourite Met Gala outfits

As one might expect, organising the Met Gala is a very meticulous operation.

There are many elements to consider when preparing for the biggest night in fashion, from the carefully chosen theme to the seating arrangement of the guests.

Artistic director for Condé Nast and chair of the Met Gala Anna Wintour has spoken about what it took to make the event a success and the extent to which the organisers collaborated with the Catholic church in order to make the theme of the exhibition as authentic as possible.

Wintour appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert yesterday, during which she discussed the ins and outs of the Met Gala with the talk show host.

One of the biggest worries that Wintour had was the seating arrangement, as she revealed that many of the starlets who attend the night every year often express their displeasure over who’ve they’ve been allocated to sit with.

The “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” theme of this year’s Met Gala has been widely discussed, with some critics denouncing it as “religious appropriation”.

However, Wintour assured Colbert that she hasn’t personally received any backlash in regard to the use of Catholic iconography throughout the exhibition and ensembles worn by the guests.

“We worked very closely with the Vatican through the whole process and Cardinal Dolan, as I believe you know was one of our guests of honour at the dinner,” Wintour told Colbert.

Cardinal Timothy Michael Dolan is currently the Archbishop of New York and previously served as the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Father James Martin, a Jesuit priest and editor-at-large of Jesuit magazine America, also advised on the exhibition and attended the Met Gala wearing his traditional vestment.

Wintour stated that Father Martin’s choice of clothing was her favourite male outfit of the night, as many guests mistakenly assumed that he had decided to dress as a “sexy priest” for the fashion extravaganza.

The magazine editor also praised “Pope Rihanna” for her attire, saying that she “nailed” her costume, and commended Amal Clooney for her red carpet dress, created by British designer Richard Quinn, and the stained glass-inspired Tom Ford dress that she wore later on in the evening.

The outfit worn by Lena Waithe, which Colbert described as a “political statement”, received rapturous applause from the talk show audience for its inclusion of the LGBT+ rainbow flag.

Wintour expressed her approval of Scarlett Johansson, who opted to wear a dress designed by fashion label Marchesa that was founded by Harvey Weinstein’s estranged wife Georgina Chapman.

“Georgina is a brilliant designer and I don’t think that she should be blamed for her husband’s behaviour,” Wintour said.

“I think it was a great gesture of support on Scarlett’s part to wear a dress like that, a beautiful dress like that, on such a public occasion.”

The “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” exhibition is now open at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

The exhibition is the grandest in the museum’s history, featuring hundreds of valuable Vatican artefacts and high fashion that’s taken inspiration from the Catholic church.

“The Catholic imagination’s had an amazing influence on costume for many centuries, and I think it was Andrew Bolton’s [curator of the exhibition] amazing vision to understand that this would create the extraordinary show that it has,” Wintour explained to Colbert.

“It’s not only about costume. It’s also about artefacts and art.

“It’s the biggest exhibition that we’ve ever put on, not only at the Costume Institute but also at the museum.

“It’s an extraordinary, massive exhibition of amazing beauty."