NEW YORK, NY.- For the first time in its history, red carpet arrivals at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s renowned Costume Institute Benefit will be live-streamed online Monday, May 7, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., on the Vogue, Amazon.com/Fashion, and Metropolitan Museum websites. Hosted by Vogue’s William Norwich and Elettra Wiedemann, the broadcast will include interviews with the gala co-chairs, including Carey Mulligan, Miuccia Prada, and Anna Wintour, as well as celebrities from the worlds of fashion, film, society, sports, art, business, and music. Special pre-taped segments will be shown on the history of the benefit and on this year’s corresponding exhibition Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations.

The hosts will ask attending celebrities five additional questions chosen from viewer submissions on Twitter (#MetQuestions) during the streaming. Also, Norwich and Wiedemann will give an inside perspective on preparing for the gala that day on the Celebs on Facebook page, www.facebook.com/celebs. Subscribe to their Timelines (facebook.com/elettra.wiedemann and facebook.com/william.norwich), and Like the Celebs on Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/celebs).

The live stream will be available on www.metmuseum.org/metgala, along with information about the exhibition including images, videos of the galleries, and curators’ commentary. Amazon.com/Fashion will also carry the live stream as will Vogue (vogue.com/videos/live-from-the-mets-2012-costume-institute-gala-red-carpet/), which will also feature the first look inside the benefit, including a video of the musical performance.

The streaming of the event is a collaboration between The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Amazon, and Vogue. The project is generously funded by Amazon, produced by Vogue, and powered by Livestream.


The exhibition, Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations, on view May 10–August 19, will explore the striking affinities between Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada, Italian designers from different eras. Inspired by Miguel Covarrubias’s “Impossible Interviews” for Vanity Fair in the 1930s, curators Harold Koda and Andrew Bolton will create conversations between these iconic women to suggest new readings of their most innovative work. Approximately 90 signature objects and 30 accessories by Schiaparelli from the late 1920s to the early 1950s, and Prada from the late 1980s to the present, will be compared and contrasted to explore the extraordinary impact of their aesthetics and sensibilities on contemporary notions of fashionability. In the galleries, iconic ensembles by Schiaparelli and Prada will be presented with videos of simulated conversations between the two designers focusing on how both women explore similar themes in their work through very different approaches.

Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon.com, serves as Honorary Chair of the benefit. Co-Chairs are actress Carey Mulligan, designer Miuccia Prada, and Anna Wintour, Editor-in-Chief of Vogue. The benefit is a fundraising event and the main source of annual funding for exhibitions, operations, and capital improvements for The Costume Institute.