The Met Ball

via Vogue.com

Last night was the Met Ball, officially a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and unofficially the Oscars/Prom of the fashion world, with Vogue's Anna Wintour at the center of it all.  It's an interesting mix of fashion, art, sports, and Hollywood people, all done up like nobody's business.  Here's a rundown of some of the highs and lows of the evening.

Dress I would have wanted to be wearing should I have been invited:

Camilla Belle in Ralph Lauren

Best Newlywed Glow:

Carey Mulligan in Prada (this is too much for just about anywhere but the Met Ball, but she's rocking it.  Congratulations on your wedding, Carey and Mumford and Sons band fellow!)

Best Not Newlyweds but who still look like they genuinely like each other a LOT:

Emily Blunt in Calvin Klein and John Krasinski

image via Vogue

NEEDS SANDWICHES:

Rachel Zoe in her own design

Needs a slip:

Beyonce in Givenchy.  You look great after the baby.  WE KNOW, B.  (Although hey, I think she could walk up the steps this year, unlike last year!)

Needs a full-time train wrangler, but looked awesome (I read that she did in fact have a train wrangler, and that guy needs to start renting himself out for weddings, because he does excellent work):

Nina Dobrev in Donna Karan Atelier

Needed to work out a lot to be strong enough to carry this much skirt around all night and make it look so effortless:

Leslie Bibb in Zac Posen

Might need to tone down the pelvic thrust pose before she throws her back out:

Amber Heard in Zac Posen

Best background cameo:

Michael Kors, gazing lovingly at either his dress, Jessica Alba, or Jessica Alba in his dress

via Tom and Lorenzo

Honorable Mention for best background cameo, because her facial expression is hilarious and makes her seem more like a regular gal:

Brooklyn Decker (in blue behind Rashida Jones)

Absolutely Stunning Person who I would most not want to have making a background cameo in my picture:

Rosie Huntington-Whitely (better luck next time, Lea Michele)

Most bizarrely distracting background cameo:

Christina Ricci and her enormous bow (sorry Dianna Agron.  Apparently they aren't teaching these Glee starlets about guerrilla red carpet tactics).

Three really, really beautiful looks:

Katherine McPhee in Elie Saab

Solange Knowles (honorable mention to Rachel Roy, who also looked fabulous and designed Solange's dress, and deserves a shout out because Solange has a history of going out in some pretty crazy garb)

Jessica Pare in L'Wren Scott

Best Deployment of Cape

Bianca Brandolini D'Adda (seriously: in the cape-off between her and Lana del Ray, Lana looks like she's a member of the Volturi.  While possibly requiring sunglasses to look directly at it, this is amazing)

via Vogue

Three outfits that left me scratching my head:

Kirsten Dunst in Rodarte ("...and at tonight's performance, the role of Amelia Earhart will be played by Mrs. Claus.")

Cameron Diaz.  Does this have some sort of...bottom sling?

via hellomagazine.com

Mary Kate Olson.  Huh?

Three outfits that are just spectacularly wackadoodle, but hey, it's the Met Ball and this is where one wears such things, and these ladies just look so happy that I'm happy for them:

Florence Welch in Alexander McQueen.  If this outfit exists, and you are Florence Welch, aren't you contractually required to wear this to the Met Ball?

via Vogue

Karolina Kurkova in Rachel Zoe.  This is a gold sequin gown with a matching gold turban.  She is somehow making it work.  I suppose this is what being a supermodel is all about.

Coco Rocha, who bought this outfit at an auction of Elizabeth Taylor's things, and come on, how can one argue with that?  The matching pink hair is somehow working.  Somewhere, Liz is proud.  And probably saying "Sweetie, you need the BIG diamonds with this outfit."  And here, Coco is happy, and that's awesome.

And finally, three spectacularly funny pieces of commentary from others that I've read today and that are too good not to share:


Habitually Chic on Tom and Gisele: "It's like looking into the sun."

The Fug Girls' Twitter on Gwyneth: "Gywnnie here looks like she’s 'going to the gyno…in space.'"

Tom and Lorenzo on Mara Rooney: "Only the Audreybot could make granny panties actually look chic."


(All photos, unless otherwise credited, are from nymag.com)