(from left) Sylvana Ward Durrett, Nathan Crowley, Mike Hearn, and Andrew Bolton prior to the China: Through the Looking Glass show.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures
The Tribeca Film Festival will open this Wednesday, April 13th, with the world premiere of The First Monday in May, a look at the annual Costume Institute gala and show helmed by Anna Wintour (watch trailer here). So yes, this is another movie about the Vogue editor at work—Wintour has masterminded these galas since 1995 raising so many millions for the Institute that they named it after her—but also focuses on the talented Andrew Bolton, now curator in charge, as he masterminds what turned out to be the best attended Costume Institute show in the Met’s history (roughly 816,000 visitors). Jane Rosenthal, co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival, says it is an honor “to pay tribute to a fellow New York cultural institution on our opening night.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures
Directed by Andrew Rossi (Page One: Inside The New York Times) for Magnolia Films, the documentary looks at the artistic challenges that went into pulling off this mega show, called, ”China: Through the Looking Glass,” which highlighted Chinese-inspired Western fashion. A Costume Institute show tries to be about more than the clothes, aiming to them in cultural context, while advancing the conversation between fashion, fine art and pop culture. Rossi said that since the movie is deeply rooted in New York’s creative world “to launch at a festival that came into life in order to support that culture is very meaningful.”
But the movie isn’t just about curation, it’s also captures the mash-up of high fashion and celebrity at the Met gala which kicks off the show’s opening, an event that has turned out to be one the biggest extravaganzas in the global fashion industry.The movie also features a cast of renowned artists, including filmmaker Wong Kar Wai and fashion designers Karl Lagerfeld, Jean Paul Gaultier, John Galliano, Ricardo Tisci and industry figures like Andree Leon Talley.
The movie will be released in theaters on April 15th. A perfect antidote to Tax Day!
