Like we've had some very abstract themes where you're like, how do you interpret that?

Like it's like singing a song like either you're an interpreter or you're not hello vogue.

It's Sarah, Jessica parker.

We're taking a little walk down memory lane through some of my met gala looks.

Shall we open the book?

Okay.

Ah yes.

I don't know who put that wine glass in my hand, but I did not drink white wine in 1995 at all.

And if I if I had that, I guarantee you when I left, it was still that full.

This dress is a little bit mysterious and my, my guess is that this was a dress from a thrift store which then I had tailored and clearly did my own hair and makeup.

I would never have gone alone.

Like I would have been way too scared.

Too nervous.

I think I didn't know enough.

And therefore I went like I've had, I known more.

I probably would have found a way regretfully decline your kind invitation.

It's much more pageantry now than it was then.

I mean, it's aimed was the same right, which is to bring attention to this particular part of that museum and obviously raised funds.

Much needed.

But it was a far more, it was a quieter affair simply put when I was invited and told the theme I said out loud, I really wish I could go with we call him lee.

I wish I could go with lee, I wish I could go with the Queen.

A bunch of things came to mind like a no, he would just, he would say no, he would.

He's already been asked, he's called for, he's obliged and I didn't really know him well enough to be so presumptuous.

I like summoned the courage or whatever was needed.

And I reached out and I asked would he consider attending like with me?

Meeting more so me with him.

Like would he, could I be with him that night?

And he said yes.

But what strikes me most about this photograph now?

You can see where his shoulder ends and I begin and like there's like overlap there.

I guess I've seen the picture a bunch of times and I know what this is and I know what it took to, you know, for him to make this and how much he cared and all the details and everything like everything.

But what strikes me about this photograph is like where our heads are and like how careful I'm being more cautious or the shire he was the more shy I became and like I see that in this and like I'm being very careful of him.

Like I feel like I'm literally saying like, are you okay?

Like it wasn't a fun night.

Like it was, but it wasn't because I was so nervous.

I just wanted him to be okay.

He knew how I felt about him and there was like so much affection and such a deep admiration and like everybody loved him because he was such a touching person.

Like he was a very touching person and you were kind of in love with him and I think I was just like, like everybody else, like I was in love with him.

I have every pin he dropped from his mouth in my possession.

Still, I have everything he cut off in my possession.

Still, I have things that seem like nothing from every fitting I ever did with him I have in my possession.

Halston was so, so american and internationally so american.

Like when he traveled and did those amazing shows the whole time I worked at Halston, he was you know, ever present.

That's all I thought about.

All I ever think about is the theme and influence.

Whenever I go to the met, I don't understand how everyone else didn't spend 7 to 10 months working on it.

Like I'm like how did you, how do you not arrive exhausted?

Like by the details of like getting it right.

All these people came together and worked really, really hard to put together an extraordinary exhibit and it all is like academic and historical and then it's fashion and then it's this and it is an assignment and you should interpret it and it should be labor intensive and it should be challenging and it would be so easy to find a beautiful dress to wear that night.

Like that would be a great relief and like going on vacation.

But that is not the assignment.

The assignment is the theme and sometimes the theme eludes you.

Like you could spend days and I have had conversations with the list and other people like what does this theme mean?

Like we've had some very abstract themes where you're like, how do you interpret that?

Like, it's like singing a song like either you're an interpreter or you're not.

I mean this was easier because it was like America oh well Halston and a certain silhouette was super american and super Halston.

So that was fun in the seventies.

You know, very seventies, late seventies.

I just love this dress.

This dress is not something I normally wear because this collar is very high.

It reminded me a lot in a way of like lee Radziwill and this dress reminded me a little bit of Valentino in the sixties.

Like I had it touched on stuff and um I really loved it.

Not very much like me so much, but it was McQueen and I, you know, wanted that.

It's like a minty coloured shoe which also felt very 60s.

There was so much thought about his contributions and you know, his singular approach to his work and you know, his draping skills, his cutting like all the things that he did in his own way that made him so extraordinary.

This is Valentino.

I loved, I loved this dress, I loved this whole collection that I remember and this dress is substantial.

Like you can't tell, but this is like, I think it's taffeta.

Um absolutely beautiful fabric, beautifully made as everything that Valentino is was and is and I thought it was very spot on to have shoes in the same fabric which we also have an archive that was so comfortable, it was so easy.

You know, it was like going out with friends.

It didn't have as much weight around it and on it, it's always about the exterior.

The only thing that makes it me is that I thought about it.

You know the way my brain interpreted it?

But everything else is really about the night and not about me.

Um I should not pick favorites and I'm not gonna say that it's my favorite, but it's pretty close.

I wish you could see all the parts and pieces, the boots, the slit the back of the hair, the back of the head piece, the close up of the the work that's on the fabric of the dress.

And then when I talked to Phillip because I always talked to him, he knew the theme and I will see what it is and he needs time.

We were afraid of the height, We didn't know the height, We weren't afraid of it.

We were like, what's that gonna be for sure.

And it didn't arrive until like pretty late.

And then we got we got it and then surge got it on my head the day before which was super helpful because we were like oh that's the proportion, okay now we know what we have to do.

I went with Hamish and I had to sit on the floor to get to the met because the headpiece did not fit if I sat in a seat you always worked really hard.

Sometimes it comes together in surprising ways, sometimes it's exactly as you planned.

Sometimes it's better sometimes you fall short for any number of reasons.

And this was just one of those things that it just all arrived at the same time and did everybody did their everybody did their job, super sentimental obviously and that by the way this hair might as well be a headpiece.

We knew we wanted Mr de la renta to do this.

This idea came up because of the underpinnings of Charles James, it's like this lattice is more about the boning of the underpinnings.

So then we went to Mr Taylor renta and this came together as it does.

And I asked Mr de la renta, can I please have your name in scarlet on the back of this dress And no no no no no no no no I can't I can't I can't, I can't.

And we we pushed like we pushed inside the like we were just like who there is going to get him to say yes to this idea and I knew I wanted it in scarlet or poppy this like, well it's true scarlet silk thread, he did it.

And then people told us afterwards like he was so happy to be talked into it.

Like he would never have said yes on his own because that would have been so immodest of him.

But this was his last stress to my knowledge that he ever built.

This was his last public piece.

And the fact that it said his name big.

That's that famous signature of his that we blew it up and I was like no bigger, bigger.

Let's go bigger.

Like they were sending us like this big, I was like, no, they were like this big and I was like no, like this big and we blew it up proportionately the way that you could, you could feel it like, you know.

Um, so I loved it.

And I think that's a gardenia in my hair, which I thought was very right for the period.

Sorry, did I skip one?

Oh, we designed this ourselves Philip did the headpiece.

Um, Lars nord built this whole thing.

We did it together.

We did, you know those poppies took a bunch of stuff from inspiration and research etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

These shoes, we did SJP collection did these boots, the headpiece had gone through, It had traveled from the UK and it had arrived in customs.

We knew that it had arrived, but yet wasn't in our possession and it was sunday.

There was no like we had no assurance that this whole, this headpiece was going to be in our hands by monday and there'd be no point in going to the met frankly.

Honestly, like I probably would have not gone or surge would have had to make a headpiece from hair.

And so Alyssa was like, who cannot take no for an answer.

It doesn't matter the obstacle in front of her.

She's like, then I guess I will have to scoop up the ocean, move it to the side for a minute.

Um, and so she went to JFK and just demanded, like she just said, I'm not leaving here without that headpiece.

But you know, it's the met gala.

So if it's not soup to nuts, if it's not stem to stern, then it's like you're like off balance, you can't come that far and then remove a piece like it's all balanced.

It's a, it's a physics game at that point.

Mm hmm.

Of course Hambleton had just opened And we were all like, we all were looking at the Hambleton costumes, we had this artist print stuff that really spoke to the theme of like machinery and hand coming together and that kind of work and that kind of skill.

And so I feel like you're not seeing it here.

I love those shoes.

I love that we did these two different things.

These are, these are my own broaches on the front of the shoes.

This is a shoe a satin we called Hambleton.

I'm not good at like, hey lin Manuel look at me, recognize anything familiar about what I'm wearing.

Did you know my shoe the satin?

We're calling Hamilton's Like he already knew my feelings about the show which weren't different than anybody else's.

Like we were all like hypnotized, hypnotized Dolce Gabbana.

I mean that had peace was unbelievable and it weighed like mm hmm That it was like this.

It was no heavier than this.

Very italian.

You know, marching through Naples with that on your head Not uncommon.

This dress, the whole thing was like amazing.

And once again you put on a dress, that dress and you're like, I'll see you guys later.

Certain things when they're well made and tailored and you just do it.

You get in the car and you're like, okay, I have to scooch down, scooch down to the ground.

But you're going to the met.

You don't mean like it's not taxing the downside to that is you will be alone until 234 in the morning.

Getting everything out like you could be because you're by yourself.

Like sometimes my husband isn't awake and I don't feel like it's his responsibility.

So I am alone so often.

Like pin pin like trying to, but this didn't have a lot of pins and it was pretty easy.

Yeah.

Okay.

Mhm With gratitude for countless happy, bittersweet, joyful and privileged memories the other way.

And those were my, my met looks.

Take it or leave it, Yes.

Mhm, mm hmm, mm hmm.