The Met Gala was last night — shouts to the Carter family of Jay-Z, Beyoncé and Blue Ivy for a late and feathery arrival. “I cannot properly convey the decibel level in this tent — there are limits to the English language,” our Callie Holtermann reported from the red carpet when they arrived. To start today, we’re going to hear from Stella Bugbee, our Styles editor, about some of the best looks from fashion’s biggest night. Stella?
Night at the MuseumApril showers bring May galas! Yes, it’s that time of year again where we gather to watch the spectacle of the Costume Institute’s annual party — a parade of opulence and sartorial invention displayed on some of the world’s most famous people. And this year’s Met Gala was one for the ages! For starters, Beyoncé came. She hasn’t appeared at a Met Gala in a decade, and this year she hosted it. The big surprise was not her jeweled exoskeleton by Olivier Rousteing — after her absence, it would have been enough for her to show up in a potato sack — but that she was accompanied by her daughter. Minors do not typically attend, so it was exciting (even a little transgressive?) to see Blue Ivy Carter’s entrance. For another, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, and his wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos, provided the main source of funding for the exhibition and the party itself. The activist group Everyone Hates Elon called for a boycott, and posters appeared in New York City saying that the gala was “brought to you by worker exploitation.” Mayor Zohran Mamdani skipped the ball to celebrate New York City garment workers. Yet the show went on. The dress code for the evening was “Fashion Is Art,” a theme that matches with the spring show, “Costume Art,” which makes the case that fashion connects every other gallery in the museum. Very meta! Paintings, sculptures, artifacts and photographs from across the museum have been paired with garments that relate to those works in an exhibition that will delight fashion and art nerds equally. Individual tickets are a whopping $100,000 — $25,000 more than last year. The event has already broken last year’s $31 million record haul, bringing in a reported $42 million this year. Here are some of the most notable looks: Eileen Gu
A dress for making wonder? This one, by Iris van Herpen, was constructed of 15,000 glass balls. A tiny spout hid a machine that spewed bubbles, surrounding Gu in an ethereal cloud. Doechii
For a star who truly understands the impact of fashion, there was more fabric on the top of her head than on the rest of her body. Even her feet were bare! Connor Storrie
Yves Saint Laurent was an official sponsor of this year’s gala. Storrie’s high-necked shirt with his exposed shoulders stood out among the many stars who wore the brand on the cobblestone carpet — a supremely confident display of androgynous formal wear. Naomi Osaka
Osaka’s Robert Wun dress mimics stigmata — the little red feathers reference spurts of blood. It’s a radical statement, but blink and you might miss it. (There’s a similar piece in the exhibit, if you happen to make it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.) Heidi Klum
I love a woman who commits to the bit, and nobody on earth goes harder on a costume than Klum. She was, perhaps, the celebrity who took the “Fashion Is Art” theme most to heart, dressing as a marble statue. Sign up to receive The Fashions, our newsletter on high and low styles. Back to you, Sam.
The first Monday in May is often a special day at The New York Times. That’s when Columbia University announces the Pulitzer Prizes — basically, the Oscars of journalism. I’ve attended the accompanying newsroom celebration for almost 25 years, and it never gets old. It’s a moving couple hours of applause, reflection, thanks-giving and joy. Winning journalists bring their family members — long-suffering spouses, parents, children — and editors beam while they describe the way the winning work came together. Nobody in this profession does that work for prizes, of course, but recognition is pretty cool. (The Times has taken home 148 Pulitzers since 1918.) The Times and The Athletic, its sister sports publication, won four Pulitzer Prizes yesterday. (We’ve taken down the paywall for the links in this section, and the articles are all free to read.)
It wasn’t just us, of course. The prize for public service, considered the most prestigious of the Pulitzers, went to The Washington Post for covering the purge of government workers and the closure of government agencies last year. (Times reporters were also finalists for their coverage of immigration, U.S. humanitarian aid, child sex trafficking in Los Angeles, medical treatment for transgender children and drone warfare in Ukraine.) I also loved this series from The Connecticut Mirror and ProPublica about how car-towing companies were overcharging residents. It won for local reporting. Please subscribe to your local news outlets. Their work, covering communities and holding local leaders to account, is endangered. And it really is about the work, even on Pulitzer day. I’ll never forget the awards in 2013. I was the national editor, watching the speeches in the newsroom while sitting next to Kit Seelye, then the Boston bureau chief. Phones started chirping as news of the Boston Marathon bombings broke. John Eligon, one of our reporters, had just run the race. He grabbed a notebook and started reporting as Kit high-tailed it for the train. The next year, our photographer Josh Haner won a Pulitzer for his images documenting the painful, long-term recovery of one of the victims in the attack. Here’s a list of all this year’s winners, including those for fiction, nonfiction, poetry and music.
Politics
Primary Day
Around the World
The Republican Party is in trouble if “normie” members — neither MAGA die-hards nor Never Trumpers — sit out the midterms, Kristen Soltis Anderson writes. Here are columns by Thomas Edsall on how Trump feels about losing and Michelle Goldberg on “The Devil Wears Prada 2.” The Times Sale ends soon: Expand your knowledge with our experts. Take advantage of our best offer and gain understanding and insight in every area of life. Just $1 a week for your first year of unlimited access to news, culture, cooking and more.
A.I. drama: Until recently, making the kind of short-form, soapy shows popular in China meant hiring actors, renting sets and spending weeks filming and editing. Now it can be done with no cameras, no crew and no human performers. Getting out: The Watson family were dairy farmers in Pennsylvania for generations until this spring, when they could no longer make the math add up. Your pick: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about “zombie homes” — properties where no one lives, but aren’t for sale.
5,651— That is how many Yankees games the radio play-by-play announcer John Sterling called over a more than 30-year career that ended in 2024. The “Voice of the Yankees” died yesterday. He was 87.
M.L.B.: The Padres closer Mason Miller went 35 games without giving up a run. Jayson Stark says it’s a dominant pitching streak unlike any other in M.L.B. history, and he has the stats to back it up. Snooker: The World Championship of snooker, a cue-ball sport similar to billiards, has been drawing lots of headlines.
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