The Met's American Woman Gala Lures the Glitterati Out En Masse

The Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute benefit was all about stateside roots this year, celebrating as it did the opening of American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity. Proceedings inside had a turn-of-the-century feel, with wicker chairs at the dinner tables and a hot-air balloon inspired by one from the 1893 Chicago World's Fair looming over the Great Hall.