NEW YORK

Met Galas, he’s been to a few. But James Corden, chatting at this year’s cocktail party, looked around and said it might still be his favourite.

“Classic,” he explained. “It’s just very classy.”

The TV host waved his arm around the room, taking in the hundreds of guests who had followed the dress instructions – “golden glamour” – and came in the best Golden Age finery that they could gather. Elegant dresses, shimmering in gold. Classic black and white. Tailcoats and even top hats. Hairstyles and bustles and perhaps the accessory of the night: the tiara, sported by none other than Anna Wintour of Vogue, who leads the gala, wearing a family heirloom. Even allowing for creativity, it was no night for artfully ripped jeans.

Of course, take away a letter of “class” and you have “class,” with all the tricky implications of channeling an era that has seen excessive wealth creation and income inequality in the United States. Some guests struggled with that thought as they pondered the meaning of the evening. Others pointed out, accurately, that the gala funds the Met’s Costume Institute, enabling exhibits such as “In America: An Anthology of Fashion,” which opens this week and seeks to uncover unsung heroes and untold stories in the history of American fashion, especially women, and women of color.

Others said the night was an important way to show that New York was back strong, even with the pandemic still upon us. “We celebrate craftsmanship and we celebrate America,” said celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson, who again this year curated the night’s menu, choosing from a list of female chefs and taking the main course himself – a barbecue-style beef, it says, with corn and succotash. “We show that New York is back.”

Certainly, the New York florists were back, if they weren’t already. The question is whether there were any roses left in New York after Monday’s gala. The exterior steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art were lined with 50,000 in deep pink, with another 75,000 surrounding the centerpiece of the lobby. Another 150,000 roses bathed every square inch of the Grand Hall staircase – a striking backdrop for the host reception line.

Also striking: the giant centerpiece, this year the tallest it has ever been – a 50ft golden creation depicting the torch in Lady Liberty’s hand. (Museum officials said this year for the first time that the centerpiece will remain in place for another day, in public view).

As guests entered the red carpet, with crowds screaming outside, they walked past a 12-piece chamber orchestra that played American classics like “At Last” until dinner. After greeting Wintour and her celebrity guests (Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Regina King), guests strolled through the Arms and Armor Galleries toward the American Wing and the huge Charles Engelhard Courtyard. , where cocktails were served and curators built a walkway to access the exhibition in the period rooms.

Guests mostly avoid the exhibit for cocktails, but there was a decent flow of people in and out of the show, for which nine directors were tapped to create cinematic vignettes. It was, some of the directors said, a chance to engage in a different kind of storytelling.

“It was really fun,” said Tom Ford, not just a great fashion designer, but one of those nine directors. Ford, who was assigned a room housing a large circular painting of Versailles and its gardens, chose to dramatize the story of the Battle of Versailles – a famous night in American fashion in 1973, when clothing designers American sportswear showed off their French couture counterparts. Ford decided to stage a real conflict, involving weapons like fencing foils. “My 9-year-old watched a lot of ‘Mulan,'” he joked, when asked for his inspiration. “I better go see this now,” said actor and producer-director Mindy Kaling, who had chatted with Ford. “Yes!” he encouraged her and she left.

Inside the exhibit, meanwhile, director Autumn de Wilde (“Emma”) was showing her own work in the period rooms to a few friends. “This woman probably just lost the house with her game,” she said, pointing to a clearly distressed female mannequin next to an overturned card table. “I wanted to show how messy people’s lives are,” she said. “A beautiful house does not mean a beautiful life.”

At this moment, a real “Gilded Age” character entered – actress Denée Benton, who stars in the HBO series of the same name. She praised de Wilde for her work, and de Wilde told her she was “obsessed” with her show.

Benton may not have chosen to wear a Golden Age bustle, but Franklin Leonard did — two of them, in fact. Leonard, a film executive who helped curator Andrew Bolton choose the diverse slate of directors for the exhibit, said he was channeling Frederick Douglass into a coat that had not one bustle but two – on either side – one of the smartest looks of the night.

“I guess it’s a double hustle,” he said, crediting designer Ken Nicholson. Leonard, who was attending her first gala, said it was a surreal experience. “I, the captain of the Columbus, Georgia high school math team, never thought I’d be wearing a Frederick Douglass-inspired, double-shoulder strapless jacket at the Met Ball,” he said. “That wasn’t part of the plan.”

“Listen,” Leonard said, reflecting on the difficult balance between artistry and excess. “For all the excess, this is a fundraiser for the Costume Institute.” And it was said he was proud to have helped put together the roster of filmmakers for the show, which includes not only gala hosts Ford and King, but Radha Blank, Janicza Bravo, Sofia Coppola, Julie Dash, de Wilde and Chloé Zhao last year. Oscar winner. “They were the best group of filmmakers there,” he said.

Though many sipping cocktails and munching on coconut ceviche hors d’oeuvres were gala veterans — from actors like gala stalwart Sarah Jessica Parker to designers like Thom Browne — there was a number of beginners. One was Kieran Culkin — star of another excessive wealth series, “Succession” — who said he didn’t know what he thought of the gala yet because he hadn’t had time to only three things. “I tied my shoes,” he said. “I went to the men’s room, and now I ordered a Coke – a straight Coke. They put a lime in it. It’s usually not my thing. He went to see the exhibition.

For many gala newbies, the most surreal part is seeing such a concentration of famous people from all walks of life, where there is always someone more famous around the corner. Or when, as happened on Monday night, a fun band starts meandering through cocktails, with drums and a tuba and a guy leading it with a melodica, you look closer and the melodica guy is Jon Batiste, who just won five Grammys.

Another newbie, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, wasn’t even the only New York City Mayor in attendance — Michael Bloomberg was also in attendance.

Adams, who wore a tuxedo with the words “End Gun Violence” on the back and emblazoned with other symbols of the city he has ruled for several months, said he thought about the “very real” income inequality that stemmed from the Golden Age, as the city is now recovering from the pandemic.

Noting that the richest two percent of the city were represented in the room, he said his role was “to come among these New Yorkers and talk about the issues that the 98% of New Yorkers need and that are not in this room…. Not to divide us, but to unite us.

Adams also joked about a tabloid report that he’s been dying to come to the gala for years.

“They tried to get me to come for years,” he joked. “They wanted a mayor with swagger.”

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For more on AP’s Met Gala coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/met-gala