GALA FORCE

A triply fashionable wind is blowing through the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute

LAURA JACOBS

Arts

Haute couture is on a sugar rush. Pop culture is I suddenly hugging the old-world art form to its pink candy heart, young designers are romancing I the eternal techniques, and this month the Costume Institute at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art delivers a great big box of bonbons: the always extravagant December exhibition celebrates "Haute Couture" with a world-class collection of design confections, catalysts, and classics.

As for the annual gala benefit, a classic in its own right that goes hand in glove with the December opening, this year's chairmanship is shared by three formidable fashionites: Vogue editor Anna Wintour, style icon Annette de la Renta (wife of Oscar), and Venezuelan Valkyrie Clarissa Bronfman (wife of Edgar junior). It's not one of those lend-a-name affairs, either. Pat Buckley stage-managed the party for an impressive 17 years; when she bid the gig farewell, Wintour was approached. She invited de la Renta and Bronfman to share the responsibilities because they are "friends!" she says. "I was very keen to make sure that all involved knew and loved fashion." Add to this glossy troika honorary chairmen Karl Lagerfeld and Gianni Versace, who have underwritten both exhibition and party, and the glam quotient climbs haute heights. So what about that bottom-line bell that keeps tolling the end of H.C.? "Couture is very much alive," reassures Wintour. "And the Met's Costume Institute is so vital, we really wanted to bring attention to it. In fact, the dinner was totally sold out before we even mailed the invitations."