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5 things you should know about The First Monday in May

The trailer is finally out

5 things you should know about The First Monday in May The trailer is finally out

After the great success of The September Issue, American Vogue's Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour will be again on the big screen with a new documentary: The First Monday in May, directed by Andrew Rossi.

The film, that will be presented on April 13 during Tribeca Film Festival in New York, brings us backstage at the Met Ball, the annual event that, as André Leon Talley says in the trailer, is "the Super Bowl of social fashion events”. In particular, the documentary follows Anna Wintour, Vogue and the Metropolitan Museum of Art teams during the organisation of the launch party of last year's exhibition, China: Through the Looking Glass. 

In the trailer we can see some celebs who have taken part in the glamorous event, including Justin Bieber, Sarah Jessica Parker, Anna Hathaway, Cher, Robert Pattinson with his partner FKA Twigs and the most talked about, Rihanna. Karl Lagerfeld and Jean paul Gaultier also appear while discussing about the union between fashion and art. But, above all, the main protagonist is Anna Wintour, who controls every single detail of the organisation, flawless and determined as we have always seen her.

From the trailer we can get some interesting curiosities about the documentary. Here are five of them:

 

#1 How much does Rihanna cost?

The pop star seems to ask for a huge budget to take part in the event, not including the costs for her look, makeup, hairstyling and assistants.

 

#2 The way dresses are treated

Being a Haute Couture exhibition inside a museum, dresses are treated like works of art. If you have never had the opportunity to see the organisation behind a fashion event, the trailer make us understand the careful work that dresses like those need. 

 

#3 Anna Wintour's diet

The fact that Anna Wintour could be an habitué of Chinese restaurants emerges from the trailer, even if she seems not to appreciate their interior design - we can hear her saying “It’s going to look like a Chinese restaurant”, scornfully.

 

#4 Who is chided by Anna Wintour?

In the trailer Anna Wintour is complaining with her assistant about a mysterious guest who will probably spend the night on his cellphone: “Well, he’d better not be on his cellphone all night”. Who is she talking about? Will we found it out?

 

#5 Cultural appropriation accusations

Andrew Bolton, Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Istitute's curator, states: “There’s a lot of political hurdles. Some of the topics that the exhibition is addressing could be interpreted as being racist”, anticipating that the issue may be faced in the documentary. In fact, if someone doesn't know it, the first name of exhibition should have been “Chinese Whispers: Tales of the East in Art, Film and Fashion”, then changed into “China: Through the Looking Glass”. Was Bolton the one who changed the exhibition's title?