The First Monday in May

In 2015, in the presence of a cavalcade of celebrities attending the Met Gala, curator Andrew Bolton opened ,a new fashion exhibition organized by the Costume Institute of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. The galleries are crammed with ornamental creations that illustrate Asia’s influence on Western haute couture. The French fashion icon Jean Paul Gaultier explains how he was inspired by the colorful costumes in the 2000 Chinese film . Its director Wong Kar-Wai is appointed artistic director of the exhibition and works closely with Bolton and the gala organizer Anna Wintour, chief editor of . Film director Baz Luhrmann is in charge of decorating the event. In the run-up to the opening, director Andrew Rossi follows them all, even gaining access to Wintour’s private quarters. The exhilarating but exhausting preparations expose the gulfs and common ground between cultures: between East and West, and between art and fashion.