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New York City, May 5 (EFE).- By Nora Quintanilla

Celebrity, power and art came together at Monday’s Met Gala that promised some controversy, given its sponsorship by magnate Jeff Bezos, but which ultimately unfolded smoothly with few public comments from the star guests.

While in previous weeks there had been calls for a boycott from an activist group that plastered New York with protest posters, the evening saw no sign of protest beyond one gatecrasher who tried to jump the security perimeter and was apprehended within seconds.

The evening’s theme, ‘Fashion is Art,’ however, offered a wide range of creative options for the nearly 400 guests, among whom were stars such as Beyoncé, Madonna and Blake Lively, tech moguls, and even members of royalty.

Most anticipated

Singer Beyoncé starred in one of the most anticipated moments, reappearing at the charity event after a decade alongside her eldest daughter, Blue Ivy, and her husband, Jay-Z, in a sheer and sparkly Olivier Rousteing silver skeleton dress, a crown and a long feathered train.

Madonna took the party’s dress code to heart, arriving on the red carpet with a performance, wearing a gothic ship on her head, dressed in a Saint Laurent black lace dress and holding a horn, surrounded by women wearing pastel satin and lace dresses holding her grey sheer cape.

Vogue reported her look was inspired by a 1945 Leonora Carrington painting ‘The Temptation Of St. Anthony. Fragment II.’

Another surprise was actress Blake Lively in a spectacular pastel Versace gown that draped the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met). She appeared after reaching an agreement to avoid going to court with Justin Baldoni, her former co-star and director of the film ‘It Ends With Us’.

Surprises and traditions

In terms of pure fashion, Olympian Eileen Gu’s bubble mini dress by Iris van Herpen stood out, as did Sarah Paulson’s dollar bill mask, Bad Bunny’s ‘old man’ prosthetics and costume, Katy Perry’s silver mirror and white mesh mask, and Doechii’s barefoot, turbaned Marc Jacobs wrap dress ensemble.

Others chose to pay homage to art more literally: actress Tessa Thompson wore an ultramarine blue dress with dripping-paint fingers in reference to Yves Klein’s signature color, while paintings by Matisse, Monet’s water lilies, and ‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa’ were all on display.

The gala kicked off again with a performance by Broadway actor Joshua Henry, who sang Whitney Houston’s ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)’ under the watchful eyes of fashion editor Anna Wintour, the mastermind behind the event, and Lauren Sánchez, Jeff Bezos’ wife and also a sponsor of the traditional gala.

The evening also ended as expected: with the press waiting for Rihanna, who arrived ‘fashionably late’ alongside her husband, A$AP Rocky, wearing a sculptural metallic long-sleeved top and wrapped in a brown shiny fabric that she said was inspired by her native Barbados and seashells.

Representatives of power

Among the guests were names including magnate Michael Bloomberg and children of magnates George Soros and Rupert Murdoch, as well as members of the Jaipur royal family, Maharaja Sawai Padmanabh Singh and Princess Gauravi Kumari.

The night brought together several of the biggest names in US technology, such as Evan Spiegel (Snapchat), but most avoided the press: Bezos, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri did not walk the red carpet. EFE

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