Calvin Klein had nothing to wear for this Monday’s Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum, after Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour declared men must dress in “white tie and decorations.”
So he enlisted Ralph Lauren to make him a custom white-tie look.
Klein told us exclusively that he, along with many men attending the gala, doesn’t own tails.
“My clothes are made to order in Italy generally, and I don’t wear tails. I usually wear tuxedo,” Klein said.
But Wintour is christening the Anna Wintour Costume Center at the Museum, thus the editrix’s decree for a formal affair. “I want to do the right thing for Anna, it’s a very special evening . . . so I wanted to do what she wants.”
Klein called his longtime pal Lauren, confessing his sartorial conundrum. “[Ralph] said, come to my office, right way,” and Klein went to Lauren’s studio Thursday afternoon for a fitting “with a small army of wonderful people.”
Klein told us: “It’s the first time I’d ever been to his offices. I’ve heard about those offices over the years, because they’re extraordinary.”
It is also the first time Klein has worn a Lauren suit. “I’ve always had tailor-made clothes. I have other things from Ralph . . . because that’s the fun of fashion. I wear my [brand of] underwear, but other people’s underwear, too.”