Movie Review- The First Monday in May (2016)

Today is the first Monday in May 2021 and, prior to the pandemic, this means it would be the day the Met Gala would take place. This year, the gala will take place in September, but there would still be an exhibition in the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of the Arts.

Recently, while browsing YouTube movies for movies I can watch with ads, I found The First Monday in May. I already watched it before (And own a DVD copy of it) but I always celebrate the Met Gala this time of the year by watching it.

The movie is a documentary that shows the behind the scenes work to put on the 2015 Met Gala and a coordinating exhibition. The Met Gala is a well known party that is a fundraiser for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of the Arts. The gala in 2015 would accompany the opening of the Costume Institute’s blockbuster exhibition China: Through the Looking Glass. In addition to showing what goes into putting the Met Gala and the exhibition together, the documentary also follows Anna Wintour, editor in chief of Vogue magazine, and Andrew Bolton, the Associate Curator of the Costume Institute, as they work on the Met Gala and the exhibition.

The First Monday in May is one of my favorite fashion documentaries to watch. I think it’s interesting and very educational. Although I enjoy watching the documentary a lot, the part I find most interesting deals with the exhibition. The 2015 exhibition was a controversial one due concerns associated with how the Chinese people and Chinese art would be portrayed. In addition to this, the exhibition pieces as well as Asian, specifically Chinese, cultures and art discussed. The documentary concludes by showing the 2015 Met Gala, the exhibition, and showed the fashions from the red carpet.

I highly recommend this documentary to anyone curious about the Met Gala, what goes into creating the yearly Costume Institute blockbuster exhibition, and anyone who loves fashion but would like to learn more about the museum exhibitions focusing on fashion.

Well, that’s all for now! Thank you for reading!