On the sweeping marble staircases of the Louvre’s Richelieu wing, Anna Dello Russo and Paris Jackson were among the guests posing for photographers. The pair were a study in contrasts, with the former decked out in a cascade of candy-pink tulle and the latter in a striking, witchy black cut-out gown by the Dutch couturier Iris van Herpen.
Celebrities, models and executives flocked to a lit-up Louvre after hours on Tuesday for the first “Grand Dîner du Louvre” gala, which raised a much-needed €1.4mn for the Paris institution — surpassing its €1mn fundraising target. Luxury brands including Chanel, Cartier, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana and Louis Vuitton all bought tables at €50,000 apiece, as did corporate patrons from outside the fashion industry, including Axa, Meta and Deloitte.
In January, a leaked letter from Louvre director Laurence des Cars to France’s culture minister Rachida Dati detailed the strain on the museum’s infrastructure and the poor conditions of its buildings, which des Cars wrote were reaching a “worrying level of obsolescence”, threatening the preservation of priceless works.
Within weeks, French President Emmanuel Macron announced a multiyear plan to renovate the world’s most visited museum. At the gala, however, any discussion of crumbling buildings was far from anyone’s thoughts as des Cars and Dati, in floor-length evening gowns, circulated among the guests and sponsors in the Cour Marly, where the dinner was held.
The gala, which coincided with the opening of Paris Fashion Week and is set to become an annual fixture on the circuit, showcased the Louvre’s first-ever fashion exhibition, Louvre Couture, with a dinner for 350 in the museum, followed by a larger after-party with rapper Doechii in the hall beneath the iconic glass pyramids.
Vogue’s Anna Wintour, signature shades in place, and dressed in a sleek long-sleeved white dress with floral motif, wandered through the exhibit as Kering deputy chief executive Francesca Bellettini and Stefano Cantino, the new chief executive of Kering’s embattled Gucci brand, moved to the cocktail party.
The event has drawn comparisons with New York’s annual Met Gala, which benefits the Metropolitan Museum of Art and since 1995 has been organised by Wintour and Vogue. It has become a huge fundraising draw, raising a record $26mn last year, and is one of the most coveted tickets in fashion and in Hollywood. Organisers in Paris were keen to downplay the parallel. “The comparison is very flattering, but it’s not at that level yet,” said one person involved.
“We are still the Louvre, we don’t need the Met to put on a gala even if we think very highly of them,” said the Louvre Couture exhibition’s curator and head of the objets d’art department, Olivier Gabet, pointing out that the museum has held an annual fundraiser for years that it is now revamping.
Some guests, however, thought such an ambition was laudable. “It’s a great thing if Paris gets its Met Gala! I’m completely in favour of it,” said French model Gabrielle Caunesil, dressed in elegant black Dior.
However, the ambition to capitalise on the glitz and glamour of fashion week was clearly on display. Models Gigi Hadid and Naomi Campbell, the latter in a dramatic hot pink coat, posed for pictures outside, while actors Dev Patel and Kelly Rutherford — the latter in draped white Vetements with sculptural shoulder pads — and designers Simon Porte Jacquemus and Christian Louboutin mingled with other guests. David and Victoria Beckham, Michelle Yeoh, DJ Peggy Gou and quintessential French It-girl Lou Doillon — wearing a white Gucci gown split all the way up the thigh — were also in attendance.
“It’s always a bit odd because you think all these famous people will know each other, but they often don’t,” said an attendee of both events, adding that guests were sometimes “a bit star-struck” by one another.
But even among the opulence, the reality of a deeply unsettled world filtered in, with some guests talking about their shock at the Trump administration’s radical moves to pause aid to Ukraine.
“It’s just awful and embarrassing,” said one American guest, while another speculated that a tariff war would trigger a rise in US inflation. “We’re looking day by day to see what happens and how to react,” said an executive at a French multinational. “A glass of champagne helps in these times.”
As midnight passed, the crowds started to disperse, making their way across the Louvre’s cobbled courtyards and out into the Paris night.
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