The First Monday in May movie review (2016)

After a slow-motion montage of celebrities in designer fashions on a red carpet, director Andrew Rossi's "The First Monday in May" addresses the debate about fashion's status as Art in the documentary's opening scenes. The movie's conclusion is: of course, fashion is Art, or at least that's what we're apparently expected to garner from the montage of intricately, ornately designed pieces from famous designers of the contemporary and modern eras.

Later, Rossi returns to the dispute in a bit more detail (mostly by juxtaposing interviews with fashion designers who are of opposing opinions on the subject), but by that point, it doesn't matter. The movie has answered the question for itself, and it has moved on to its real purpose: to offer an inside look at the creation of the Costume Institute's 2015 exhibit about fashions inspired by Chinese culture. Such exhibitions have become major public events, thanks to the star-attended gala on the day of the title that marks a Met fashion exhibit's opening. It's such an event that the date of the party joins Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day as the only four days on which the Met closes its doors to the general public.

The party is orchestrated by Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue who also serves on the Met's board of trustees (Additionally, her name is attached to the museum's Costume Institute). The creation of the exhibit is overseen by Andrew Bolton, the curator of the Costume Institute. Both possess an air of authority and wield a presumption of certainty that serve them well in their respective positions.

Wintour's reputation, of course, precedes her, on account of the book and the resulting film adaptation of "The Devil Wear Prada," which did not—to put it diplomatically—portray her fictional counterpart in a particularly flattering light. Obviously, the documentary gives Wintour and others an opportunity to address that reputation. The counterargument is reasonable enough: She is particular in what she wants and direct in how she states it, and if she were a man, no one would likely see a problem with her manner.

Bolton is as particular and direct as Wintour, although he's quieter about it. When film director Wong Kar-Wai, who has been hired as the artistic director of the exhibit, points out that placing a gallery focused on the Mao era in a room featuring statues of the Buddha would be offensive, Bolton argues that the publicity from such controversy might be worth it. Bolton is a man who "trust[s] his instincts," even in the face of dissent from people, such as Wong and the administration of the Met's Asian art department, who might know better than him.

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