What is everyone talking about this week: Does Britain need its own Met Gala?
Will Hosie questions what form the British Museum's upcoming fundraising gala should take.


Tomorrow (Saturday, October 18) George Osborne and Dr Nicholas Cullinan will welcome the great and the good to the British Museum for a party.
The 800-person jamboree and silent auction— tickets at £2,000 apiece — is being billed as London’s answer to the Met Gala, the annual fundraiser for the New York Costume Institute in the USA and reigning champion of red-carpet events. Appearances from Naomi Campbell, Dame Kristin Scott Thomas and Sir Grayson Perry are confirmed. Whether the party has the same impact as the Met’s remains to be seen.
The ball comes at an interesting time for the capital, with London Fashion Week, Frieze and the BFI festival recently prompting the city’s leading voices to defend its merit as a cultural powerhouse. Laura Weir, chair of the British Fashion Council, and Tristram Hunt, director of the V&A Museum, told different news outlets that London was ‘still’ a Mecca for movers and shakers, a place that truly ‘matters’ and where shows of creativity are ‘more important than ever’.
All this is true, of course, although banging on about it sends quite the wrong message. The British Museum, for its part, has an unfortunate habit of landing in hot water. The 2023 announcement that roughly 2,000 artefacts had been stolen, coupled with ongoing debate around the repatriation of the Elgin Marbles and a cosy relationship with BP, has cast a shadow over its once-lofty reputation. Now, the museum has announced that it needs £1 billion to redevelop its entrances, build a new storage facility and improve the management of its permanent collection. Could a party be just the ticket?
Britain does not share America’s affection for patronage and philanthropy, but it should. Relying on government funding at a time of economic uncertainty is futile and, as demonstrated even in countries as sinistral as France, donations by the wealthy in exchange for clout and the renaming of a gallery wing go a long way. The British Museum Ball is a fundraiser, but also a strategic event, a show of soft power amid a culture that seems intent on telling everyone how great Britain is. Let’s show them instead.
As ever with such an event, a larger question looms over the capital’s relationship to the rest of the country. In the Met Gala’s case — buoyed by the unbound nature of the internet — the party has grown far beyond the city it immediately serves. Raising funds for the Costume Institute is one thing, but, for the brands dressing the stars who attend, the value generated through media exposure runs into the billions. American labels, such as Thom Browne and Marc Jacobs, consistently rank among the top choices for guests. There is hope that Burberry, JW Anderson, Vivienne Westwood and others could replicate this success over here in the long term. Party on.
Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.
Will Hosie is Country Life's Lifestyle Editor and a contributor to A Rabbit's Foot and Semaine. He also edits the Substack @gauchemagazine. He not so secretly thinks Stanely Tucci should've won an Oscar for his role in The Devil Wears Prada.
-
An extraordinary Italian palazzo built in the heart of Oxfordshire is up for sale at £16 million
The Palazzo Pallavicini in Genoa inspired the creation of Newington House, which is on the market for the first time in 35 years.
-
A bum deal on a bog-standard property? The former public conveniences being sold off for a song
London has several affordable properties with enviable postcodes and great lighting... so long as you're happy spending more than a penny on a Victorian loo.
-
Five émigré artists who greatly enriched Britain's intellectual and creative scenes
Frieze Masters kicks off this week and several contributing galleries are using it to shine a spotlight on the artistic contribution of émigrés past and present.
-
Vested interest: The history of the waistcoat
Favoured by Byronic bluesmen, Eton pops and rotund royalty, the waistcoat and its later iterations are an integral part of the Englishman’s wardrobe, says Simon Mills.
-
Nine of Britain's most beautiful and awe-inspiring painted ceilings from the Country Life archive
Our round-up of some of the Britain's prettiest painted ceilings is a good reminder to always look up.
-
The Glovebox: The fastest coffee shop on four wheels
Bentley joins forces with Joe & The Juice, Rolls-Royce makes a Spectre for a dog, an Austin Mini with royal connections comes up for auctions, and Norman Foster clambers into a Bulldog.
-
‘One remembers not to give the Queen a thump of joyful friendliness’: Remembering Norman Parkinson — revolutionary fashion photographer and Cecil Beaton’s only homegrown rival
Cecil Beaton might be the toast of London right now, with a new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, but contemporary Norman Parkinson was always hot on his heels.
-
Tim Knox, director of the Royal Collection, charts a century of regal taste
Edward VII swept away the cobwebs of mid-Victorian style, Queen Mary had passion for all things small and the Queen Mother bought rather avant-garde art.
-
‘One of the most amazing spaces in London’: Two Hogarth murals, inside an 18th century London hospital, are to go on public display for the first time
St Bartholomew's Hospital’s north wing is to open as a visitor attraction and events space — while the rest of the hospital will continue to operate as normal.
-
Sophia Money-Coutts: A snob's guide to wellies
Wellington boots are a signifier, says Sophia Money-Coutts, of whether you are 'proper country' or not.