On Monday evening, Hollywood’s brightest stars will don their most dramatic, their strangest and their most avant-garde looks for the Met Gala, the annual fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. Getups in recent years have drawn inspiration from flappers and figure skaters, brides and birds. But in 1960, when the ball was held in the museum’s Great Hall for the first time, guests did not appear to be competing for any weirdest-dressed lists. Pearls, fur and big skirts ruled the evening as guests danced, LIFE wrote, “beneath the gaze of an Egyptian sphinx … and under medieval gonfalons.”
Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk.
Caption from LIFE. The first ball at the Met's Great Hall.Walter Sanders—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesGuests dance at the Metropolitan Museum Fashion Ball, 1960.Walter Sanders—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesGuests dance at the Metropolitan Museum Fashion Ball, 1960.Walter Sanders—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesLadies take a break at the Met Fashion Ball, 1960.Walter Sanders—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesGuests at the Metropolitan Museum Fashion Ball, 1960.Walter Sanders—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesGuests dance in front of a statue of Aphrodite at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1960.Walter Sanders—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesGuests at the Metropolitan Museum Fashion Ball, 1960.Walter Sanders—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesGuests at the first Metropolitan Museum Fashion Ball, 1960.Walter Sanders—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesA woman admires the dress on a mannequin, 1960.Walter Sanders—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesGala guests with a statue of the Sphinx, 1960.Walter Sanders—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesWomen model costume dresses at the ball, 1960.Walter Sanders—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesWomen modeling white dresses at the ball, 1960.Walter Sanders—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesModels pose in elaborate dresses, 1960.Walter Sanders—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesDancing nose to nose at the Metropolitan Museum Fashion Ball, 1960.Walter Sanders—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesGuests at the first Metropolitan Museum Fashion Ball, 1960.Walter Sanders—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesGuests at the first Metropolitan Museum Fashion Ball, 1960.Walter Sanders—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
