Dressing for the MET Gala may not have been quite the challenge I would have thought – if I had even been invited in the first place. I could have wrapped myself in red fabric, tripped the line between good and bad taste, worn a Leunig headpiece, or with flounce upon flounce of florals, blurred the lines between form and fabric forever. Such was the licence of the theme, set by the current exhibition at the MET honoring Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo. Rei is recognized as ‘one of the most important and influential designers of the past 40 years, by inviting us to rethink fashion as a site of constant creation, recreation, and hybridity’. These creations are not clothes one would wear – in fact Rei said even making this comment shows one has missed the point completely. But if there was anything to be learned by her inspiration, or the draw of fashion, it was the age of the young students at the exhibition yesterday. While the Met continues to be the center of controversy, with financial woes, changing ‘suggested’ to compulsory admittance fees ( for foreign visitors anyway ) and a gaggle of Gala fashionistas exposed with illicit selfies and smokes in the bathroom on party night, this grand old Gotham institution may survive yet. For fashion, or art, or design, to bring a group of young teenage boys to a museum with their sketch books and enthusiasm, there is the greatest chance that we haven’t seen the last of the red carpet and all that it rolls out for…