Oprah to Host Annual Met Costume Institute Gala

Oprah Winfrey has a keen eye for fashion, and is an indisputable force to be reckoned with as the host of her own show, and now the daytime diva is combining both those talents to host the annual gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute next spring in NYC. The gala is supporting an exhibit that focuses on the style of American women --"American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity"  is described as tracing the archetypes of dress and femininity from 1890 to 1940, as well as looking at how those styles affect the perception of modern women.

"The ideal of the American woman evolved from a dependence on European, Old World ideas of elegance into an independent New World sensibility that reflected freedoms still associated with American women today," said curator Andrew Bolton in a statement.

"The show will look at fashion's role in defining how American women have been represented historically, and how fashion costumes women into archetypes that still persist in varying degrees of relevance."

The May 3 gala is the Costume Institute's main fundraising event, and it will be co-chaired by Patrick Robinson, creative director at Gap, and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. The exhibit is slated to run May 5-Aug. 15.