A dress from Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty at the Costume Institute

The yearly Costume Institute gala held at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is the most glamorous ticket in fashion: like the Super Bowl and the Oscars combined.

Vogue UK reports a first look at this year’s exhibit, which honors the late Alexander McQueen and will be co-chaired on May 2nd by Anna Wintour and Stella McCartney. At the launch in London at the Ritz this morning, Anna and Stella joined Samantha Cameron (the Prime Minister’s wife), the director of the Met Thomas P. Campbell, and the Costume Institute‘s curator Andrew Bolton to unveil the dresses in the collection.

A dress from Alexander McQueen:Savage Beauty at the Costume Institute

All of the dresses were photographed on real models and then digitally altered so the images you see here appear like mannequins. Previous exhibits have included “American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity” (2010), “The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion” (2009) and “Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy” (2008).

A dress from Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty at the Costume Institute

Visit Vogue.co.uk to see more images from the collection!