Fashion royalty, Hollywood stars and everyone in between arrived at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City on a rainy Monday night for the annual Costume Institute Benefit. It is the social event of the year, with the who's who of celebrity clinking glasses and celebrating art, fashion and creativity. About 800 people were on the guest list for the 2012 Met Gala.  

"People working this event are better dressed than people nominated at the Emmy's," said comedian Will Arnett on the red carpet. Everyone from Gisele Bundchen to Kate Upton, Anna Wintour to Tom Ford and Carey Mulligan to Amy Poehler is attending the Met Gala this year, a Vogue-hosted event. Red carpet arrivals have already caused a frenzy at the Manhattan landmark.

The theme of the 2012 Met Ball, otherwise known as the "Oscars of the East Coast," is "Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations," inspired by Miguel Covarrubia's "Impossible Interviews" published in Vanity Fair in the 1930s. The idea is to move people through time with each year's theme.

Designer Elsa Schiaparelli was closely associated with the Surrealist movement, according to THR, and her most legendary designs included the tear dress, the lobster dress, the shoe hat and the insect necklace. Progressive, no doubt. Her designs from the late 1920s to the early 1950s will be displayed alongside Prada's designs from the late 1980s to the present.

Miuccia Prada took over the family's Milan-based fashion house in 1978 and developed the line's postmodernist flair, according to THR. The ball will explore the commonalities of these two innovators. Orchestrated conversations between these two women will play during the ball.

Check out the red carpet arrivals at the 2012 Met Gala. 

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