When you are Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and don't have a significant other to take as a date to the Met Gala — one of the most photographed events of the year — who are you going to ask?
Mom, of course.
It's not the first time Maye Musk shared the Met Gala red carpet in New York City with her "technoking" son — that was in 2016 when the theme was "Manus x Machina."
The next appearance for Musk was in 2018 — the theme was "Heavenly Bodies" — when he didn't bring mom but introduced singer Grimes as his girlfriend. The duo attended the gala in 2021 when it was in September, but while Grimes walked the red carpet, Musk did not, joining her inside and then hosting an afterparty. They have since broken up and she is the mother of two of his eight children.
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The May 2 gala, titled "In America: An Anthology of Fashion," but themed as gilded glamour, harkened to the time in the late 19th-century when the U.S. was being transformed by industrialization and the rules of old society were bumping up against new money robber barons.
Musk would have probably felt right at home then — and he felt right at home at the Met Gala, chatting with celebrities in his white tie and tails by designer Tom Ford while his mother, a model, was nearby in an elegant deep purple Christian Dior gown with Chopard jewelry.
When asked by an ET reporter why it was important to come to the event, his mom answered, "Because I wanted him to."
Though Musk has been quite active on Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), it has been the first time he has been seen publicly at a big event after announcing his intention to buy Twitter for $44 billion.
Of course, Met Gala red carpet reporters and hosts had questions. As per the New York Post, he told La La Anthony: "My goal, assuming everything gets done, is to make Twitter as inclusive as possible and to have as broad a swathe of people on Twitter as possible."
But it wasn't all business talk for the CEO of Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA).
"It's quite a good time. It's a very positive vibe," Musk said about the gala in a Bloomberg article. "It's a celebration of style, and I think especially after the pandemic people want something exciting and glamorous — and that's this."
Musk was photographed talking to fellow billionaire Kim Kardashian, who wore Marilyn Monroe's famous "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" dress (just for the red carpet) and was accompanied by her boyfriend, Pete Davidson.
According to Bloomberg, other financial and crypto gurus at the ball included The Blackstone Group CEO Steve Schwarzman and his wife Christine, as well as Lauren Remington Platt, who is the crypto exchange FTX's new head of fashion and luxury partnerships. She wore a custom-made necklace inspired by the FTX logo.
The gala, more formally known as the Costume Institute Gala, benefits the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute.
Photo: Screenshot ET Twitter video
