Jacqueline de Ribes: The Art of Style second most attended exhibit in Met's fall season

The Met's "Jacqueline de Ribes: The Art of Style" exhibit had a lot to live up to coming off the heels of its record attendance breaking predecessor "China Through the Looking Glass." However, the exhibit, which celebrated the countess and socialite, held strong, attracting 194,820 visitors. The total visitor count makes the exhibit the second most attended fall exhibit since 2001's "Extreme Beauty."

The previous fall exhibit, "Death Becomes Her", pulled in 187,417 visitors. That exhibit was the first fall exhibit the Met had since 2007's "blog.mode." The gap time period in fall exhibits was due to the transfer of the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection to the Met and the renovations that the Costume Institute galleries were undergoing.

De Ribes' impressive collection of apparel certainly managed to captivate visitors. Her closet included designers the like of Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Balmain, Bill Blass, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Valentino Garavani just to name a few. The countess was also a designer herself, so there were many of her own designs in the exhibit as well.

Originally, a black-tie event was planned for the opening of the exhibit, but due to the terrorist attacks in Paris, the Met, de Ribes', and Dior's Sidney Toledano cancelled the event and opted for a private viewing out of respect for the victims and their families. Despite the unfortunate turn of events, this didn't hamper the attendance for the exhibit in the long run.

The Costume Institute is now emerged in preparation for their spring exhibit "Manus x Machina." The preparation for which has been filmed for a new documentary film titled "The First Monday in May" featuring Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and Costume Institute curator Andrew Bolton.