ALEXANDRA SHULMAN NOTEBOOK: Emily Ratajkowski and Rita Ora turned heads with their nude dresses at the Met Ball, but exposing all that flesh on a red carpet isn’t sexy

All tied up in their nude dresses at this week’s Met Ball, celebrities dressed for work, not sex appeal. Their bodies are their tools on such occasions.

But I bet many of you feel as apprehensive as most of us do about getting naked for the first time in front of a new lover.

The most photographed outfits on the red carpet were those that exposed as much of the body as possible without actually being naked: Emily Ratajkowksi in Versace lace that exposed her nipples and breasts, Rita Ora dressed in what could be described as a modest tabard with beads. floating through the center of her body, Jennifer Lopez in a completely transparent Schiaparelli dress.

However, that nudity is artificial, a device to provoke digital clicks rather than stimulating any of the feelings that most people feel when they are naked or are triggered in the viewer.

Interestingly, the nudity of these women did not have the same effect as what I would call real nudity: the rest of us without clothes.

We look at them completely dispassionately and without emotion. Maybe with a little surprise at how ridiculous they look, but this is different from how we generally feel about ourselves and the naked bodies of others.

I clearly remember the mortification as an 11-year-old when my mother, never worrying about anyone seeing her naked, flung open the curtain of a changing room at Kids In Gear on Chelsea’s King’s Road while I tried on a pair of velvet loons. And that was just exposing my Chilprufe vest.

It was the first time I realized that I considered my body to be something private. Now I have no problem with being naked: a hospital appointment, a locker room at the pool, a sauna, my partner.

These are times when I consider my body to be as acceptable as it should be. But even though it’s been a long time, I would feel differently about exposing him to a new person in a sexual situation. Exposure is less about how much meat you show than the situation in which it occurs. There’s nothing sexual or emotional about facing a phalanx of photographers on the red carpet. It’s much less revealing than nudity in the bedroom.

Anna puts her man in the spotlight again

One designer who has had a good week is John Galliano, thanks to his unwavering cheerleader Anna Wintour.

Although the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York rejected her suggestion that he be the subject of this year’s Costume Institute exhibition, Wintour – who never wavered from her mission – managed to keep him center stage in this one. high-profile night, persuading many, including Zendaya, Kim Kardashian and Ariana Grande, to wear extraordinary dresses designed by this recently vilified figure. We all need an Anna, right?

Young abandoned designers

Compare this to the many designers facing huge financial uncertainty following the sale of Matchesfashion to Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group for a relatively paltry £50m. Three months later, Frasers went into receivership, leaving hundreds of thousands of pounds of unsold shares unpaid.

Fraser founder Ashley has just increased his annual spend on his private jet and helicopter to £2.6 million, presumably having more personal travel on his to-do list now that he is no longer in charge of the day-to-day running of the business. .

However, designers rarely own private aircraft. Although it is often presented as a glamorous life – a whirlwind of store openings, galas and famous friends – the reality is that fashion is a very day-to-day business. Fabric, studio space, and manufacturing cost money, as does distribution. Many young designers earn less than the average living wage.

In its heyday, Matchesfashion, under the direction of founding couple Tom and Ruth Chapman, was a big supporter of new designers and placed major orders that gave them a foothold in the business. Now, the recent large orders placed by Matchesfashion have become a horrible albatross. While the company still sells online, any payments go to liquidators and will never be seen by the designers who, in some cases, will take catastrophic losses out of pocket.

Will the great Ladies now join the club?

A friend called last week saying, ‘You can now apply for the Garrick!’ He must be crazy. I have no interest in being a member of the Garrick Club, but I am intrigued by the predictable uproar over which women will eventually be chosen now that the 193-year-old male-only rule has been lifted.

In all the controversy, very little has been written about the election process for the sacred hall, which is complex, extremely time-consuming and involves courting signatories to support it.

I expect the damsel members to be favorites if they so choose (Mary Beard, Joanna Lumley, Judi Dench), but other lesser-known names will have to woo the male members.

In any case, the electoral process must be confidential, so we should not be able to know who the first women proposed will be. But the secrets of Garrick’s membership have now been leaked beyond who has been leading the latest charge against Rishi Sunak.

21 lipsticks – and I still buy more

For research purposes, I counted and found out that I have 21 lipsticks. But that didn’t stop me from going to Space NK on Thursday to pick up some Augustinus Bader X Sofia Coppola tinted lip balm.

Obviously, I didn’t need any kind of new lipstick, but when I read about stylish Sofia deciding what the precise color should be and how it should be more of a light tint than a matte finish, it became not only desirable but almost essential. to get one.

I know there’s no chance this pretty coral tube will make me look even a little bit more like Coppola, but that didn’t deter me.

That’s how consumer society works and that’s why I edited Vogue for so long. I think new things can make you feel good. Not for long, but long enough.