As celebrities pulled up to the fashion event of the season, the Met Gala, on Monday, there was one must-have accessory they all showed off. No, it wasn’t a thigh-bearing dress. It wasn’t a headpiece so big it blocks the view of people behind you.
It was a boxy cargo van.
The fashion elite no longer ride to the red carpet in limousines. The new celebrity transportation is the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van.
New York Times author Brett Berk explains, the Sprinter van “has become a preferred mode of transportation for actors, singers, athletes and ‘Real Housewives,’ and is now a staple in streets outside star-studded events like the Oscars and the Met Gala.”
New York high society didn’t have enough vans to handle this year’s gala, the Times reports. The general manager of the tony Mark Hotel told the paper Sprinter vans were “brought in from Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami,” and other cities to handle demand.
Lots of Room for Your Entourage, Stylist, and Publicist
Stars value the vans, the Times says, for their roomy interiors. High rooflines let them enter and exit without damaging their sometimes huge designer ensembles.
They’ll even disregard safety for the occasion. People magazine reported this year that actress Sarah Jessica Parker arrived “standing — in what appeared to be a sprinter van.” She later told photographers her dress didn’t allow her to sit.
We do not recommend standing unbuckled in a moving vehicle.
The phenomenon is old enough that some young adults grew up with it. Amelia Gray Hamlin, gushing about her Met Gala appearance this week, told Vogue, “I was one of those little girls who would go to my friend’s apartment on the Upper East Side, and we would take binoculars and watch all the looks get out of the Sprinter van.”
The 2024 Sprinter is available with either of two 4-cylinder turbodiesel engines, in rear- or all-wheel-drive (RWD or AWD). Prices start at a little under $60,000. There’s also an electric eSprinter option starting at $74,181 (including a $2,295 destination and delivery charge) if you don’t want to risk looking unfashionably reckless about your emissions.
But the Times notes that celebrities often use models outfitted by high-end luxury refitters. Those “typically cost between $350,000 and $450,000.”
