Coco Rocha shares an insider’s perspective on the Met Gala John Angelillo/Landov Courtesy Coco Rocha John Angelillo/Landov Courtesy Coco R...

Coco Rocha shares an insider’s perspective on the Met Gala

John Angelillo/Landov

Courtesy Coco Rocha

John Angelillo/Landov

Courtesy Coco Rocha

Model Coco Rocha earned high marks for her gutsy outfit at Monday’s Met Gala — a sleek Givenchy pantsuit once worn by Elizabeth Taylor — and had a blast at the Ball!

Rocha shared her personal photos with PEOPLE, telling us all about the experience the morning after. Here are some highlights of her big night out, in her words:

Getting ready for the Met Gala was a team effort. At one point we had 12 people in the apartment! I usually do my own hair and makeup for events but for the Met Gala I pay out the big bucks. Everyone who is anyone is there so you want to put your best face forward.

Rocha pumped up her look with curly pink extensions, which were woven into her side ponytail.

When my hairstylist Niko brought the extensions I literally squealed, he had perfectly matched the pink in my vintage Givenchy suit. This was going to be quite the bold look. After about four hours of hair and makeup we realized that James, my husband, had a wrinkled dress shirt so I did some very last-minute ironing like the Suzy Homemaker I am.

Of all the events, I have to say the Met Gala red carpet is most daunting. You have cameras on both sides of you all the way up a red-carpeted staircase. If you turn to one side, the other side boos. You really can’t win.

Once people learn your name they all begin screaming for you “Coco! Coco! COCO!!!” I’ve made the mistake in years gone by of showing up a little late to the event, right when the Beyoncés and J. Los of the world are having their moment — then you have photographers screaming for you to get out of the way! So this year I came nice and early.

The word was out that I was wearing vintage Givenchy owned by Liz Taylor and everyone was dying to know where the infamous wine stain was. I remained tight-lipped about that because, if you can’t see it, why do I need to point it out!? Here’s the secret, though: it was under my pink hair!

Once you climb the infamous Met Gala steps and survive the paparazzi and reporter gauntlet you enter into a very serene space lit with pink and lined with Vogue employees. At the end of the hallway I was greeted by Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and designer Miuccia Prada, both of whom did a double take when they saw my pink hair.

The Gala exhibit this year [inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute] is Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations, and features films of an imaginary conversation between the two designers. The colors and beading work in the clothes displayed were exquisite — many of these pieces are over half a century old.

I saw Lana Del Rey, wearing Joseph Altuzarra. I had speculated that Lana might be performing this year at the Met but it was Bruno Mars instead. I’m a big fan so I’m hoping for 2013!

I also saw my fellow Canadian girl Nina Dobrev (left). Her train was so heavily beaded it weighed as much as a small child! Earlier in the day she was carrying it all neatly over her arm but by the end of the night she was dragging it around behind her.

You feel like you’re in medieval times when the trumpet players start their call to dinner. It’s really quite charming, unless you happen to be standing right in front of them, where I seem to find myself every year — then your eardrums are blasted out.

The performances were amazing. At one point Bruno Mars did a mash-up of The Police meets Kanye West meets Michael Jackson that got a lot of people to their feet.