2024 Met Gala: Everything to know about fashion’s annual soiree

The Met Gala, an annual event held on the first Monday of May at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, is known as the ultimate fashion celebration. The event is constantly evolving and meticulously planned, with celebrities dressing to match the theme inspired by the Costume Institute's newest exhibition. They gracefully walk up the museum steps, showcasing their outfits to the public, before heading inside to explore the galleries and indulge in dinner and cocktails.

The highly anticipated Met Gala is happening this Monday night and it's time to make your guesses. What fantastic vintage outfit will Zendaya wear to turn heads? Who will perform the most unbelievable feat, outdoing Jared Leto's "double" or Doja Cat's makeup? Who among the celebrities will risk taking selfies in the bathroom, breaking the no-photo policy? And, lastly, how delayed will Rihanna be?

Who Are The Co-chairs And What's This Year's Theme?

The red carpet theme for this year is "The Garden of Time," inspired by a short story called "The Garden of Time" written by J.G. Ballard in 1962. The theme takes after the sci-fi tale's garden featuring flowers that bend time. "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion," the exhibition on display at the museum, also explores the relationship between nature and technology, utilizing various tools such as AI and CGI to revive delicate archived pieces that date back hundreds of years. The Costume Institute's curator-in-charge, Andrew Bolton, selects a theme every year for the red carpet event.

Get ready to see some amazing and imaginative fashion with designs that combine flowers and science fiction on the red carpet. Stylists will be collaborating with high-end fashion houses to bring back iconic looks from the past. The star-studded lineup of Gala co-chairs includes Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Bad Bunny, and Chris Hemsworth. It'll be Hemsworth's first Met Gala appearance, so be on the lookout for what he's wearing.

The red carpet section of the night goes on for a few hours and is filled with celebrities and photos, but it's only the part that people get to see. After that, the guests make their way inside to tour the exhibition, which will be open to the public in the days following the event, and they enjoy a sit-down dinner. It's not common to use your phone at the table, and the seating arrangement is carefully planned out by Anna Wintour, American Vogue's editor-in-chief, who has been in charge of the gala since 1995. According to the New York Times, Wintour has the ultimate say in who gets invited to the event.

Despite the fact that everyone focuses on the red-carpet and afterparties, it's essential to remember that the primary purpose of the gala is to raise money for the museum. The tickets, which cost a pretty penny, can raise millions of dollars each year. In 2023, they broke the record by raising nearly $22 million. This information is found in the book "Fashion's Big Night Out."

This year's theme is different from last year's, which was created to pay respect to the late fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld who passed away in 2019. In the past, the Met Gala has paid tribute to other influential designers such as Rei Kawakubo, Charles James, Christian Dior, Alexander McQueen, and Gianni Versace, with their tribute shows held shortly after their untimely deaths.

Many famous people such as Anne Hathaway, Nicole Kidman, and Jenna Ortega attended an event to celebrate Lagerfeld. They wore clothes from Chanel, Fendi, and Chloé. Lagerfeld had a big impact on the event, and some people even paid tribute to his cat Choupette. For example, Doja Cat had a whiskered beauty look. However, not everyone was happy with the theme of the event because Lagerfeld had made negative comments about women's bodies in the past and did not support inclusive beauty standards.

The Met Gala first appeared way back in 1948 as a means to raise money for the brand new Costume Institute. It was put together by fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert. Rumor has it that tickets for the dinner cost $50 each.

Throughout the years, the Met Gala has evolved from being a simple celebration for industry insiders held at venues like the Rainbow Room in Manhattan, to becoming a major event for the elite. During the 1970s, Vogue editor Diana Vreeland transformed the gala into the kickoff party for the Institute's biggest exhibitions and welcomed the most influential figures from the fashion world and New York's high society. Her successor, Wintour, preferred to invite famous musicians, actors, and entertainers, transforming the Met Gala into one of the most highly anticipated events on the fashion calendar, attracting worldwide attention. According to LaunchMetrics, a software company, the Met Gala generated almost twice the "media impact value" for brands compared to the Super Bowl in 2023, at a value of $995 million.

In 1973, the first theme of "Fashion's Big Night Out" was focused on a retrospective of Cristóbal Balenciaga, a renowned couturier. Many notable guests like Halston and Calvin Klein were present during the event, which was named "The World of Balenciaga."

In the beginning, the themes of the gala were focused on Hollywood glamour, Russian costumes, and 18th-century fashion for women. However, attendees usually stuck to regular evening wear until the 2000s. With the rise of the internet, more people started paying attention to the arrivals and some guests began to have more fun with the themes. In recent years, the most unforgettable themes have included "China: Through the Looking Glass," "Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination," and "Camp: Notes on Fashion" that sparked debates. Popular celebrities such as Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Zendaya, and the Kardashian-Jenners take advantage of the red carpet to put on a show.

Every year, people gossip about those who may not be welcome at the big event because of their behavior towards the occasion or towards Wintour. However, there is only one guest that the Vogue editor has openly stated that she would "never invite back" - and that is Donald Trump. She spoke about this on James Corden's late night program in 2017 when she was asked to name names.

Several past attendees, such as Demi Lovato, Zayn Malik, and Tina Fey, have decided to abstain from it. Fey even went as far as to refer to the event as a "jerk parade" during a 2015 interview on "Late Show with David Letterman," five years after attending it.

She stated that having a million arms would provide the opportunity to punch all the individuals in the world that one desires to harm, including herself since she was one of them in the past.

Despite initially expressing her dislike for the Met Gala back in 2013, Gwyneth Paltrow had a change of heart and decided to attend the event again in both 2017 and 2019. This contradicted her previous statement where she claimed that she would never attend the Met Gala again.

At the Met Gala, some attendees have disregarded the no-social-media policy to offer a more authentic look into their interactions and the events that occur out of the public eye. Back in 2017, this involved smoking, with participants like Bella Hadid and Dakota Johnson lighting up cigarettes in the museum's bathroom, much to the donors' dismay.

Contrary to popular belief sparked by the Jason Derulo meme, no one has actually fallen down the stairs. However, some high-profile guests have engaged in heated altercations, such as the infamous elevator scuffle between Jay-Z and Solange, which occurred a decade ago.

Is wearing the same clothes to a fashion event considered a major mistake? Apparently, yes. It's rumored that Anna Wintour, the organizer of the Met Gala, not only invites guests but also influences their fashion decisions. In the past, actress Olivia Wilde and "Vogue China" editor Margaret Zhang both wore the same Chloé violin dress in different colors. Instead of getting upset, they made light of the situation and shared memes on social media. Wilde even complimented Zhang, saying she was happy to twin with her.