Met Gala 2025: Everything you need to know about fashion’s biggest night out

CNN The Met Gala returns to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Monday May drawing a bevy of A-list celebrities to the storied New York City museum for a night of exhibition-viewing dinner and drinks But first they ll walk the actions in what has become one of the biggest red-carpet moments of the year Last year s verdant spectacle of fashion which saw Elle Fanning s translucent bird gown Tyla s sands-of-time ensemble and Lana Del Ray s thorny headpiece among the creative responses to the Garden of Time theme will for be followed by a lesson in exuberant suiting and Black style What is the Met Gala theme and who are the chairs This year s Met Gala theme is Tailored for You in connection with the Costume s Institute s landmark new exhibition Superfine Tailoring Black Style which opens to the residents on May The theme is chosen each year by Andrew Bolton the curator in charge of the Costume Institute Monica Miller professor and chair of Africana Studies at Barnard College will guest curate the show Superfine will celebrate Black dandyism from the th century through to its revival during the Harlem Renaissance and its impact on fashion in contemporary times The Met Gala typically draws its dress code from the accompanying exhibition which celebrities and their stylists are encouraged to interpret on the red carpet The co-chairs who host the Met Gala are actor Colman Domingo Formula driver Lewis Hamilton rapper A AP Rocky and musician record producer and Louis Vuitton men s creative director Pharrell Williams They will work with Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour to orchestrate the event along with honorary co-chair LeBron James Who is attending the Met Gala The Met Gala s guest list is invariably tightly guarded but selected famous names have been revealed as attendees in addition to the co-chairs Earlier this year the Met declared it would revive a host committee for the evening which will include athletes Simone Biles Angel Reese and Sha Carri Richardson musicians Doechii Tyla Usher and Janelle Mon e actors Ayo Edebiri and Regina King fashion luminaries Grace Wales Bonner Dapper Dan Edward Enninful and Olivier Rousteing and artists Rashid Johnson Kara Walker and Jordan Casteel What happens at the Met Gala A frenzy of A-list arrivals and photographs the red-carpet portion of the evening s proceedings last for a scarce hours but that s the only part the population sees Inside guests tour the exhibition which opens to the constituents in the days following the gala and sit for dinner Phones at the table are discouraged and the seating chart is thoroughly crafted by Wintour who has organized the gala since Wintour has the final say over every guest in attendance the New York Times has previously informed Though the red carpet and after-parties get the bulk attention of the night the gala is above all a charity fundraiser whose five-figure tickets raise millions of dollars for the museum each year nearly million in according to the book Fashion s Big Night Out When did the Met Gala start The Met Gala debuted in as a benefit for the nascent Costume Institute organized by fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert Tickets for the banquet reportedly cost each Over the decades the gala has transformed from an industry fete at off-site locations like Manhattan s Rainbow Room into an A-list phenomenon In the s Vogue editor Diana Vreeland positioned the gala as the opening soiree of the Institute s major exhibitions and invited the cr me de la cr me of the fashion world and New York society Wintour her successor has favored high-profile musicians actors and entertainment figures turning the gala into one of the most-watched events of the year In application company Launchmetrics unveiled that the Met Gala generated nearly double the media impact value the monetary value of buzz generated for brands than the Super Bowl at million Last year the Met Gala s figure rose to billion What was the first Met Gala theme The first theme was The World of Balenciaga in tied to a retrospective of the couturier Crist bal Balenciaga the event was attended by guests including Halston and Calvin Klein according to Fashion s Big Night Out Early themes included Romantic and Glamorous Hollywood Design The Glory of Russian Costume and The th-Century Woman But gala-goers mostly kept to conventional eveningwear until the s when selected guests began to have more fun with the themes and the internet allowed more eyes on the arrivals The majority of memorable themes from the past decade have included China Through the Looking Glass Heavenly Bodies Fashion and the Catholic Imagination and the divisive Camp Notes on Fashion thanks to celebrities including Beyonc Lady Gaga Rihanna Zendaya and the Kardashian-Jenners who use the red carpet to put on a show Last year s The Garden of Time theme referenced a short story of the same name by British author J G Ballard Who is banned from the Met Gala Each year rumors fly about who may be persona non grata at the gala whether due to any offense towards the event or Wintour herself But the Vogue editor has only explicitly spoken about one guest she would never invite back in residents US President Donald Trump whom she mentioned on James Corden s late night talk show in when requested to name names Other previous guests have sworn it off however including Demi Lovato Zayn Malik and Tina Fey In five years after she made an appearance at the event Fey mentioned on Late Show with David Letterman that the gala is a jerk parade If you had a million arms all the people you would want to punch in the whole world they re all there she mentioned I mean I was there clearly I was one of them Various celebrities backtrack however Gwyneth Paltrow famously called the Met Gala un-fun in and reported she d never go again but returned in and What shouldn t you do at the Met Gala Met Gala guests have often broken the no-social-media rule to give a more candid glimpse of who is hanging with who and what goes on behind closed doors In that included smoking as attendees including Bella Hadid and Dakota Johnson were seen lighting up cigarettes in the museum s bathroom to the ire of the museum s donors reportedly Despite what the Jason Derulo meme would have you believe he nor anyone else has taken a tumble down the stairs But specific guests have famously rumbled this year marks years since the infamous after-party elevator fight between Jay-Z and Solange A final faux pas Wearing the same outfit of lesson While it s been announced that Wintour not only arranges the guest list but also has a hand in their fashion choices in Olivia Wilde and former Vogue China editor Margaret Zhang proved up in the same Chlo violin dress in different color schemes The pair took it in stride sharing memes on social media about the circumstance Great minds Wilde wrote on Instagram If you re gonna twin with anyone make it margaretzhang