The Met Gala’s Fascinating History in 31 Photos
From the venue to the decor to the guest list, everything about fashion’s biggest night has grown more over-the-top since the event began in 1948
There’s a reason “the first Monday in May” has become an expression in its own right: The Costume Institute Gala—better known as the Met Gala—is usually held annually at that time, and the fashion industry isn’t shy about pulling out all the stops.
The event has gone from an annual fundraiser attended by the fashion industry and New York society to a cultural phenomenon attracting global attention. This exclusive fête, with tickets costing as much as a new car, gives designers an opportunity to showcase their most spectacular work on their celebrity muses—and it’s all for a good cause. The Anna Wintour Costume Institute, home to the largest collection of fashion in the world, is the only department at The Metropolitan Museum of Art that has to fund its operations. So, as its exhibitions have become more elaborate, it’s only natural that its benefits, decked with equally spectacular decor, would follow suit. Ahead of this year’s historic affair, which has a theme of “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” we take a look back at the evolution of the Met Gala throughout its nearly 80-year-history, from its guest list to its decor.
Photo by Ron Galella/WireImage1/30The party of the year began as an annual fundraiser for the Costume Institute and didn’t even take place in the Metropolitan Museum. The first event was organized by fashion publicist and CFDA founder Eleanor Lambert in 1948, two years after the Costume Institute became part of The Met. The December midnight suppers were held at venues such as the Waldorf Astoria, Central Park, and Rainbow Room until 1971. Here, the former director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Thomas Hoving, dines with his wife and another guest in Central Park.
Photo by Nick Machalaba2/30The event became more elaborate during the 1970s with the arrival of Diana Vreeland, who acted as special consultant to the Costume Institute in 1973, and socialite Pat Buckley—wife of conservative author William F. Buckley (both pictured here)—who became chairwoman in 1978.
Photo by Harry Benson3/30Vreeland (pictured) joined the event committee after leaving her post at Vogue in 1971. To help convince The Met to bring her on, a group of friends—rumored to include Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Babe Paley—raised enough money to fund her salary for the first two years. Instead of it being a typical society event, Vreeland turned it into a one-of-a-kind party: Guests went down an elevator and were welcomed into an opium-den-like atmosphere, with faceless mannequins with pantyhose pulled over their heads, and atmospheric music.
Photo by Francesco Scavullo4/30While the theme is now critical to every aspect of the night, from decor to fashion, the Met Gala actually didn’t have themes until Vreeland (pictured center) took over and linked the gala to an exhibit. Her first exhibition was “The World of Balenciaga” in 1973, and she worked with The Met until her death in 1989, helping produce 14 standout shows. These included “Romantic and Glamorous Hollywood Design” (1974) and “Vanity Fair” (1977). The exhibitions brought the Costume Institute back to life, bringing in donations and record crowds.
Photo by tobi seftel/Corbis via Getty Images5/30Under Vreeland’s tenure, the Met Gala began to embrace popular culture and celebrities when it came to the guest list. Andy Warhol (pictured here), Diana Ross, and Cher made appearances alongside society figures and politicians such as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Henry Kissinger.
Photo by Tony Palmieri6/30Vreeland (pictured here with a date), who was known for her extravagant spending at Vogue, pulled out all the stops. (She would even have appropriately themed perfume pumped into the galleries.) Guests would enter through the Great Hall, then proceed to the exhibition downstairs. After dinner in the Dorothy Draper–designed restaurant, guests would head to the Temple of Dendur for dancing. Dessert tickets, which cost $100, allowed students and others to join the party.
Photo by Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images7/30The Met Gala continued as a blockbuster event after Vreeland’s death in 1989. The ’90s brought exhibitions on Gianni Versace, Christian Dior, and Vreeland herself. The 1996 gala was attended by Princess Diana (pictured here), who wore a head-turning Dior slip dress designed by John Galliano.
Photo by Newsmakers8/30In 1999, Anna Wintour took over as chairperson (after hosting in 1995 and 1997) and brought the power and resources of Vogue to the gala. The event moved from December to April in 2001, following the cancellation of a Chanel exhibition in December 2000. The show was replaced with “Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years,” an exhibit curated by Vogue’s Hamish Bowles (pictured here with first lady Laura Bush).
Photo by Eric Boman9/30Andrew Bolton joined the Costume Institute from the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2002, and along with Harold Koda—who retired in 2016—the department elevated the level of the exhibitions with elaborate displays and fascinating collaborations with other areas of the museum. While the curatorial team picks the theme of each exhibition, Bolton has said that Wintour is consulted and signs off. He recently told French Vogue that “Anna works out what sponsors would be appropriate for the exhibition. Sometimes I have an idea and it’s less of a big idea or popular idea, which is not terribly appealing to sponsors.” Bolton’s 2015 exhibition “China: Through the Looking Glass” drew 815,992 visitors, and his 2018 show “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” brought in 1,659,647 visitors, making it the most visited show in the museum’s history, surpassing the late 1970s blockbuster “Treasures of Tutankhamun.” Seen here is the dining room for the 2015 Met Gala.
Photo by Thomson Hannah10/30Under Wintour’s careful curation, the exclusive guest list and decor curation for the Met Gala has embraced popular culture and celebrities. Athletes and models dine next to actresses and politicians, and celebrity cohosts (who frequently appear on the cover of the May or June issue of Vogue) add additional star power. The evening’s entertainment has also become more high-profile, with Lady Gaga, Kanye West, Rihanna, and Bruno Mars all performing in recent years.
Photo by Michael Lisnet11/30The decor of the Met Gala has continued to become more and more elaborate, often attempting to top itself from the year previous. The Great Hall, Grand Staircase, and Charles Engelhard Court, where the dinner is held, give the event designer an opportunity to express the year’s theme on a large scale. For 2006’s “Anglomania,” David Monn carpeted Charles Engelhard Court in grass and created an English garden complete with apple-tree hedges. There were also 35,000 daffodils and 12,000 hyacinths.
Photo by Robert Fairer12/30The table settings have also become more whimsical under Wintour’s reign as chair. Everything from the chairs to the plates reflects the theme. Prints inspired by Paul Poiret took center stage in 2007. For 2012’s “Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations,” (pictured) bright-red glasses adorned the tables, and banquettes were upholstered in Schiaparelli’s signature shocking pink. The graphic tables in the Temple of Dendur for the 2017 gala featured red linen tablecloths, blue-and-white floral china, and gold-tipped silverware.
Photo by KEVIN TACHMAN13/30Raúl Ávila took over the design of the Met Gala in 2007, when he placed an 20-foot-tall birdcage with live peacocks in the Great Hall. For “China: Through the Looking Glass” in 2015, he created a ginger jar decorated with 250,000 roses (pictured). For 2017’s “Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between” featured a massive rose-covered flower inspired by an appliqué from the designer’s fall 2007 collection. In 2023, the Great Hall was accented by an installation made of thousands of recycled plastic water bottles. “Given today’s climate, we wanted to highlight the importance of giving our everyday items more than one life cycle,” Ávila told Vogue. “We wanted to find a way to create a sustainable design that would implement the bottles into a breathtaking installation unlike anything we’ve done before.”
Taylor Hill14/30While the red carpet arrivals typically end at 8 p.m. there are sometimes a few fashionably late high-profile arrivals. Beyoncé, pictured here, arrived last in 2015, shutting down the red carpet in a sheer Givenchy gown. Rihanna is also known for her last minute arrivals. In 2023, the singer and her partner A$AP Rocky arrived at 10:15 p.m., long after the red carpet livestream had ended.
Photo by Thomson Hannah15/30While red-carpet pictures are spread far and wide, the party itself remains more of a mystery. In 2015, the Met Gala instituted a social media ban, although selfies have been known to slip out every year. Celebs such as Billie Eilish, Kylie Jenner, and Alexa Chung have all posted star-studded selfies in the Met’s bathrooms. While guests are forbidden from using social media, Vogue is not. In 2016, the magazine debuted an Instagram portrait studio as part of the design of the event where celeb guests (like Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady, pictured here) can pose.
Taylor Hill16/30As technology influences fashion, it has also become an integral part of the Costume Institute’s exhibitions and the Met Gala itself. The 2016 exhibition, “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology” brought fashion and tech together in the museum and on the red carpet, with Claire Danes donning a fiber-optic dress by Zac Posen and Karolína Kurková wore an LED-covered dress by Marchesa (pictured). For last year’s “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion,” the exhibition featured artificial intelligence and computer-generated imagery. Companies such as Apple, Instagram, and TikTok have also sponsored fashion’s biggest night in recent years, bringing tech CEOs onto the guest list.
Photo: Karwai Tang/WireImage17/30While the guest list of the gala is a diverse mix of celebrities, designers, socialites, and politicians, there is one type of person you won’t find in attendance: anyone under 18. In 2018, a new age restriction for the event was announced, although according to The Hollywood Reporter, exceptions may be made for minors attending with their parents. Prior to the rule, several young stars attended, including Jaden and Willow Smith (here in 2016), Elle and Dakota Fanning, and Hailee Steinfeld.
Photo: Allstar Picture Library Ltd. / Alamy Stock Photo18/30The fête has made its way onto the big screen several times over the years. In 2016, a documentary on the event, The First Monday in May, opened the Tribeca Film Festival, and in 2018 the Met Gala was recreated for the heist comedy Ocean’s Eight, starring Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Rihanna, and Sarah Paulson (pictured).
Photo: ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images19/30Over the years, the Met Gala red carpet has become an event to rival the Oscars. Guests aren’t just making an entrance, they’re putting on a show. In 2019 Lady Gaga had four costume changes as her Brandon Maxwell ensemble transformed from a cape dress to a voluminous gown to a hot-pink column and finally to crystal-studded undergarments. That same year Billy Porter—who wore a sparkling, winged cat suit—was carried in on a litter by six shirtless men in gold pants. In 2022, Blake Lively stole the show when she transformed her New York–inspired, rose gold Atelier Versace dress, revealing a patina blue train and matching gloves. That same year, Kim Kardashian sparked controversy when she wore the iconic dress donned by Marilyn Monroe when she sang Happy Birthday to President John F. Kennedy, which was borrowed from Ripley’s Believe It or Not, and some feared Kardashian had damaged by wearing it. The gala’s red carpet moments often outlast the evening, becoming memes that live on long after the exhibition has closed. One such meme-able moment was Jason Derulo’s tumble down the stairs in 2018.
Photo: Theo Wargo20/30As celebrity has changed with the explosion of social media, so has the guest list at the Met Gala. The A-list crowd has expanded to include new media stars from YouTubers like Lilly Singh and Liza Koshy to blogger Chiara Ferragni to beauty influencers like Camila Coelho (pictured here with Diane and Talita Von Furstenberg) and James Charles—who infamously made the internet cringe when he called his invite “a step forward in the right direction for influencer representation in the media.”
Photo: Kevin Mazur/MG19/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue21/30The gala has had co-chairs and honorary chairs since 1973, when Phyllis Ellsworth Dillon, wife of diplomat C. Douglas Dillon, served as co-chair. Early co-chairs included socialites such as Pat Buckley, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Jane Engelhard. Then, in the ’90s, Wintour brought celebrities, fashion designers, and executives into the mix. In 2019, the co-chairs included Harry Styles, Serena Williams, Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele, and Lady Gaga, pictured above with the Vogue editor. This year’s cohort includes A$AP Rocky, Pharrell Williams, Lewis Hamilton, and Colman Domingo, and LeBron James will serve as an honorary chair. And for the first time since 2019, the Met Gala will also have a host committee of 20 luminaries, including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Doechii, Dapper Dan, Sha’Carri Richardson, Andre 3000, Ayo Edebiri, and Kara Walker.
Photo: Taylor Hill/Getty Images22/30The Met Gala has weathered change and controversy, but the revelry was no match for a global pandemic. The 2020 event celebrating “About Time: Fashion and Duration,” which was to be hosted by Wintour (here with Head Curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Andrew Bolton), Meryl Streep, Emma Stone, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Louis Vuitton creative director Nicolas Ghesquiere was postponed on March 16 of that year and officially cancelled on May 19 due to COVID-19. The exhibition later opened from October 29, 2020 to February 7, 2021 without a corresponding ball. In 2021, the party temporarily moved from its signature date—the first Monday in May—to September 13.
Mike Coppola/Getty Images23/30In addition to the fashion statements on the red carpet, some guests use the global spotlight to make a political statement. In 2021, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made a memorable and meaningful appearance on the red carpet in a white Brother Vellies dress with “Tax the Rich” emblazoned on the back in red. That same year, former Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney attended in a purple, white, and gold Antonios Couture dress that paid tribute to the suffragette movement and accessorized with a bag sporting the slogan “ERA Yes.” Writer and producer Lena Waithe has also used the event to wear her values on her sleeve. At the 2018 gala, Waithe wore a Carolina Herrera cape in the rainbow colors of the Pride flag.
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images24/30While the Met Gala starts with arrivals at 5:30pm EST, the celebrations actually begin several days before. Vogue’s annual “Last Friday in April” party kicks off the festivities the Friday before the main event with a bash attended by staff and friends of the magazine. The event takes place in a different New York spot each year, and previous locations include punk shop Search & Destory, Katz’s Deli (pictured), and the now-shuttered red sauce joint Forlini’s. In 2023, the pre-party, hosted by Chioma Nnadi, head of editorial content of British Vogue, and Vogue creative editorial director Mark Guiducci, took place at Mr. Chow. Last year, revelers gathered at the Dutch Flower Line, a floral market, for a party hosted by Nnadi, Guiducci, Vogue.com editor Chloe Malle, and Vogue’s Samantha Sussman. Guests followed the groundbreaking dress code Florals, for Spring and took home bouquets of flowers.
Arturo Holmes/MG23/Getty Images25/30The Met Gala is, at the end of the day, a fundraising event for the Costume Institute. Ticket prices have risen dramatically since the days of Diana Vreeland’s $100 dessert tickets. According to the New York Times, a single ticket for the 2024 gala cost $75,000, while tables start at $350,000. In 2024, the Met Gala raised about $26 million, which also includes money from event sponsors, including Loewe and TikTok. However, would-be attendees can’t simply buy a ticket or fill a table. The gala is by invitation only and each of the approximately 400 guests are approved by Vogue and Anna Wintour. Pictured here is 10-time Met Gala attendee Rihanna with her date, ASAP Rocky, in 2023.
Theo Wargo/Getty Images26/30Perhaps as exciting as the unveiling of the spring Costume Institute exhibition is the reveal of the corresponding dress code for the Met Gala, which designers will interpret into couture creations. Recent dress codes include Gilded Glamour in 2022, In Honor of Karl in 2023 (for which actor Jared Leto walked the red carpet dressed as Karl Lagerfeld’s famous cat, Choupette), and The Garden of Time in 2024. The dress code for the 2025 gala is Tailored for You, referencing the menswear and suiting that will be featured in this year’s exhibition.
Kevin Mazur/MG23/Getty Images27/30It seems only natural that fashion fans would want to watch in real-time as celebrities arrive. For the past several years, the red carpet has been live-streamed on Vogue.com and on E!. Past livestream hosts include Keke Palmer (pictured here with Quinta Brunson), Ilana Glazer, Vanessa Hudgens, La La Anthony, Hamish Bowles, Derek Blasberg, Chloe Fineman, and Emma Chamberlain. In 2024, actress Gwendoline Christie teamed up with model Ashley Graham and Anthony to host the livestream, with Chamberlain serving as a special correspondent.
Arturo Holmes/MG24/Getty Images28/30Fashion may be the main focus of the evening, but the food is also designed to fit the theme. For 2023’s Met Gala honoring Karl Lagerfeld, guests were served dishes featuring the designer’s favorite ingredients, such as king salmon. Along with wine, guests that year also drank Diet Coke. (Lagerfeld drank 10 cans a day, according to his diet book.) In 2024 (pictured), caterer Olivier Cheng designed a dreamy dinner menu evoking a fairy-tale garden, including a spring vegetable salad with butterfly-shaped croutons, a filet of beef crowned with a tortellini rose, and an almond crèmeux shaped like a miniature apple. For this year’s gala, acclaimed Nigerian American chef and author Kwame Onwuachi will create the menu.
John Shearer29/30No detail is overlooked at the Met Gala, and that includes the red carpet, which according to Vogue, has not actually been red since 2015. The carpet is designed to fit with the evening’s theme and aesthetic, such as the pink carpet for 2019’s “Camp: Notes on Fashion” and the red, white, and blue carpet for 2022’s “In America: An Anthology of Fashion.” In 2024, the entrance featured an off-white carpet bordered with airbrushed foliage. “We were inspired by the idea of the museum transforming into an enchanted forest at dusk and looked to the Pre-Raphaelites for inspiration for an immersive experience for our guests,” said Vogue contributor Eaddy Kiernan. This year, artist Cy Gavin will lead the creative direction for the red carpet design.
Lexie Moreland/Getty Images30/30Even when the gala comes to an end, the party does not. Guests party hop to events across the city hosted by celebs, fashion houses, and Met Gala sponsors. Venues and hosts vary from year to year, but the party at the Top of the Standard has been a constant for over 10 years. In 2024, FKA Twigs, pictured here, performed at the Standard’s late night fête, while Stella McCartney and TikTok hosted at Casa Cruz, Cartier held court at The Carlyle Hotel’s Bemelmans Bar, Cardi B got the party going at Silencio, and director Luca Guadagnino and Loewe co-hosted an exclusive party in Nolita.
