CNN
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The Met Gala returns to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Monday, May 5, 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 steps 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 2025, be followed by a lesson in exuberant suiting and Black style.
What is the 2025 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 public on May 10. 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 2025 show.
“Superfine” will celebrate Black dandyism from the 18th century through to its revival during the Harlem Renaissance and its impact on fashion today. 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 1 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.
The Met Gala’s guest list is always tightly guarded, but some famous names have been revealed as attendees, in addition to the co-chairs. Earlier this year, the Met announced 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 Monáe; 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.
A frenzy of A-list arrivals and photographs, the red-carpet portion of the evening’s proceedings last for a few hours, but that’s the only part the public sees. Inside, guests tour the exhibition, which opens to the public in the days following the gala, and sit for dinner. Phones at the table are discouraged, and the seating chart is carefully crafted by Wintour, who has organized the gala since 1995. (Wintour has the “final say” over every guest in attendance, the New York Times has previously reported.)
Though the red carpet and after-parties get the most attention of the night, the gala is above all, a fundraiser, whose five-figure tickets raise millions of dollars for the museum each year — nearly $22 million in 2023, according to the book “Fashion’s Big Night Out.”
The Met Gala debuted in 1948 as a fundraiser for the nascent Costume Institute, organized by fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert. Tickets for the banquet reportedly cost $50 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 1970s, Vogue editor Diana Vreeland positioned the gala as the opening soiree of the Institute’s major exhibitions and invited the crème de la crème 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 2023, software company Launchmetrics found that the Met Gala generated nearly double the “media impact value” (the monetary value of buzz generated) for brands than the Super Bowl, at $995 million. Last year, the Met Gala’s figure rose to $1.4 billion.
The first theme was “The World of Balenciaga” in 1973, tied to a retrospective of the couturier Cristóbal 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 18th-Century Woman.” But gala-goers mostly kept to conventional eveningwear until the 2000s, when some guests began to have more fun with the themes — and the internet allowed more eyes on the arrivals. The most 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 Beyoncé, 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 1962 short story of the same name by British author J.G. Ballard.
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 public — US President Donald Trump, whom she mentioned on James Corden’s late night talk show in 2017 when asked to name names.
Other previous guests have sworn it off, however, including Demi Lovato, Zayn Malik and Tina Fey. In 2015, five years after she made an appearance at the event, Fey said 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 said. “I mean I was there, clearly I was one of them.”
Some celebrities backtrack, however. Gwyneth Paltrow famously called the Met Gala “un-fun” in 2013 and said she’d “never” go again, but returned in 2017 (and 2019).
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 2017, 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 some guests have famously rumbled — this year marks 11 years since the infamous after-party elevator fight between Jay-Z and Solange.
A final faux pas? Wearing the same outfit, of course. While it’s been reported that Wintour not only arranges the guest list but also has a hand in their fashion choices, in 2023, Olivia Wilde and former Vogue China editor Margaret Zhang showed up in the same Chloé violin dress in different color schemes. The pair took it in stride, sharing memes on social media about the incident. “Great minds,” Wilde wrote on Instagram. “If you’re gonna twin with anyone, make it @margaretzhang.”
