Met Gala

The Met Gala is an annual fundraising event for the New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute that has come to be seen as one of the world’s most exclusive social affairs. Also serving as the official opening of each year’s Costume Institute exhibitions, the gala has been a regular fixture on the New York social calendar since 1948. Over time, the Met Gala evolved from a simple midnight supper for fashion industry elites to an elaborate gathering for celebrities from the realms of art, entertainment, politics, and more. Since 1973, each iteration of the gala has had a specific theme. These themes are reflected in the decor and establish the dress code guests are encouraged to follow. Originally founded by fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert, the Met Gala has been primarily overseen by Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour since she took over as the event’s only permanent chairperson in 1999.

Background

The Met Gala primarily functions as a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. Comprised of more than 33,000 objects that span more than 700 years of fashion history, the Costume Institute is one of the Met’s most celebrated curatorial departments. It originally opened in 1937 as the Museum of Costume Art under the direction of Irene Lewisohn, who gained fame in the early twentieth century after founding a New York acting conservatory known as the Neighborhood Playhouse. In 1946, the Museum of Costume Art merged into the Met as the Costume Institute. It subsequently became a distinct curatorial department in 1959.

Fashion columnist and one-time Vogue editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland joined the Costume Institute as a special consultant in 1972. During her tenure in that role—which lasted until her 1989 death—Vreeland oversaw the creation of numerous unique exhibitions. The first of these was 1973’s The World of Balenciaga. Some of her other notable exhibitions included The Glory of Russian Costume (1976) and Vanity Fair (1977). Vreeland’s work revolutionized the world of costume exhibitions and elevated the Costume Institute into perhaps the most venerable organization of its kind.

Vreeland was succeeded by art history professor Richard Martin, who led the Costume Institute through a rotation of themed exhibitions like The Four Seasons, Waist Not, Infra-Apparel, and Cubism and Fashion. He remained curator until his own passing in 1999. At that point, fashion scholar Harold Koda, who has previously worked alongside Martin, returned to the Met to replace his former colleague as curator in charge. Some of Koda’s most notable exhibitions included Chanel (2005), Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (2011), and Charles James: Beyond Fashion (2014). Upon Koda’s retirement in 2016, former Victoria and Albert Museum associate curator Andrew Bolton became the Costume Institute’s new curator in charge. Starting with Manus x Machina: Fashion in the Age of Technology (2016), Bolton oversaw a string of successful exhibitions that also included Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination (2018) and Camp: Notes on Fashion (2019). Heavenly Bodies was the Costume Institute’s most visited exhibition of all time, bringing more than 1.6 million visitors to The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters. Bolton continued as curator in charge into the 2020s.

Overview

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Gala, also known as the Costume Institute Benefit or the Met Gala, is a highly exclusive celebrity gathering aimed at celebrating the opening of the Costume Institute’s spring exhibition. Moreover, it serves as the department’s primary fundraiser, generating most of the capital the department needs to put on exhibitions, acquire new pieces, and make a wide range of other improvements. Given its elaborate staging and unique themes, the Met Gala has become one of the world’s most well-known charity balls. Much of the public’s interest in the event is tied to its carefully curated guest list of elite fashion, entertainment, sports, business, political, and other celebrities.

The idea for what would become the Met Gala was originally conceived by Eleanor Lambert in 1948. A fashion publicist and the founder of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), Lambert sought to help raise funds for the Met’s then-new Costume Institute. To that end, she planned an intimate midnight supper at the Waldorf Astoria hotel and invited a small number of guests selected from among New York’s social elite. Lambert’s fundraising dinner, which was known as The Party of the Year, was an immediate success that quickly became an annual event.

Throughout its early years, the Met Gala, as it was eventually dubbed, continued to be a modest affair that consisted of relatively small dinner parties at places such as Central Park and the Rainbow Room. That all changed when Vreeland joined the Costume Institute in the 1970s and took on the task of hosting the annual fundraiser. Doing away with subdued late night dinner parties, she turned the Met Gala into a glamorous star-studded affair with a guest list that went well beyond the elite New York social scene to include celebrities from all walks of life. Vreeland also introduced elaborating theming, tailoring the look of each year’s gala to coincide with her latest exhibition.

After Vreeland’s death in 1989, the Met Gala continued on for nearly a decade without a standing chairperson. Her eventual successor was Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, who served as a one-off chairperson in 1995 and 1997 before becoming the permanent chairperson in 1999. In addition to moving its traditional date from December to the first Monday in May, Wintour further transformed the Met Gala into an elaborate spectacle. She also made the event even more pop culture-oriented, inviting a wider range of celebrities and arranging for various high-profile entertainers to give private performances.

Over the course of its history, the Met Gala has raised millions of dollars for the Costume Institute. In addition to sponsorships, most of the proceeds are generated by the tickets sold to the elite group of guests who receive highly exclusive invitations to each year’s event. For the first gala, tickets cost fifty dollars per person. In 2024, tickets were sold for $75,000 per person. In addition to paying for admission, guests are also expected to dress according to the night’s chosen theme. In 2024 this theme was "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion," and the year prior, the Met Gala honored late legendary fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld with the theme, "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty." Many attendees fulfill this requirement by wearing elaborate costumes, a tradition that has made watching guests arrive at the Met Gala a major red carpet event.

Bibliography

Chilton, Nancy. “The Met Gala: From Midnight Suppers to Superheroes and Rihanna.” Metropolitan Museum of Art, 30 Apr. 2020, www.metmuseum.org/blogs/now-at-the-met/2020/met-gala-costume-institute-benefit-brief-history. Accessed 16 May 2024.

“The Costume Institute.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/collection-areas/the-costume-institute. Accessed 16 May 2024.

Desborough, Jenny. “When Was the First-Ever Met Gala and What Was the Theme?” Newsweek, 12 Sept. 2021, www.newsweek.com/when-was-first-met-gala-what-was-theme-anna-wintour-history-costume-institute-1626591. Accessed 11 Oct. 2021.

Ramzi, Lilah. “A History of the Met Gala: Everything You Didn’t Know.” Vogue, 1 May 2024, www.vogue.com/article/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-met-gala-video. Accessed 16 May 2024.

Spellings, Sarah, and Andrew Nguyen. “Met Gala 2021: What Is the Met Gala, Anyway?” New York, 13 Sept. 2021, www.thecut.com/article/met-gala-2021-everything-to-know.html. Accessed 16 May 2024.

Stamp, Elizabeth. “The Met Gala’s History and Décor Throughout the Years.” Architectural Digest, 10 Sept. 2021, www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/the-met-galas-history-and-decor-throughout-the-years. Accessed 11 Oct. 2021.

Taylor, Elise. “The Met Gala Theme Over the Years: A Look Back at Many First Mondays in May.” Vogue, 15 Feb. 2024, www.vogue.com/article/met-gala-themes. Accessed 16 May 2024.

Ward, Maria and Christian Allaire. “Andre Leon Talley Explains the Significance of the Met Gala.” Vogue, 21 Apr. 2021, www.vogue.com/article/what-is-the-met-gala-things-to-know-andre-leon-talley. Accessed 11 Oct. 2021.

Widjojo, Conchita, and Hannah Malach. “Met Gala History: A Timeline of Stars, Ticket Prices & Details.” WWD, 1 May 2024, wwd.com/feature/met-gala-history-how-it-turned-from-fundraiser-to-fashions-biggest-night-1235167840. Accessed 16 May 2024.