As the nursery rhyme goes, May marks the end of April showers and the beginning of the month’s flowers. But for New Yorkers, it’s also time for arguably one of the most important cultural events of the year: The Met Gala. Held annually every first Monday of May, the Met Gala is a benefit to support the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City as well as an extravagant celebration of fashion and art. Each year, the Met’s Costume Institute hosts an exhibition centered around a unique theme, and the accompanying gala’s dress code inspires celebrities and designers to push the boundaries of style.
This year’s Met exhibition is titled “Superfine Tailoring: Tailoring Black Style,” which is a glimpse into the role of traditional menswear tailoring techniques in Black culture. It will be organized in 12 sections outlining key aspects of Black traditional suiting: Ownership, Presence, Distinction, Disguise, Freedom, Champion, Respectability, Jook (referring to “juke joints”), Heritage, Beauty, Cool, and Cosmopolitanism. These sections double as tenets for the 2025 Met Gala, co-chaired by Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, ASAP Rocky, Pharrell Williams, and Anna Wintour, along with honorary chair LeBron James.
Ahead of this year’s gala, we ranked the top Met Gala themes of the past decade that have left an indelible mark on the fashion world. Take a trip down memory lane below, and head here to find out everything you need to know about this year’s big event.
Best-Dressed: Kanye West in Lanvin; Dita Von Teese in Zac Posen; Suki Waterhouse in Burberry
For the 2014 Met Gala, the Costume Institute paid tribute to inimitable American couturier and dressmaker Charles James. Known for his sculptural ball gowns, James was celebrated for his architectural approach to fashion. The exhibit showcased his intricate designs and highlighted his contributions to the evolution of American style, mirrored by guests with their own take on the simultaneously elegant and structured perspective of the late James. Couples dominated the red carpet—Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka stunned in mismatch-patterned column coats and cummerbunds by Thom Browne, Beyoncé and Jay-Z wore coordinating Givenchy couture (him in white-tie, her in a lurid floor-length gown adorned with crystals), and the then-KimYe (RIP) paid perfect homage to ’50s-era James with Kardashian’s tulip-like silk dress and Ye’s classic notched suit.
Best-Dressed: Nas in Public School and Lorraine Schwartz jewelry; Beyoncé in Givenchy Haute Couture and Lorraine Schwartz jewelry
The 2016 Met Gala explored the intersection of technology and fashion with the theme Manus x Machina: Fashion in the Age of Technology. The exhibition focused on both the man-made and machine-made, as the Latin title alludes, probing the age of automation in an industry simultaneously acknowledging the legacy of handmade craft. Designers like Miuccia Prada and Nicolas Ghesquière showcased how traditional techniques and modern technologies can coexist in fashion through Mia Goth’s hand-sequined Prada gown and co-chair Taylor Swift’s robot-silver Louis Vuitton cut-out mini dress. Manus x Machina becomes literal when looking at Nas’ traditionally tailored custom tuxedo by Public School, and Solange’s parabolic David Laport pleated tunic with matching latex thigh-highs.
Best-Dressed: Doja Cat in Oscar De la Renta; Dua Lipa in Chanel; and Brian Tyree Henry in Karl Lagerfeld
The 2023 Met Gala honored the late Karl Lagerfeld, celebrating his extensive and impactful career. Celebrities paid homage to Lagerfeld through various styles, from embodying his personal aesthetic to wearing pieces from his collections. Notable looks included Doja Cat and Jared Leto in feline couture cosplay honoring Lagerfeld’s beloved cat Choupette, giant white camellia florets like Rihanna’s Valentino hood and Bad Bunny’s Jacquemus coat train, yards of the designer’s beloved lace as interpreted by Alton Mason’s skintight bodystocking and Brian Tyree Henry’s power shoulder duster (both Karl Lagerfeld), and, of course, tweed, as seen on Dua Lipa’s archival Chanel gown. The lasting impression of Lagerfeld was felt on that red carpet, and it was perhaps the best display of Met Gala menswear that went beyond traditional suiting.
Best-Dressed: Evan Mock in Head of State; Lena Waithe in Ugo Mozie and Atelier Versace; Ashton Sanders in Casablanca
The 2022 Met Gala, returning to its rightful date post-pandemic, continued the USA-based theme from 2021’s In America: A Lexicon of Fashion. In America: An Anthology of Fashion – Gilded Glamour and White Tie delved specifically into the opulence and excess of the Gilded Age, highlighting both the era’s fashion and its societal implications. Co-chairs Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, Regina King, and Lin-Manuel Miranda shepherded the grandeur of the period through the red carpet with a dress code centering elaborate period-inspired ensembles. Gunna wore a vampiric cape with his Thom Browne look, Kim Kardashian flaunted an original vintage Jean Louis gown, and Lena Waithe donned a crystal-embellished Atelier Versace suit.
Best-Dressed: ASAP Rocky in ERL; Jeremy O’Harris in Tommy Hilfiger; Symone in Moschino; Natalia Bryant in Conner Ives
The 2021 Met Gala skewed tradition a bit due to COVID-19 restrictions. In America: A Lexicon of Fashion was the first of a two-part exploration of American fashion to be continued the following May. It celebrated the vocabulary of American style, highlighting its “dialects,” if you will, aka the diversity and creativity inherent in the nation’s fashion history. Co-chaired by Billie Eilish, Timothée Chalamet, Naomi Osaka, and Anna Wintour, guests interpreted American fashion through modern lenses both literally and conceptually. RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Symone wore a gold-gilded Moschino gown and a RuPaul-esque wig as an homage to the drag queen as an iconic American entertainer, and Natalia Bryant wore a buoyant gown by Conner Ives covered in giant glitter pieces that gave a distinct star-spangled effect.
Best-Dressed: Tyla in Balmain; Michael Shannon in Balenciaga; Da’Vine Joy Randolph in GAP
The 2024 Met Gala, themed Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, focused on the role of technology in reviving and reimagining fashion. The exhibition highlighted how digital tools and innovation can transform the fashion industry, both in the creation of new clothing, and the re-awakening of old garments via sewing techniques, an apt take for today’s archive-obsessed information age of fashion. Technology wove its way through the red carpet a la Emma Chamberlain’s grommet-laced Jean Paul Gaultier gown which molded to the contours of her body, and Zendaya’s two Galliano looks, one from his then-tenure at Maison Margiela, and another from Givenchy Spring/Summer 1996.
Best-Dressed: Rihanna in Guo Pei; Grace Coddington in Michael Kors; Veronica Chou in Huishan Zhang
Take all the chintzy and somewhat culturally insensitive qipaos hawked by fast fashion retailers during this distinctly Tumblr era, and turn cultural appropriation into appreciation: that was 2015 at the Met Gala. Themed China: Through the Looking Glass, the Costume Institute’s Spring 2015 exhibition explored the influence of Chinese aesthetics on Western fashion, as well as a broader notion of high fashion as it is influenced by Chinese art, film, and design. Co-chaired by Jennifer Lawrence, Gong Li, Marissa Mayer, Wendi Murdoch, and Anna Wintour, the evening’s red carpet served as a platform to Chinese designers, as seen with Rihanna’s unforgettable yellow gown by Guo Pei, which became, perhaps, one of the most remembered moments in Met Gala history.
Best-Dressed: Billy Porter in The Blonds; Law Roach and Zendaya in Tommy Hilfiger
First things first: “Camp” is not synonymous with “extreme.” Camp is the exaggeration of things that may feel quotidien to their most extreme, like a thumbtack the size of a fist, or a tiny lemon-flavored Haribo gummy shaped like a sunny side-up egg. While the 2019 Met Gala did highlight a fundamental confusion of showmanship for camp, it was fabulous all the while. Inspired by Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay “Notes on Camp,” the theme celebrated exaggeration, artifice, and excess in fashion. With co-chairs Lady Gaga, Harry Styles, and Alessandro Michele, the event featured over-the-top looks, including Billy Porter’s dramatic entrance on palanquin, and Lady Gaga’s four-part outfit reveal. Law Roach and Zendaya nailed the theme through Sontag’s eyes with their coordinating Cinderella and fairy godmother ensembles that lit up with a wave of Roach’s magic wand—equal parts literal, referential, and off-the-wall. Honorable mentions include Lizzo in BAPS-esque cosplay by Marc Jacobs, and Kacey Musgraves as a pink leather Barbie in Moschino.
Best-Dressed: Rihanna in Comme des Garçons; Solange in Thom Browne; Héloise Letissier in Burberry
The 2017 Met Gala honored Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo with the theme Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between. This was the first time the Costume Institute dedicated an exhibition to a living designer since Yves Saint Laurent in 1983. Kawakubo’s avant-garde designs, characterized by asymmetry and deconstruction, have posed consistent challenges to conventional notions of apparel, from “Ensemble,” her runway debut as the designer of Comme des Garçons in 1981, to more famous collections like “Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body” from Spring 1997. Co-chaired by Katy Perry, Pharrell Williams, and Anna Wintour, the gala featured attendees paying homage to the fashion cult behind the dark, abstract, and oftentimes whimsical point of view behind Kawakubo’s CdG, like Solange’s Thom Browne puffer jacket dress replete with a train, Madonna’s floor-length camo Moschino gown (a nod to Junya Watanabe Comme des Garçons Fall/Winter 2010), and of course, Rihanna’s sculptural floral Comme des Garçons mini dress and strappy DSquared2 sandals.
Best-Dressed: Zendaya in Atelier Versace, Tiffany & Co., and Jimmy Choo; Solange in Iris Van Herpen and Lorraine Schwartz jewelry; Sarah Jessica Parker in Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda and Philip Treacy headpiece
“What is it about God and fashion that go so well together?” A question once asked by Carrie Bradshaw in the first season of Sex and the City, and in 2018, the theme for the Met Gala. With the gala inspired by the Costume Institute’s Spring 2018 exhibition Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination, red carpet guests explored the intersection of fashion and religion through stoles, gilded gowns, and of course, millinery (See: Rihanna’s exceptional bishop’s hat made by Stephen Jones). The exhibition, curated by Andrew Bolton, examined how Catholic imagery has influenced fashion, showcasing garments inspired by religious art and iconography. Co-chaired by Amal Clooney, Rihanna, and Donatella Versace, the event featured standout moments literal to the theme like Rihanna’s papal-inspired Margiela look and Sarah Jessica Parker’s nativity-themed headpiece, as well as more subtle interpretations like Greta Gerwig’s buoyant The Row dress reminiscent of a chic nun’s habit, and Livia Firth’s ivory Giambattista Valli cloak gown.
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