The Met Gala is the one event that those of us fond of fawning over red-carpet fashion look forward to every year.
Historically taking place every first Monday of May (unless a global pandemic forces a September reschedule), the 2026 Met Gala is almost here, taking place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Here’s everything you need to know about fashion’s most anticipated red carpet…
What is the Met Gala and when does it happen?
Although the night is more commonly referred to as either the Met Ball or the Met Gala, the event is formally known as the Costume Institute Benefit.
The gala is a fundraiser dedicated to New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute – formally named The Anna Wintour Costume Center, in homage to the American Vogue’s former editor-in-chief, who has been a chair member of the museum’s gala since 1995.
The benefit was founded in 1948 by publicist Eleanor Lambert to encourage donations from New York’s high society.
Why does it have a theme?
The Met Gala also marks the opening night of the Costume Institute’s annual fashion exhibit. The theme of the exhibition sets the tone for the event and invitees must dress accordingly.
Occasionally, the theme is broad, like 2021’s Gala, which saw attendees dressing for “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion”. But every few years, it is dedicated to a single individual. In 2017, for example, we saw celebrities incorporate bright colours and avant-garde designs as they walked the Met Gala 2017 red carpet, which was themed ‘Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons’ – in homage to (you guessed it) Rei Kawakubo, the fashion designer of the avant-garde Japanese label, Comme des Garçons.
The showstopper look of the night was Rihanna wearing Comme des Garçons. Riri stole the night wearing one of her all-time most unforgettable looks.
Hector Retamal/Getty Images
For 2024, the theme was ‘Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion’ and an official dress code of ‘The Garden of Time’, with the exhibition focusing on using research, conversation, and technology to replicate the sensations of the museum’s major pieces and saw Zendaya stealing the show in archival Givenchy Haute Couture with an archival Alexander McQueen hat.
As for last year? The spotlight was shone on dandyism – officially titled “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” inspired by Monica L. Miller’s 2009 book, Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity. The exhibition itself was dedicated to the “style of Black men in the context of dandyism, from the 18th century through present” – and celebs on the red carpet dressed accordingly. Riri knocked it out the park with Marc Jacob tailoring that perfectly curved around her baby bump; Zendaya kept it cool in a head-to-toe white suit by Louis Vuitton; Doechii puffed on cigar wearing full LV print; and Andre 3000 turned up with a piano on his back.