We’re just days away from the 2024 Met Gala, fashion’s biggest night of the year. Formally known as the Costume Institute Gala, the event serves as a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, a collection of over 33,000 pieces representing the evolution of fashion from the 15th century to the modern day. Each year, the biggest names in Hollywood, politics, sports, and social media are invited to attend, working closely with designers to carefully curate outfits that satisfy the event’s theme and (hopefully) public opinion.
As we approach the big night, here’s what you can expect from this year’s Met Gala.
Theme
Each Met Gala theme is tied to a new exhibition within the Costume Institute. This year, that theme is “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” The exhibition will display around 250 items from approximately 400 years of fashion history. Pulled from the Costume Institute’s permanent collection, many of the garments are reportedly too fragile to be worn will be displayed digitally through light and video projections and A.I. technology to ensure their preservation.
Dress Code
This year’s dress code is “The Garden of Time,” inspired by a J.G. Ballard story of the same name. The story follows a wealthy couple who use magic flowers from their villa garden to keep an angry mob at bay; each time they pick a flower, time stops and so does the mob. Ultimately, the garden no longer blooms, and when the couple picks the last flower, they must accept that the mob will reach them and put an end to their sophisticated life.
While the story makes literal references to the wonder of the natural world, it’s also interpreted as a metaphor for creation and destruction, the contradictions of memory, and fleeting beauty, all themes that we can hope to see reflected in attendees’ looks.
Guest List
Anna Wintour, Editor-in-Chief of Vogue and host of the event, gets the final say on the guest list each year. As Co-Chairs of this year’s festivities, we know that Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Bad Bunny, and Chris Hemsworth will all be in attendance.
The Met Gala guest list is notoriously kept a secret, building anticipation for the event as viewers await to see who arrives on the carpet the day of, though sometimes celebrities will hint at their attendance in advance. Zendaya shared with E! News that her Challengers co-stars Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist will also be in attendance.
Rihanna, a Met Gala veteran known for her show-stealing looks, confirmed her attendance and hinted at her look for this year’s Gala at the recent Fenty Beauty Soft’Lit Naturally Luminous Longwear Foundation launch event in Los Angeles. Though she didn’t go into detail, the singer told E! News that the look will be “really chill,” citing motherhood as her inspiration for leaning into simpler fashion.
Lily Gladstone of Killers of the Flower Moon fame confirmed that she will make her first appearance at the Gala in an interview with Extra, sharing that her look would be “another stunning, incredible established designer with an unbelievable indigenous artist collaboration,” much like her look for the 2024 Oscars.
Other first-timers that fans hope to see on the Met steps this year include The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri, WNBA draftee Caitlin Clark, and Grammy-award-winner Tyla.
Members of the KarJenner family, Blake Lively, Beyoncé, Anne Hathaway, Sydney Sweeney, Taylor Russell, Jeff Bezos, Gisele Bundchen, Olivia Rodrigo, Cara Delevigne, and Barry Keoghan are among the list of celebrities anticipated to return to the Gala this year. Actors Billy Porter and Jared Leto have both confirmed that they will not be attending due to personal and professional conflicts. Taylor Swift and beau Travis Kelce are rumored to have been invited, but sources have provided conflicting information on whether the couple will attend.
Red carpet coverage of the Met Gala will begin at 6pm EST exclusively on Vogue.com. The livestream will be hosted by Gwendoline Christie, La La Anthony, and Ashley Graham, with Emma Chamberlain as a special correspondent on the red carpet.
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