The one event of the year when US Vogue editor Anna Wintour is guaranteed to attempt a warm smile is upon us, as the red carpet rolls out for the 2025 Met Gala in New York.
Held on the first Monday of May, the gala launches an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, fuels scandals such as Kim Kardashian in Marilyn Monroe’s dress in 2022 and solidifies the fashion reputations of celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Blake Lively.
Even if you’re not one of the 450 people on the guest list approved by Wintour, here is your guide to sounding on-trend about “fashion Christmas”.
Pharrell Williams, Anna Wintour and Lewis Hamilton announce the Spring 2025 Costume Institute exhibition “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in October.Credit: WireImage
What is this year’s Met Gala theme and dress code?
Expect wide lapels, creased trousers and more Windsor knot ties than a royal wedding with this year’s dress code, Tailored for You.
The gala coincides with the launch of the exhibition Superfine: Tailoring Black Style at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “a profoundly scholarly show centring [on] an important legacy of black-led sartorial innovation and creative expression that continues to inspire and shape our world today”, according to the Met’s chief executive, Max Hollein.
The Met exhibition was inspired by Monica L. Miller’s 2009 book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity.
This is the first exhibition theme since Bravehearts: Men in Skirts in 2005 focusing on menswear.
How do I watch it and what time does it start?
The livestream of the Met Gala starts on Vogue’s YouTube channel at 8am, with our live blog covering the red carpet getting a head start at 7am.
Who is going?
The guest list is kept under wraps, but this year’s official co-chairs should be early arrivals, headed by Wintour, who has ruled the gala since 1999.
Wintour invited actor Colman Domingo, F1 driver Lewis Hamilton, performer A$AP Rocky, Pharrell Williams and basketballer LeBron James to join her on the prestigious panel. The presence of A$AP Rocky gives hope that Rihanna, the unofficial queen of the Met Gala, will turn up after calling in sick last year.
In 2023, Rihanna arrived at 10.15pm, after the red carpet livestream had ended.
This year Wintour established a support committee featuring Grammy winner Doechii, André 3000, Dapper Dan, actor Ayo Edebiri, former British Vogue editor Edward Enninful, Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee, Audra McDonald, Janelle Monáe, Sha’Carri Richardson, Tyla and Usher.
New Zealand singer Lorde and Australian actor Sarah Snook, who is now appearing on Broadway in The Picture of Dorian Gray, are predicted to be suiting up, alongside Oscar-winner Ariana DeBose, Grammy-winner Sabrina Carpenter and actor Anne Hathaway, who have been spotted at warm-up parties for the main event.
Since making her Met Gala debut in 2015, Gigi Hadid has been a regular on the red carpet, with fans hopeful the supermodel might arrive with rumoured boyfriend Bradley Cooper. Last year, Hadid arrived solo. Cooper has not attended since 2022.
Cooper attended the 2018 Met Gala with his then-girlfriend, supermodel Irina Shayk.
Blake Lively and husband Ryan Reynolds are rumoured to be skipping the event, as the actor’s lawsuit with director Justin Baldoni continues to collect headlines. Lively last attended in 2022 as an official co-chair, wearing Versace.
Melbourne billionaire Richard Pratt has also attended the past two galas, raising eyebrows last year in a bedazzled pink frock coat.
What about President Trump?
US President Donald Trump is unlikely to attend the event that was once regularly penned in on his social calendar. Trump even proposed to his third wife, Melania, at the 2004 Met Gala, where the theme was Dangerous Liaisons.
Since 2012, Trump has been absent from the guest list, with Wintour declaring on a 2017 episode of The Late Late Show with James Corden that Trump would never be invited to the event again, receiving cheers from the audience.
Have there been any scandals yet?
Former Vogue political correspondent Jack Schlossberg, son of Caroline Kennedy and only grandson of the late President Kennedy, called on people to boycott the event on social media last month.
“With so much happening at home and around the world, it’s not the time, it’s not the time for a party like that – at least for me,” Schlossberg said. “So I am boycotting the Met Gala this year. I will not be going to the Met Gala. Thank you all so much.
“I will be boycotting the Met Gala and I think others should as well.”
Schlossberg last attended the gala in 2017 as his mother’s date.
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