Met Gala 2021: Date, Theme, Attendees and Complete Guide

The prodigal Met Gala returns! For those who don’t know (although I have a feeling you wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t) the Met Gala, is THE event all celebrities, fashion designers and socialites look forward to all year.

The Met Gala, formally called the Costume Institute Gala or the Costume Institute Benefit is colloquially known as the Met Ball. This monumental event marks the opening of the Costume Institute’s annual fashion exhibit in an annual fundraising gala for the benefit of the Met Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York City.

Every year celebrities turn up in outrageous costumes and the Best and Worst Dressed lists make it to the top of the charts as us simpletons look to gossip about outfits we would never get the opportunity to even be in the room with. The event releases a theme every year which sets the tone for the outfits of the night.

If we take a walk down memory lane we will see that the Met Gala was established in 1948 and the first Gala was a midnight dinner and tickets were fifty dollars each. Hah! We wish that’s what it cost now. The event has since become a beacon of lavishness and luxury and is considered the jewel in New York City’s social crown.

The 2021 event will mark the Costume Institute’s 75th birthday and, according to the Times, will honour the local community that supported it. As such, nearly 80 percent of the clothes in the show will come from the Met’s holdings. So let’s dish out the details.

Who will be the hosts?

While the hosts for the gala have not yet been announced, it’s rumoured that National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, will be hosting the Met Gala. She will supposedly be joined by Tom Ford, the CFDA chairman and designer. As always, Anna Wintour, the chief content officer and global editorial director of Vogue, will host the show.

Celebrating the announcement of the Met Gala's return with the queen of the #MetGala, @rihanna. Photos by @gettyimages pic.twitter.com/71DkXDK3ez

— Fashion Week (@FashionWeek) April 12, 2021

When will it take place?

After the 2020 Met Gala was postponed and eventually cancelled due to COVID-19, the Gala compensates by officially returning with not one but two Met Galas. US Weekly confirmed that the first will take place on Monday, September 13, 2021, pending government COVID-19 guidelines, and the second will occur on May 2, 2022.

What is the theme this year?

This year things will be a little bit different. The Gala will be sponsored by Instagram and the now multipart event will consist of two exhibitions, each with its own individual focus. The first event that will be happening in September is titled “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion.” This theme plans to explore the discourse and language surrounding the fashion industry.

The second exhibition titled “In America: An Anthology of Fashion,” aims to take a walk down memory lane and break down the timeline of fashion in America.

“Over the past year, because of the pandemic, the connections to our homes have become more emotional, as have those to our clothes,” Andrew Bolton, the Wendy Yu Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute, said on the choice of theme.

“For American fashion, this has meant an increased emphasis on sentiment over practicality.”

Who can attend the Met Gala?

Until the evening before the event, the guest list is top secret. If you’re one of the lucky ones to be on the guestlist then you don’t pay to attend. Some of the biggest names in the business regularly attend – from the Kardashians to Madonna, Rihanna to Beyonce, the Met Gala is the place to be. A lot of the times, celebrities wear custom made couture and multi-million dollar jewellery to the Gala and are often accompanied by the designers themselves.

If, however, you’re not on the list but have managed to secure a chance of attending, tickets are priced at around 30,000 dollars each, with tables costing about 275,000 dollars.

Who is invited to the Met Gala?

Until the evening before the event, the guest list is top secret. But some of the biggest names in the business regularly attend – from Beyoncé and Lady Gaga to Madonna and Rihanna. More often than not, designers attend with their muses: think Marc Jacobs and Kate Moss, or Nicolas Ghesquiere and Emma Stone.