The first Monday of May has become fashion’s prime venue that many look forward to with the establishment of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Benefit (Met Gala). This year, the 76th edition of the gala took place in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met), inviting many celebrities to participate in the fundraiser for the museum’s Costume Institute—Met’s dedicated wing for fashion history and preservation.
The Met Gala is known as fashion’s biggest night and features a red carpet where celebrities and designers wear high-grade fashion creations. Anna Wintour is the media executive and fashion icon who has led the event following her role as the lead chairman for the Met Gala since 1995. The co-chairs for the event, hand-picked by Wintour, were Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, and Venus William. The co-chairs help shape the event’s themes, manage the guest list, select decor, and promote publicity to boost the fundraising.
“I think it’s a great event…it [looked] fun, people were kind, and [it was] a good experience for the fashion industry,” said junior Caden Sparks-Cotillier.
The curated theme for this year’s event was “Costume Art”, to highlight the Met’s Costume Institute’s spring exhibition. This provoked the dress code of “Fashion is Art”, encouraging guests to express their own relationship to fashion as an embodied art form. The theme explored the connection between fashion, art, and the body throughout art history.
The vast and subjective theme allowed celebrities and designers to express their creative interpretation of the dress code. Various looks on the red carpet caught the attention of the public’s eye with satisfaction.
“I like Anok Yai’s look. It’s very elegant,” said sophomore Elin Lin when asked about her favorite looks.
The Sudanese American model’s outfit consisted of a well-made black hood and golden tears, trying for a surreal statue mood that references the Black Madonna—paintings or statues of the Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus with dark skin.
“When I first learned about the Met Gala theme this year, I knew I wanted to blur the line between being human and being art, [like] a bronze statue caught in the movement,” said Yai on her Instagram post.
Lin continued to share her thoughts. “I also like Emma Chamberlain’s outfit,” she said.
Chamberlain is a prominent American internet personality, businesswoman, and model. Her look was composed of a custom-painted Mugler gown using 30 base colors and 40 hours of painting.
“For Chamberlain, paintings—and paint itself—are nostalgic and comforting. She and [Jared] Ellner wanted her gown to feel like one, incorporating textures, colors, and themes from some of her favorite works,” said Vogue in an article featuring Chamberlain.
Other celebrities like Rihanna in a sculptured gold look from Maison Margiela’s 2025 costume archive and Lisa from BLACKPINK’s elegant beaded veil held up by 3D hands are also interesting looks that are worthy of the limelight.
The effort is proof that celebrities were not only participating in the Met Gala for the fundraiser, but they were also there for the themed red carpet entrance that allowed them to represent brands and their creative interpretation of the theme.
Overall, this year the fundraising earned a record-breaking $42 million, exceeding the previous year’s record of $31 million. Many people participated and showed their creative distinction in their outfits while having fun at the same time, in contribution to a good cause. This has shown the Met Gala’s growth from being a modest fundraising dinner to a single most talked-about night in the fashion industry.
