Explainer | Met Gala 2024: why the hosts include Zendaya and JLo, this year’s theme and who is going
- What is the point of the Met Gala and what happens? We break the event down, from its origins to why Taylor Swift may not be attending this year
- Zendaya is one of this year’s hosts, while attendees will include Rihanna – guests’ outfits will fit this year’s theme: ‘Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion’
Stars of film, fashion, music, sports, politics and social media will ascend the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the first Monday in May – May 6 – to sip cocktails, have dinner and sample the new exhibit, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion”.
What is the point of the Met Gala?
It started in 1948 as a society midnight supper, and was not even at the Met.
Fast forward 70-plus years, and it is one of the most photographed events in the world, renowned for its head-spinning red carpet – although the carpet is not always red.
It is important to note, though, that the party has a purpose, raising money for the Met’s Costume Institute – nearly US$22 million last year, a record for the self-funding department – and launching the annual spring exhibit that brings hundreds of thousands of visitors to the museum.
But it is the carpet itself that draws the world’s eyes, with the 400-strong guest list the subject of rabid speculation until the last minute – a collection of luminaries that arguably makes for the highest celebrity wattage-per-square-foot of any party in the world.