What Happens Inside the Met Gala?

The most exclusive event of the year is right around the corner: the Met Gala. Hosted by Vogue editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, the Met Gala brings in some of the biggest celebrities, designers, and thinkers of the year to meet under one roof: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Select stars are chosen to host the event alongside Wintour. In 2023, hosts Dua Lipa, Michaela Coel, Penelope Cruz, and Roger Federer helped the highly anticipated gala go off without a hitch. This year, 2024 Met Gala hosts Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Chris Hemsworth, and Bad Bunny are stepping up to the role as first-time co-chairs. 

Alongside the hosts, the Met Gala often offers honorary co-chair positions to guests of honor. 2024's honorary co-chairs include Shou Chew, the CEO of TikTok, and Jonathan Anderson, the designer and creative director of Loewe. Both companies are also sponsoring this year's gala.

The Met Gala follows a new theme each year which corresponds with the Met's annually rotating Costume Institute exhibition. Some of the most iconic themes in recent years include 2018's "Heavenly Bodies" and 2019's "Camp."

In 2023, the Met Gala exhibition was titled "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty." Since his passing in 2019, the memorable Fendi and Chanel designer has been remembered and cherished in the fashion world. Inspired by the theme, countless celebrities arrived on the red carpet clad in elegant, black-and-white Lagerfeld-esque looks. As always, some guests offered outfits that skewed wildly unique, including Doja Cat's anthropomorphic cat ensemble, as inspired by Lagerfeld's iconic cat, Choupette. 

In line with the seasonal shift marked by the beginning of May, the 2024 Met Gala dress code is "The Garden of Time," corresponding with this year's Costume Institute theme, titled "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion." The dress code theme draws its inspiration from J.G. Ballard's 1962 short story of the same title. "It's pretty much an ode to nature [...] Nature as a metaphor for fashion and for its fragility and its ephemerality," said Andrew Bolton, the head curator of the Costume Institute. 

Given the theme's connection to nature, we have no doubt that plenty of extravagant botanical creations will grace the red carpet for the 2024 Met Gala. 

As people watch from the comfort of our couches on the first Monday of May, L'OFFICIEL explains what exactly happens inside the gala, with insider details on the red carpet, the dinner, and the electrifying annual music performance. 

The red carpet is without a doubt the most memorable part of the Met Gala for the public—especially given that it's the only part we're allowed to see. As the star-studded guests make their way up the iconic Met stairs, they are bombarded with paparazzi.

Of all the high-profile awards shows, charity balls, and fashion events that occur annually, the Met Gala is one of the most photographed affairs of the year, so it comes as no surprise that many of its celebrity guests have confessed their red carpet anxieties surrounding the event. Red carpet correspondent Emma Chamberlain, who is returning to her role for the 2024 Met Gala, shared that in preparation for the event, she was a "nervous wreck," a feeling many guests can relate to. 

After the red carpet, the event becomes ultra-exclusive. Guests are asked to turn off their phones to keep details of the event private to the public and to create an open, safe environment for the high-profile attendees. After all, it can be difficult to mingle and socialize with other celebrities with cameras capturing every moment, even for seasoned veterans. 

While no photos are allowed inside the event, many celebrities have broken the golden rule with selfies taken in the restrooms, a phenomenon that has become something of an annual tradition for many guests. Each year, a group of celebrities rarely seen together are pictured in a bathroom mirror selfie, offering fans a glimpse into the fun that goes on after the red carpet photos end. 

Once all of the guests have arrived, the celebrities settle down for a formal dinner, which takes place inside a grand hall with carefully selected seats for each guest. Drawing up the seating chart for the Met Gala is no easy task, as the planner must ensure that seating placements prevent any drama, make sure guests feel comfortable with whom they dine, and don't accidentally offend any attendees. 

In 2021, Eaddy Kiernan, a Met Gala party planner, told Vogue, "We really try to think very carefully about who’s sitting next to each other. Our ideal pairing would maybe be two people who we think will just get on like a house on fire but who may not even realize that they have a lot in common. So with each person, we really do take time to think, ‘What will they talk about?’ We try and think a lot about sight lines and where people have sat in the past. And we try to make sure someone isn’t staring into the eyes of a former flame.” 

While the red carpet arrival and elegant dinner are highlights of the evening to be sure, another main event of the night is the annual musical performance. Once guests have finished sipping champagne and enjoying the sophisticated meal, a high-profile musician steps out to deliver a show-stopping performance. In 2015, Rihanna rocked the Met Gala stage with an energetic performance of "Bitch Better Have My Money."

The biggest Met production in history occurred in 2010 with Lady Gaga's performance of "Alejandro," complete with dancers and a white grand piano. Other past performers include Madonna, The Weeknd, and Lenny Kravitz with Kacey Musgraves.