Met Gala guests put on a show on the red carpet for fashion's biggest night of the year
The charity event is held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and draws A-list celebrities and the who's who of the fashion world
Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Chris Hemsworth and Bad Bunny joined Vogue’s Anna Wintour as hosts
Guests included Kim Kardashian, Kendall Jenner, Dua Lipa, Serena Williams, Jeff Goldblum and Doja Cat
The 2024 theme is The Garden of Time - a short story about a Count and Countess who pluck time-reversing flowers
The event raises money for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and tickets are rumoured to cost upwards of $70,000 (£56,000)
We have a live stream from the Met Gala red carpet, where you can watch the latest arrivals like Jennifer Lopez (who just showed up, we'll have pics of her very soon).
You can watch by pressing the play button at the top of this page.
Image source, Getty ImagesLily James
Image source, Getty ImagesSteven Yeun
Image source, Getty ImagesRebecca Ferguson
Image source, Getty ImagesEmma Chamberlain
Brandon Drenon
Reporting from the red carpet
Image source, Getty ImagesMatt Damon just arrived.
Journalists scream out his name, hoping to get a brief interview.
“How long did it take you to get ready tonight,” one journalist asks.
Matt Damon smiles then replies: “seven minutes”.
Scarlett Harris
Fashion critic
Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion is the theme of the Met Museum Costume Institute exhibition, but the dress code for tonight’s gala takes inspiration from the J. G. Ballard short story “The Garden of Time,” which is about the decay of a garden - a metaphor for societal collapse.
Expect attendees to go the literal route, with plenty of florals from the likes of Dolce & Gabbana and Jonathan Anderson who, as the head designer of gala sponsor Loewe, has several of his Spring/Summer 2023 looks with grass growing out of them in the exhibition.
Alexander McQueen is sure to be in abundance, with his undertones of death and decomposition.
Sleeping Beauties is laid out in three sections: land, sea and sky, so we’re likely to see a lot of natural textures, such as Yiqing Yin’s Fall 2013 coral dress or the entirety of Mugler’s Fall 1997 couture collection.
I also fully expect someone (*cough* Lady Gaga *cough*) to show up in Viktor & Rolf’s Fall 2005 bed dress.
We're starting to see more celebrities make their way from The Mark Hotel to the Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
We have a live stream outside the hotel where you can watch them leave and get a glimpse of the outfits. To watch along, press the play button at the top of this page.
Among the stars we've spotted are actor Matt Damon and his wife Luciana Barroso.
Stay with us.
Image source, Getty ImagesYou can’t talk about the Met Gala without mentioning Anna Wintour.
The Met Gala is one of the biggest nights in the world of fashion, and Wintour is one of the most influential figures in the industry.
The 74-year-old Vogue editor-in-chief has organised the gala since 1995.
Have you seen the The Devil Wears Prada? Meryl Streep’s fearsome character is widely rumoured to be based on Wintour.
Her trademark bob haircut and large-frame sunglasses are instantly recognisable at fashion shows around the world.
Wintour, who was raised in London to a British father and an American mother, was formerly editor of British Vogue before taking the helm at its US sister publication in 1988.
She is credited with turning American Vogue into one of the world's top fashion publications, where her no-nonsense style of management earned her the nickname "Nuclear Wintour".
Brandon Drenon
Reporting from the red carpet
Anna Wintour, the Queen of the Met Gala, has just walked the carpet. Press gathered around the boundary intermittently scream out: “Anna, you look beautiful”.
Image source, Getty Images
Michelle Fleury
Reporting from New York
The boldest thing on the red carpet tonight might not be a look. It'll be a man.
All eyes are on the Met Gala to see if TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew shows up in the wake of the tech company's now-controversial sponsorship of the event.
The app, which currently has about 150 million monthly users in the United States, was deemed enough of a national security threat that President Joe Biden just signed a bill into law to either ban the platform or force its sale.
Both Democratic and Republican politicians are concerned over the app’s China based parent company, Bytedance, and what it means for user safety and data privacy. TikTok has pushed back and plans to challenge the new law in court.
Chew isn’t just a guest of Anna Wintour’s. He is an honorary chair of the event. If he shows up, will he use the red carpet to make more than a fashion statement?
Image source, Getty ImagesBrandon Drenon
Reporting from the red carpet
Chris Hemsworth just appeared, met by rapturous yells from fans across the street.
He is one of the co-chairs for tonight’s event.
Image source, GetElsa Pataky and Chris Hemsworth
Scarlett Harris
Fashion critic
Image source, Getty ImagesAs recently as Friday, stylist Law Roach told The Cut that Zendaya’s Met Gala dress wasn’t even made yet.
“They won’t fit until Saturday,” he said, sending the internet into a tizzy about what the Challengers star could possibly be wearing for her return to the infamous Met steps. (Her last go-around was her illuminated Cinderella ballgown, with Roach as her proverbial fairy godmother for 2019’s Camp theme).
Given the “Garden of Time” theme and the last-minute nature of her frock, could we be in for a living garment in the form of flowers? If anyone can pull it off, it’s Zendaya, who has emerged as a fashion icon in the years since her last Met Gala appearance.
Notable moments have been her Challengers movie press tour and her iconic archival pull from Thierry Mugler's fall/winter 1995 collection—a literal suit of armor—for the Dune: Part 2 premiere.
Image source, Getty ImagesBrandon Drenon
Reporting from the red carpet
Before the first celebrities even appear, throngs of fans have lined up along New York City’s famous 5th Avenue. Their gleeful gaze is restricted by armed gatekeepers - the New York Police Department. Security is tight, and the NYPD has the street barricaded on both sides for several blocks.
Image source, Getty ImagesJared Leto tuned heads in 2019 with his eye-catching accessory
Image source, Getty ImagesKim Kardashian showed up in a full-body, faceless black outfit at the 2021 gala
Image source, Getty ImagesRihanna arrived for the 2018 Met Gala wearing a bishop’s hat in homage to the theme ‘Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination’
Image source, Getty ImagesPrincess Diana wearing a black, lace-trimmed slip dress and large pearl and sapphire.
Image source, Getty ImagesBlake Lively's dress in 2022 changed colours from bronze to green like the Statue of Liberty
Image source, Getty ImagesLil Nas X in an all metal outfit at the 2021 Met Gala
Image source, Getty ImagesDoja Cat pretends she is… a cat – The singer dressed up as a cat at the 2023 gala in honour of designer Karl Lagerfeld’s beloved pet, Choupette. She also chose to meow in response to questions on the red carpet.
Solange Knowles and Jay-Z’s elevator fight – This happened in 2014 at a Met Gala afterparty, with video of the incident leaked to TMZ. The aftermath dominated popular culture headlines and both Beyoncé and Jay-Z later seemingly referenced the fight in song lyrics.
Kim Kardashian’s Marilyn Monroe dress – Kardashian wore Marilyn Monroe’s gown to the Met Gala in 2022, the same dress Monroe wore when she famously sang Happy Birthday to President John F Kennedy. It sparked a wave of backlash over concerns the dress had been damaged, a claim the dress owner, Ripley’s Believe it or Not, later denied.
Bathroom selfies – There’s a no phone policy at the Met Gala - but it isn’t always followed. A bathroom selfie taken by Kylie Jenner, external alongside Brie Larson, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Paris Jackson, Frank Ocean, A$AP Rocky, Lily Aldridge, Kim Kardashian and Kendall Jenner went viral after the gala in 2017. It quickly clocked up millions of likes on Jenner’s Instagram page.
Brandon Drenon
Reporting from the red carpet
Very few people, excluding the invitees, have been inside the Met during the Met Gala – but I have.
I moved to New York City from Los Angeles, in 2013, called here – like many others – in hopes of becoming a fashion model.
The modelling agency that represented me partnered with a catering company that hired models for its high-profile events, like the Met Gala.
I was part of a vast network of servers, handing off bottles of booze and plates of food to one server, who would hand it to another server, who would gently put it on the table between chattering celebs.
At the end of the night, one thing that struck me was that most of the food on the plates appeared untouched.
The champagne bottles, however, were mostly empty.
Brandon Drenon
Reporting from the red carpet
It’s like a mini Met Gala back here in the holding area for the press.
Well-heeled TV correspondents are draped in sparkling gowns.
Camera men are dressed in black suits, black ties and black shades, the same colour as the tripods and cameras perched nearby.
It’s the buzz before the buzz.
“I’ve been writing the story for this from the desk for 15 years,” one journalist ecstatically told another. “This is my first time actually here.”
We're being led out to the red carpet now to find our places.
Steven McIntosh
Entertainment reporter
The Met Gala has been running annually since 1965 - with the exception of 2020 due to Covid lockdowns.
Since 1995, the gala has been chaired or co-chaired by Vogue editor Dame Anna Wintour, one of the most powerful and influential figures in fashion.
The purpose of the gala is to raise money for the Costume Institute, the fashion wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
But the Met Gala is primarily seen as a highly exclusive social event, as well as the biggest night in the fashion calendar.
A magnet for A-listers, the gala has wider reach than ever in the age of social media, as fans pore over the outfits - with the most outlandish ones often going viral.
Regular attendees include Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, Lady Gaga and Billie Eilish.
This year, Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Bad Bunny and Chris Hemsworth are co-chairs of the event.
Image source, Getty ImagesIt’s the first Monday in May, which means it’s time for the Met Gala - the biggest night in fashion.
This year’s theme is the Garden of Time, a dress code inspired by the Costume Institute’s exhibit on at the Met this evening: Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.
The red carpet kicks off at 18:00 local time (23:00 BST) and some of the most famous celebrities in entertainment and fashion will grace the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Follow along as we bring you pictures of the best dressed, and interviews live from the red carpet.