With its $75,000 ticket price and star-studded guest list, the Met Gala is a major moment for celebrities and pop culture aficionados alike. The annual event, which ushers in the spring exhibit for the Costume Institute at New York\u2019s Metropolitan Museum of Art, is known as fashion\u2019s biggest night \u2014 but for everyone else watching from home, it\u2019s an even bigger night for red carpet looks, celebrity memes and watercooler fodder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year, the Costume Institute\u2019s spring exhibition is called \u201cSuperfine: Tailoring Black Style,\u201d celebrating the style, politics and history of the way Black men dress. On the red carpet, celebrities are expected to dress according to theme. How well a theme is interpreted by attendees typically varies from year to year, just as widely as the themes themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here\u2019s what you need to know about this year\u2019s Met Gala.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As always, the Met Gala will be held on the first Monday of May. This year, it falls on May 5. Guest arrivals are scheduled from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET, but some celebrities may show up fashionably late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Met Gala is held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the gala itself is strictly off-limits to press (attendees must abide by a no-phone policy) the event is most famous for its red carpet, which can be watched via livestream on\u00a0Vogue.com<\/a>, YouTube or E!. This year, singer and actor Teyana Taylor, actor and producer La La Anthony and \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d star Ego Nwodim will host the Met Gala livestream for Vogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 2025 Met Gala\u2019s theme is \u201cSuperfine: Tailoring Black Style,\u201d which is also the spring exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art\u2019s Costume Institute. The Costume Institute \u2014 which is funded by proceeds raised at the Met Gala \u2014 holds tens of thousands of items in its archives dating back hundreds of years, and is housed in the Anna Wintour Costume Center of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, named for the Vogue editor-in-chief, who has chaired the gala since the 1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This year\u2019s theme will \u201cexplore the role of sartorial style in forming Black identities, focusing on the emergence, significance, and proliferation of the Black dandy,\u201d according to Vogue, and is inspired by guest curator Monica L. Miller\u2019s 2009 book \u201cSlaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBlack style is really related to thinking about how fashion and power connect,\u201d Miller\u00a0told Vogue<\/a>. \u201cThe way that people are styled, are fashioned or fashion themselves, in response to the degree of agency that they feel \u2014 silhouettes change, use of pattern, color \u2014 all of those things change in relation to time, and relationship to history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSuperfine\u201d is organized into 12 sections focusing on traits that define the style: ownership, presence, distinction, disguise, freedom, champion, respectability, jook, heritage, beauty, cool and cosmopolitanism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHistorically, made-to-wear clothing was not as available for Black people. So the tailor became a very, very important person in a community,\u201d Miller said, adding: \u201cThe tailor in Black communities was somebody who would know about people\u2019s lives because of the ways in which people would visit the tailor for these special occasions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The dress code is \u201ctailored for you,\u201d so perfectly tailored menswear staples will likely dominate the famed carpeted steps leading up to the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Viewers may expect to see \u201ctakes on suiting \u2014 from versions of the zoot silhouette popularized by jazz musicians in the 1940s to the bold, colorful styles worn by Congolese sapeurs,\u201d\u00a0according to Vogue<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to Wintour, actor Colman Domingo, musicians Pharrell Williams and A$AP Rocky, and Formula One competitor Lewis Hamilton will co-chair the gala. NBA star LeBron James will serve as an honorary co-chair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 2025 host committee features Andr\u00e9 3000, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jordan Casteel, Dapper Dan, Doechii, Ayo Edebiri, Edward Enninful, Jeremy O. Harris, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Rashid Johnson, Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee, Audra McDonald, Janelle Mon\u00e1e, Jeremy Pope, Angel Reese, Sha\u2019Carri Richardson, Tyla, Usher and Kara Walker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Met Gala guest list is top secret, but usually contains a few hundred singers, actors, athletes, poets and other celebrities. Some stars return to the red carpet almost every year, such as Rihanna and her partner, A$AP Rocky, plus Zendaya, the Kardashians, Sarah Jessica Parker and Blake Lively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For those who aren\u2019t handpicked to attend the gala, tickets are available for $75,000, but the final guest list is still approved by Wintour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outspoken Kennedy heir Jack Schlossberg is boycotting the Met Gala, he announced in an Instagram post<\/a> in April. The former Vogue political correspondent said, \u201cI can\u2019t go in good conscience with so much happening around the world and at home,\u201d and tagged Wintour in the video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n