All your burning questions about the Met Gala, answered – from 2023’s hosts Dua Lipa, Roger Federer and Penélope Cruz and the controversial Karl Lagerfeld theme to the guest lists and US$50,000 fee

Apr 28 , 2023

Gigi Hadid attends the Met Gala celebrating “In America: An Anthology of Fashion” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in May 2022, in New York City. Photo: Getty Images

The annual Met Gala attracts the world’s biggest celebrity figures, from Rihanna and Lady Gaga to Zendaya, Kim Kardashian and Blake Lively – but the VIP list isn’t revealed until the big day

Guests have to be approved by Anna Wintour to get an invite, but not all celebs are keen, with Tina Fey calling the event a ‘jerk parade’ and Amy Schumer describing her experience as a ‘punishment’

Last year, it took 275,000 bright pink roses to adorn the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the Met Gala, the biggest night in fashion and one of the biggest concentrations of star power anywhere.

It remains to be seen how the museum’s Great Hall will be decorated come the first Monday in May, but one thing is not in question: those entering it will surely look spectacular.

Billie Eilish poses on the red carpet for the Met Gala, the annual benefit for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, in New York, in September 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE

The theme centres on the late designer Karl Lagerfeld, who made an indelible mark on luxury fashion in his long career at Chanel, Fendi and elsewhere. It is a theme not without controversy – Lagerfeld was known for contentious remarks about everything from #MeToo to curvy bodies.

Want to know what to expect as the big day approaches? Not to worry. We’ve dusted off our annual guide for you here, with some key updates.

What is the Met Gala anyway?

Rihanna arrives on the red carpet for the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute’s benefit celebrating the opening of the exhibit “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” in New York, US, in May 2018. Photo: EPA-EFE

It started in 1948 as a society midnight supper, and wasn’t even at the Met.

Fast forward 70-plus years, and the Met Gala is something totally different: one of the most photographed events in the world for its head-spinning red carpet – though the carpet isn’t always red.

Zendaya arrives for the Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in May 2019, in New York. Photo: AFP

We’re talking Rihanna as a bejewelled pope. Zendaya as Cinderella with a light-up gown. Katy Perry as a chandelier morphing into a hamburger. Also: Beyoncé in her “naked dress”. Billy Porter as an Egyptian sun god, carried on a litter by six shirtless men. And Lady Gaga’s 16-minute striptease.