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With Brandon Drenon on the red carpet in New York and analysis from fashion critic Scarlett Harris
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Edited by Brandon Livesay
All times stated are UK
The Queen of the Met Gala arrives
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”.
Copyright: Getty Images
Controversy grows over TikTok's sponsorship
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?
Met Gala co-chair Bad Bunny arrives
Copyright: Getty Images
Chris Hemsworth arrives
Brandon 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 caption: Elsa Pataky and Chris HemsworthCopyright: Get
- Analysis
All eyes will be on Zendaya
Scarlett Harris
Fashion critic
Copyright: Getty Images
As 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.
Copyright: Getty Images
Crowds gather outside the Met Gala
Brandon Drenon
Reporting from the red carpet
Copyright: BBC
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.
Iconic looks from past Met Gala red carpets
Image caption: Jared Leto tuned heads in 2019 with his eye-catching accessoryCopyright: Getty Images
Image caption: Kim Kardashian showed up in a full-body, faceless black outfit at the 2021 galaCopyright: Getty Images
Image caption: Rihanna arrived for the 2018 Met Gala wearing a bishop’s hat in homage to the theme ‘Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination’Copyright: Getty Images
Image caption: Princess Diana wearing a black, lace-trimmed slip dress and large pearl and sapphire.Copyright: Getty Images
Image caption: Blake Lively's dress in 2022 changed colours from bronze to green like the Statue of LibertyCopyright: Getty Images
Image caption: Lil Nas X in an all metal outfit at the 2021 Met GalaCopyright: Getty Images
Viral moments from past Met Galas
Copyright: Getty Images
Doja 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 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.
What it is really like inside the secretive Met Gala
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.
Buzz builds behind the scenes
Brandon Drenon
Reporting from the red carpet
Copyright: BBC
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.
What is the Met Gala’s place in pop culture?
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.
Welcome to fashion's night of nights
Copyright: Getty Images
It’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.
English (US)