One of the most anticipated and visible parties in the world - the Met Gala - has arrived.
Bringing some of the biggest stars and wildest outfits, the event is highly watched across the country.
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WATCH HERESo how can you watch it outside of New York and what can you expect to see?
Here's what to know for 2025:
What time does the Met Gala start?
Guest arrivals are scheduled from 4:30 p.m. CT to 7 p.m. CT.
What is the Met Gala?
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The gala is actually a fundraiser for the Costume Institute, the only self-funding department at the Met. Last year the evening brought in a whopping sum of more than $26 million to the museum's coffers.
How to watch the 2025 Met Gala
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SIGN UP The Met Gala arrivals will be streamed live on Vogue.com and YouTube beginning at 5 p.m. CT. Teyana Taylor, La La Anthony and Ego Nwodim will host the stream. Emma Chamberlain will also do interviews on the carpet.
Live coverage will also be available on E! and Peacock beginning at 5 p.m. CT with "Live From E!: Met Gala 2025."
Who’s hosting the 2025 Met Gala?
This year, the fundraising gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is hosted by a group of Black male celebrities, including Williams, the musical artist and Louis Vuitton menswear director, and Lewis Hamilton, Colman Domingo, and A$AP Rocky, with NBA superstar LeBron James as honorary chair. They're joined by Vogue's Anna Wintour, the mastermind behind the gala, considered the year's biggest and starriest party.
Also guaranteed to show up is a second tier of hosts from a variety of worlds, including several with Chicago ties: athletes Simone Biles and her Chicago Bears-player husband Jonathan Owens; fellow Chicago star Angel Reese, who made her first appearance at the gala just hours after wrapping up practice with the Sky last year; Sha’Carri Richardson; filmmakers Spike Lee, Tonya Lewis Lee and Regina King; actors Ayo Edebiri, Audra McDonald and Jeremy Pope; musicians Doechii, Usher, Tyla, Janelle Monáe and André 3000; author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; artists Jordan Casteel, Rashid Johnson - a contemporary artist not only born and raised in the Chicago area, but with works also exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago - and Kara Walker; playwrights Jeremy O. Harris and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins; and fashion figures Grace Wales Bonner, Edward Enninful, Dapper Dan and Olivier Rousteing.
The gala raises the bulk of the curation budget for the museum’s Costume Institute.
What is the theme of this year's Met Gala?
It's more like a firm suggestion. From Wintour. This year, it's about tailoring and suiting as interpreted through the history and meaning of Black dandyism across the Atlantic diaspora. The theme is inspired by the annual spring exhibition, which this year is based in large part on “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity,” a book written by Monica L. Miller. She is guest curator of the exhibit.
“Historical manifestations of dandyism range from absolute precision in dress and tailoring to flamboyance and fabulousness in dress and style,” Miller writes in the exhibit catalog. “Whether a dandy is subtle or spectacular, we recognize and respect the deliberateness of the dress, the self-conscious display, the reach for tailored perfection, and the sometimes subversive self-expression.”
How the dress code goes, in terms of taste and style, is anyone's guess. Wintour has a hand in virtually all things gala, so the presumption is things can't go too far off the rails. She recently knocked down the rumor that she approves all looks, telling “Good Morning America” she'll weigh in if asked.
The exhibit, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” draws on other sources beyond Miller's book. It's organized into 12 sections. Each symbolizes a characteristic of dandy style as defined by Zora Neale Hurston in her 1934 essay, “Characteristics of Negro Expression.”
Among them: ownership, presence, distinction, disguise, freedom, respectability and heritage. Presumably, for gala guests who do deep-dive research (or have stylists to do it), some of these factors will play out on the museum steps that serve as the event's red carpet.
Who else will attend?
The guest list amounts to about 450 high-profile people from tech, sports, art, entertainment and more. The mix, Williams said, is a must.
“It’s so important to me to have successful Black and brown people of every stripe in the room: not just athletes and actors and actresses, entertainers, but also authors, architects, folks from the fintech world," he told Vogue. “We’ve got to invest in each other. We’ve got to connect with each other, because it’s going to take everybody to coalesce the force of Black and brown genius into one strong, reliable force.”
Can anyone buy a ticket to the Met Gala?
In a word: No. You cannot just buy a ticket.
How much does a ticket cost?
Individual tickets start at $75,000. Generally, though, companies buy tables. A fashion label, for example, would then host its desired celebrities. A table of 10 starts at $350,000 this year, as it did last year. There will be approximately 400 guests.
What happens at the Met Gala?
Guests enter the museum and walk past an enormous flower arrangement in the museum’s grand lobby – always a talking point. Often there is an orchestra playing nearby. At the top of the grand staircase, Wintour and her co-hosts form a receiving line. Guests then head either to cocktails or to view the exhibit. Cocktails are followed by dinner. The most hotly anticipated guests sometimes skip cocktails and even dinner, and arrive around dessert time for maximum impact (we're looking at you, Rihanna).
