Model Quannah Chasinghorse at the 2022 Met Gala wearing intricate custom jewelry by Lenise Omeasoo, a Blackfeet and Cree artist, and an upcycled Prabal Gurung tulle gown.Calvin Klein and Iman attend the Met Gala on December 7, 1981, celebrating the Costume Institute’s exhibition “The Eighteenth-Century Woman.”From left: Raquel Welch, Diane von Furstenberg, Diana Ross and Patrice Calmette attend the Met Gala on December 7, 1981.Raquel Welch at the Met Gala on December 6, 1982, celebrating the Costume Institute’s exhibition “La Belle Epoque.”Fashion designer Carolina Herrera attends the Met Gala on December 5, 1983, celebrating “Yves Saint Laurent: 25 Years of Design.”Fashion designer Bob Mackie and Cher at the Met Gala on December 9, 1985, celebrating the “Costumes of Royal India” exhibition.Naomi Campbell seen at the Gala on December 3, 1990, celebrating the Costume Institute’s exhibition “Théâtre de la Mode—Fashion Dolls: The Survival of Haute Couture.”Christy Turlington attends the Met Gala on December 7, 1992, celebrating the Costume Institute’s exhibition “Fashion and History: A Dialogue.”Donatella Versace at the 1999 Gala, celebrating the Costume Institute’s exhibition “Rock Style.” Versace is wearing a version of the same dress Jennifer Lopez later wore to the 2000 Grammy Awards, sparking a reaction so frenzied that it, in part, spurred the creation of Google’s Image Search functionality.Fashion designers Stefano Gabbana (far left) and Domenico Dolce (far right) attend the Met Gala on April 23, 2001 with Naomi Campbell and Iman. The Costume Institute’s theme was “Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years.”Fashion designer Alexander McQueen with Sarah Jessica Parker (who he dressed for the occasion) attend the Met Gala on May 1, 2006, celebrating the Costume Institute’s exhibition “AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion.”Andre Leon Talley (in a Tiepolo-red haute couture cape designed by Karl Lagerfeld) and Venus Williams (in Carolina Herrera) on the red carpet at the Met Gala on May 5, 2008, celebrating the Costume Institute’s exhibition “Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy.”Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes (in an Armani gown) also seen on the 2008 red carpet.Rihanna at the 2009 Met Gala in a Dolce & Gabbana suit and bow tie to honor “The Model as Muse: Celebrating Fashion” exhibition.Madonna, also in 2009, in a Louis Vuitton mini dress complete with sculptural hair scrunchie.Kim Kardashian and Kanye West at the 2013 Met Gala to celebrate “Punk: Chaos to Couture.” Kardashian’s floral Givenchy gown, designed by Riccardo Tisci, proved a particularly polarizing (and meme-able) look.Sienna Miller in a studded jacket and dress by Burberry at the “Punk: Chaos to Couture” themed 2013 Met Gala. A spiked headband completed the look.Taylor Swift in an Oscar De La Renta organza gown at the Met Gala on May 5, 2014, to celebrate the Costume Institute’s exhibition “Charles James: Beyond Fashion.”Solange Knowles in a peach hued 3.1 Phillip Lim creation, also at the 2014 Met Gala.Rihanna at the Met Gala on May 4, 2015 in a couture gown from Chinese designer Guo Pei, to celebrate the Costume Institute’s exhibition “China: Through the Looking Glass.” One of the most iconic looks to ever walk the event’s red carpet.Sarah Jessica Parker also attends the 2015 Met Gala in an ornate flaming red headpiece by Philip Treacy, and a dress from her collaboration with H&M.Anne Hathaway the same year (2015) in a custom golden Ralph Lauren Collection dress with draped hood.Kate Bosworth in matching Dolce & Gabbana gown and crown for the 2016 exhibition “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology.”Zayn Malik (in Versace) and Gigi Hadid (in Tommy Hilfiger) also made their red carpet couple debut on the 2016 event.Beyonce, also in 2016, in latex, puff-sleeved Givenchy featuring intricate beadwork.Solange Knowles in a Thom Browne coat at the Met Gala on May 1, 2017, celebrating the Costume Institute’s exhibition “Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between.”A pearl-covered Cardi B attends the Met Gala on May 7, 2018 in custom Moschino to celebrate the Costume Institute’s exhibition “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.”Lupita Nyong’o celebrates the 2019 Costume Institute’s exhibition “Camp: Notes on Fashion,” in a rainbow, frilly Versace number, bedecked with pink stars.During the same event, Zendaya arrived in a custom Tommy Hilfiger luminous Cinderella gown, while stylist Law Roach dressed as her fairy godmother.Kim Kardashian at the Met Gala on September 13, 2021, celebrating the exhibition “America: A Lexicon of Fashion.” Among much discussion of Kardashian’s Balenciaga gown, Holly Thomas wrote for CNN Opinion that, “being so famous that people recognize you by your silhouette alone, yet neutral to the point where people can effectively project whatever they wish onto you (this analogy included) feels like a fairly legitimate take on American celebrity culture.”Hunter Schafer attends the 2021 Met Gala in two-piece vintage Prada, accessorized with a piece of sculptural face jewelry by Evangeline AdaLioryn and white contact lenses.
CNN —
When you think of the Met Gala red carpet, a few dramatic looks might come to mind.
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Perhaps it’s Beyoncé’s gem-encrusted “naked” Givenchy dress from 2015, or Rihanna’s show-stopping yellow Guo Pei couture cape gown that same year. It could be when Law Roach transformed Zendaya’s magical Cinderella ball gown by Tommy Hilfiger on the spot in 2019, or the time Kim Kardashian showed up dressed like a Balenciaga shadow in 2021. The list goes on.
However, the Costume Institute soiree, which begins on the famed steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art each May, hasn’t always had the bar set quite this high for best-dressed.
Since the gala was established in 1948, it has always attracted fashion’s elite, featuring Cher, Princess Diana, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Diana Ross, and Bianca Jagger over the decades. Nevertheless, vintage photos show a much more traditional luxury dress code compared to the unwieldy and sometimes impossible ensembles of recent years.
While some repeat motifs would fit right in decades ago — after all, Cher did the naked dress at the Met Gala in 1974 long before many of the others — the red carpet has more recently turned into a spectacle. Moreover, live streams and social media sharing have given the world a front row seat, encouraging ostentatious viral moments.
Explore a gallery of some of the most talked-about outfits from over the years, showcasing everything from the classic and iconic to the outlandish.
