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As Met Gala 2024 Inches Closer, Know All About How Fashion’s Biggest Night First Started
Fashion’s most famous event, the Met Gala has interesting origins. From tickets being priced at 25 USD to 30,000 USD, the event has had an incredible journey. Read on to know how it all began.
The Met Gala, also known as the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala, is the most spectacular event in the fashion calendar each year. Its lavish demonstrations of haute couture alone earn it a lot of attention not to mention its vast cultural impact. But when did this momentous gathering first appear on the fashion scene?
Each year, stars of the highest realm are invited to the Met gala where they appear in their finest sartorial art to celebrate fashion. While pictures from the fashion's biggest night travel across borders, not everyone is aware of where it all began.
Birth of fashion's extravaganza: The Met Gala started as a fundraiser for Costume Institute.
In 1948, fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert organized a fundraiser for the newly formed Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. An annual event that would celebrate both arts and fashion while serving as a fundraiser for the museum's costume collection was what she had in mind. Therefore, “the Costume Institute Benefit” was born.
Irene Lewisohn and Aline Bernstein who founded the Costume Institute, named The Museum Of Costume Art back then, merged with the Museum of Metropolitan Art in 1946. Two years later they inaugurated the Met Gala in order to raise funds for the institute.
The tickets to the gala were originally priced at 25 dollars only. As of today, it is said that the price has gone up to 30,000 USD. The seating arrangements at the gala have taken a turn since its establishment after Anna Wintour took over. She makes sure the guests are worthy of getting a place at the highly esteemed MET Gala table. Designers book a table for ten at around 250,000 dollars, however, Anna Wintour has to approve every guest that designers want at their table which reports say she can be very picky sometimes even vetoing those who don’t meet her gala standards so then designers have to pay for empty seats.
In the 2010s, the Met Gala became filled with celebrities due to an increase in the popularity of modern pop culture icons such as Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Beyoncé, Gigi Hadid, Bella Hadid, and the Kardashian-Jenner clan. It was not just fashionistas who attended this event – people from all walks of life were welcome on its red carpet. In the 2020s, multiple sports icons, and social media influencers have also attended the Met Gala
The Met Gala evolved from a fundraiser to the biggest social event in fashion.
The first gala held in December 1948 took form as a midnight dinner hosted by people such as Vogue editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland, which is now hosted by Anna Wintour. The gala has garnered over 175 million USD in donations over time. Guests among others were well-known figures back then.
Initially, the event was hosted in Central Park, the Waldorf Astoria, and the Rainbow Room until 1971 when it shifted to the museum itself. As the gala began to catch on the fame, more high-end celebrities paid their attention to it including Elton John, Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Ross, Cher, Bianca Jagger, Andy Warhol, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, etc.
Throughout the years the gala underwent many changes from being just another charity event into something more significant – a high-profile gathering attracting A-list celebrities, designers and cultural icons all over the world. In 1973, under Diana Vreeland's theme, The World Of Balenciaga was introduced thus beginning the era where every year different themes started appearing. Designer brands like Yves Saint Laurent, Versace, Christian Dior, Gucci, Chanel Schiaparelli, Prada etc, are known to participate at the Gala religiously.
After Anna Wintour took over the leadership position in 1995 the Met Gala became the truly glamorous spectacle that it is known as today. As chairperson, she breathed new life into the ceremony making sure each detail shined the brightest from setting the most creative to the wildest themes, and having pop legends like Lizzo, Madonna, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, etc. perform at the gala.
Since then bold themes have continued captivating audiences together with iconic moments experienced on the red carpet never forgetting about the fusion between art expressed through fashion which can be seen nowhere else but here. This event has remained true to itself always offering something unique so that people keep coming back over and over again no other event represents fashion better than this.
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