Met Gala

The Met Gala, formally known as the Costume Institute Benefit, is the annual haute couture fundraising festival held at and for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute on the Museum Mile of Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Often known as "fashion's biggest night", the Met Gala is popularly regarded as the world's most prestigious and glamorous event in fashion, where fame, wealth, power, social influence, and spectacle collide. The Gala is held annually on the first Monday of May, which marks the opening of the Costume Institute's annual fashion exhibit hosted on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The Met Gala is one of the most important sources of funding for the Met Museum's Costume Institute, with the high price of attendance being a contribution. The entry price for one ticket to attend the Met Gala rose to US$100,000 in 2026, and the 2026 Gala brought in a record US$42 million for the Costume Institute. The event is organized by the fashion and glamour magazine Vogue under direction of Global Chief Content Officer Anna Wintour. Wintour, who was the former editor-in-chief of Vogue, has chaired or co-chaired the Met Gala since 1995, except for the 1996 Met Gala, which was chaired by Wintour's successor at British Vogue, Liz Tilberis, who attended with her friend Diana, Princess of Wales. Known as "the world's most exclusive party", an invitation is highly sought after. Invitees to attend the Met Gala in a given year are typically personalities widely perceived to be culturally relevant to contemporary society from various professional spheres, including fashion, digital and social media, tech, music, Broadway, Wall Street, film, television, sports, and politics. Guests are expected to curate their fashions to match the theme of the annual exhibit, generally in formal haute couture.