The theme for the 2023 Met Gala has been revealed.
Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour convened a huddle of top Paris Fashion Week insiders Friday to announce that the theme of next year’s annual fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute will be the work of the late designer Karl Lagerfeld.
The world-famous event — also billed as the Oscars of fashion — will celebrate the German-born couturier, who worked for decades simultaneously as creative director of French [Chanel], Italian [Fendi] and eponymous international fashion labels. He died in 2019 at 85.
The Met Gala will take place on May 1, in its traditional spot on the first Monday in May.
The gala calls on designers to adorn stars, models and sometimes influencers in the fashions of a selected theme to match a wing of the museum's exhibit. Next year’s will be entitled "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty" and will see some 150 of his creations assembled together to see his "stylistic language," a Met press release says. Lagerfeld’s original sketches will also be on display.
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The star-studded event returned to the first Monday in May this year after getting pushed to September in 2021 and going virtual in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2022 theme was "In America: An Anthology of Fashion" and called for a "gilded glamour" dress code — and it was a glamorous affair if ever there was one.
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The red carpet hosted a seemingly endless stream of stars, from Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson to Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, who posed for the cameras before trekking up the famed steps of the Met.
Kardashian's look became one of the biggest talkers of the night: she showed up wearing the original skin-tight, sparkling Bob Mackie dress that Marilyn Monroe wore to sing "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy in 1962.
She was praised for her stunning look, but there was some backlash too, both in concerns for her rapid weight loss to wear the dress and for fears she might have damaged the historic piece. The reality TV star said she lost 16 pounds to fit into the figure-hugging nude dress that she borrowed from Ripley's Believe It or Not, before changing into a replica.
More:Kim Kardashian left historic Marilyn Monroe dress in 'same condition it started in,' Ripley's says
In the weeks following the event, a visual artist said he observed irreparable damage to the gown, which features more than 2,500 handstitched crystals. Ripley's denied the claims, saying the dress was returned "in the same condition it started in."
Other eye-popping looks came from Janelle Monáe, Alicia Keys, Gemma Chan, Megan Thee Stallion and Gigi Hadid.
Met Gala 2022 best dressed:See Kim Kardashian as Marilyn Monroe, Blake Lively's NYC nod, more stars
Contributing: Anika Reed and Elise Brisco, USA TODAY; The Associated Press
The 2023 Met Gala Theme Has Been Confirmed & It’s Time To Fetch Your Vintage Chanel
And leave the sweatpants, of course.
Oct 02, 2022 11:20pmThere's still months left of 2022, but for fashion fanatics out there, the countdown is already on for the 2023 Met Gala.
On the first Monday in May, creative directors, models, actors and designers who manage to score themselves a ticket to the biggest A-list event in town, will be heading up the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to pay homage to that year's chosen theme—hopefully, without historical-related controversy.
After they ascend the steps and pose for the wall of photographers, they enjoy a luxurious dinner inside the establishment and get to wander through the exhibit that corresponds the event's theme, before the public can do the same following the event.
After a strange couple of years [hello, COVID] we've still been lucky enough to witness the red carpet event twice in that time, even if they weren't exactly one year apart. Now that the two 'In America' themes are behind us—along with the lacklustre costume attempts by most guests—there's a fresh slate for next year and it looks more promising than ever.
Below, everything we know about the upcoming 2023 Met Gala—from the famous hosts to the theme.
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WHAT IS THE THEME OF THE 2023 MET GALA?
Despite TikTok predicting that the 2023 Met Gala theme would revolve around space, it turns out that the confirmed theme is nothing of the sort.
Making the announcement on September 30, the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute confirmed that the 2023 theme will be 'Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty'. After the longtime creative director of Chanel passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2019, the event plans to pay tribute to Lagerfeld with an avant-garde night of creative triumph.
"Karl never tired of telling me that fashion did not belong in a museum. When we worked on the Chanel show together, he was incredibly generous in what he lent, but he was completely disinterested in the exhibition itself," Andrew Bolton, the Costume Institute's Curator In Charge, said about the theme.
Getty Images."He would say, 'Fashion is not art—fashion belongs on the street, on women's bodies, on men's bodies'," he said, as per Vogue.
As for whether we'll end up seeing countless celebrities in variations of black or tweed to pay homage to most of Lagerfeld's wardrobe, Bolton doesn't believe so.
"Well the one thing I knew for certain is that we could not do a traditional retrospective. For one thing, I think Karl would have hated that," he said, adding, "Even though one of his facets was that he was a historicist, and he would revisit themes in his work".
"He was always looking to the future in his own work—he hated looking back at the past. It was something he had a very conflicted relationship with."
In the exhibit, around 150 of Lagerfeld's design illustrations—including his own and those of the brands he championed—will be featured at the Met Gala, along with the designer's original sketches.
WHO WILL HOST THE 2023 MET GALA?
Currently, there's no word on which A-list faces will be hosting the event, but there is bound to be a selection of some of the biggest names out there headlining the event.
For last year's Gala, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds all served as the evening's official co-chairs, along with actress Regina King and writer Lin-Manuel Miranda.
According to W Magazine, eight directors were tapped to create 'cinematic vignettes' which played in the rooms of the museum's American Wing. The directors include some big industry names, like Sofia Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Regina King, Chloé Zhao, Janicza Bravo, Julie Dash, Autumn de Wilde and Tom Ford.
As for whether that will happen again for the 2023 event, we are unsure at the moment.
Getty Images.WHAT IS THE DATE FOR THE 2023 MET GALA?
As we know, the Met Gala always takes place on the first Monday in the month of May. And while that date varies each year, we're lucky that the 2023 event will fall on one of the most satisfying dates possible—May 1.
Of course, the exhibit that the Gala is celebrating will be made available to the public not long after the A-list crowd head to the event's after parties. In this case, the 2023 exhibit will be on view to the public from May 5 to July 16 2023.
WHO WILL BE ATTENDING THE 2023 MET GALA?
Since the 2022 Met Gala saw the event return to its star-studded glory, there's no doubt that the fashion set—and the A-list faces they'll dress—will be headed to the event.
As for which faces are confirmed to be there, there's been no word yet but we're sure that the streets of Los Angeles will be rather empty come May.