We have community theatre to thank for the Met Gala. I’m dead serious. The kind of theatre where your niece plays Drunkard #3 in Les Misérables, and you spend the entire second act wondering what the hell is happening because the children are whisper-singing over a haunted karaoke track. That kind.
Fast forward a few decades, and now the Met Gala raises upwards of $26 million a year to fund the Met’s Costume Institute, home to more than 35,000 costumes spanning seven centuries. That is seven centuries of lewks.
But how did we go from a community theatre on the Lower East Side to Jared Leto carrying his disembodied head up the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art? A publicist.
✨This is your chaotic guide to the history of the Met Gala, from its origins to its transformations to how we got to the 2025 Met Gala theme of Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, with all the commentary on the unhinged outfits that make the Met Gala the cultural fever dream we can’t get enough of. ✨
Give My Regards To…
Let me boil this pot down for ya:
- 1915: Alice and Irene Lewsohn co-founded the Neighborhood Playhouse Theatre. We love an heiress-sister duo.
- Theatres need costumes – excuse me, high-fashion garments! Not your average community theatre budget.
- The sisters team up with that girl costume designer, Aline Bernstein, and she churns out so much glamour along with the theatre’s already-overflowing costume collection that they decide they need a museum. Duh.
- Side note: I’ve also decided to stop gate-keeping my massive sweatpants collection, and it will be on exhibit all year long.
- Anyway, the Museum of Costume Art was born! Don’t get confused – this isn’t The Met.
- Finally, The Met enters the picture, and merged with the Museum of Costume Art in 1946. That’s how the Costume Institute was born – but slow your fashion booty down because there’s a catch – the Costume Institute had to fund itself.
- There was only one solution, and it’s one of our favorite solutions to all our problems: THROW A PARTY.
Met Gala Fact: How much does it cost to attend the Met Gala 2025?
An individual ticket to this year’s gala will cost ya $75,000.
Legendary Fashion Publicist Eleanor Lambert has entered the chat…
In the 1940s and ’50s, Eleanor Lambert carried the American fashion industry on her (likely bedazzled) back. She spent her career promoting the idea of “the American Look” and championing the place of American designers in the world. She gave us The Best Dressed List, New York Fashion Week, and believed fashion was a museum-worthy art. Girl, go OFF.
So when Eleanor heard the newly established Costume Institute needed funding, she said, “Let’s throw the Party of the Year.”
1948: The Met Gala was born (also the same year that Cheetos were invented – and honestly, I feel like we’re sitting on a goldmine of a theme: “Origins: Dangerously Cheesy”). But nobody asked me.
Okay, back to it.
When I say “gala,” it’s more like “polite dinner party fundraiser with stuffies of the Upper East Side vibes,” but it’s fine. It’s fine.
The First Met Gala Invite:
- Dinner: at midnight (wild)
- Location: The Waldorf Astoria
- Ticket: $50 entry (equivalent to $659 in today’s U.S. dollars – still cheaper than an Erewhon smoothie)
- Dress code: Dress like everyone is watching (because they are).
Truly, without Eleanor, we would never have Pope Rhianna. Let’s give Eleanor her flowers, y’all.
Who’s on the Met Gala 2025 Guest List?
The Met Gala seating chart takes all year to plan, and I don’t care if you’re Beyoncé and Jay-Z. At Anna’s party, you will not be seated with your spouse at dinner. Mingle or perish. But honestly, double the gossip material for later, right?
Who’s Who – The Legacy of the Women Who’ve Run The Met Gala
- The reign of Diana Vreeland – 70s Queen
- Editor-in-Chief of Vogue 1963-71
- Created the “annual theme” we’ve come to associate the Met Gala with
- Known to spray on-theme perfumes within galleries. Maybe she sprayed Opium, maybe she didn’t. ????????
- Flex: can casually call up Cher, Diana Ross, and Andy Warhol
- ANNA WINTOUR. Period.
- No, literally, we are still in the Anna Wintour period of the Met Gala. She took over in 1995
- Set the “first Monday in May” as THE date for the Gala
- Celebrities take over, turning the Gala into the event we know today
- Invite-only
- Every single look, celebrity, and herb are cleared by Anna
- Flex: She’s never taken a selfie and vows she never will.
Can you take selfies at the Met Gala 2025?
Actually, Anna doesn’t want anyone to take selfies – it’s been banned at the Gala since 2015.
Some of our favorite historic Met Gala themes:
1971: “Fashion Plate” (if this isn’t about food, i’m out)
1972: ”Untailored Garments” (girl, get out of my closet)
1981: “The Eighteenth-Century Woman” (broad)
1984: “Man and the Horse” (Ken from Barbie would love this)
2008: “Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy” (slay??)
The Met Gala 2025 Theme: Superfine: Tailoring Black Style (slaayyyyy)
According to the museum, the 2025 Met Gala theme “explores the importance of sartorial style to the formation of Black identities.” But what does that really mean? Wanna find out? We’ve got your invite to the gala right here!
WAIT, I CAN GO TO THE MET GALA?
YESSSSS. Well, kinda.
If you want to learn even more delicious gala gossip, hysterical history, and empowering stories, join us at Museum Hack’s first-ever Hacked Gala — a dress-to-the-nines, renegade museum tour of The Met. And guess what? It’s not $75,000 to get in!
Bring your boldest energy and come celebrate rebels and resilience.
It’s the invite of the year IMO.
A Gala You’re Actually Invited To
Museum Hack’s Hacked Gala is a dress-to-the-nines, renegade museum tour of The Met, packed with wildly entertaining stories of art, fashion, and change. Ticket sales benefit The Fashion and Race Database in true fundraising gala style.
In small VIP-style groups, you’ll explore the museum, walking the same steps as celebrities do during the Met Gala, passing the Costume Institute’s exhibit Superfine: Tailoring Black Style. We’ll take you “beyond the runway” into the stories of those who challenged norms, defied expectations, and redefined self-expression—one outfit, sculpture, tradition, or law at a time.
It’s a limited invitation – we’re only hosting tours in May! (Anna can have Monday, May 5).
More info on Hacked Gala, including tour dates and ticket info, here.
