Met Gala red‑carpet livestream starts tonight as 'Fashion Is Art' gala opens

The Met Gala is back tonight, Monday, May 4, and the part most people actually get to see starts on the red carpet. Vogue’s official livestream begins(metmuseum.org)eal look at how celebrities interpret this year’s dress code, “Fashion is Art.” But the bigger thing underneath the spectacle is that this is the Costume Institute’s annual f(metmuseum.org)rt.” (metmuseum.org) ### What is actually happening tonight? The event is the 20(metmuseum.org)y. It marks the opening of the Costume Institute’s spring show, “Costume Art,” and the gala’s proceeds serve as the institute’s main annual funding source for exhibitions, acquisitions, publications, and operations. So yes, it is a celebrity red carpet — but it is also one of the museum world’s most important fundraising nights. (metmuseum.org) ### What’s the theme this year? The exhibition theme is “Costume Art,” and the dress code is “Fa(metmuseum.org)ng and artistic representations of the body have shaped each other — while the dress code pushes guests to answer that idea in their own clothes. Basically, the museum is framing fashion not as decoration but as an art form with history, symbolism, and physical presence. (metmuseum.org) ### What will the exhibition show? “Costume Art” is unusually ambitious even by Met standards. The exhibition brings t(metmuseum.org)rtments, spanning about 5,000 years. The idea is to show different “body types” and ways the body has been imagined, including categories that museums have often sidelined, like the pregnant body and the aging body. It also opens the Met’s nearly 12,000-square-foot Condé Nast Galleries. (metmuseum.org) ### Who’s running the night? The co-chairs are Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Wil(metmuseum.org)and Zoë Kravitz, with names including Sabrina Carpenter, Doja Cat, LISA, Teyana Taylor, Angela Bassett, A’ja Wilson, Sam Smith, and others. Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos are serving as honorary chairs because they are the lead sponsors of the gala and exhibition. (metmuseum.org) ### How do you actually watch it? The official public-facing coverage is Vogue’s livestream, carried across Vogue’s digital platforms, Y(metmuseum.org)La Anthony, and Cara Delevingne hosting, and Emma Chamberlain returning as red-carpet correspondent. The actual dinner and party inside are not the broadcast product — that part stays mostly private. (vogue.sg) ### Why does the red carpet matter so much? Because the red carpet is the event’s public language. The gala itself is closed off, but the arrivals turn the museum’s curatorial ide(metmuseum.org)etimes messy — about whether fashion can carry the same weight as painting, sculpture, or performance. That is why a Met Gala theme can feel like both an art-history prompt and a meme factory at the same time. (metmuseum.org) ### What’s different this year? This year’s gala is tied to a bigger institutional move. “Costume Art” is not just another ann(vogue.sg)e and leans hard into the museum’s claim that fashion belongs in direct conversation with the rest of art history. The catch is that this argument now has to survive the internet in real time, where one great look can clarify the theme and one bad one can flatten it into costume. (metmuseum.org) ### Bottom line Tonight’s Met Gala is celebrity theater, but it is also the public launch of a serious museu(metmuseum.org)atching famous people arrive — you are watching the Met try to make “fashion is art” feel less like a slogan and more like a case. (metmuseum.org)