The Met Gala Has Now Officially Been Cancelled And Will Not Take Place This Year

Editor-in-chief of US Vogue and artistic director for Condé Nast, Anna Wintour is one of fashion’s most powerful forces. Traditionally, nothing and nobody has gotten in her way – but a pandemic might be the first.

After months of speculation, it’s finally been announced that the Met Gala, overseen in minute detail by Wintour, won’t be postponed but cancelled entirely.

‘Everyone in the fashion industry was trying to carry on with the event up until early last month – nobody wanted to admit defeat,’ said one New York fashion insider when it was initially announced that the Gala would be delayed.

‘Every Met Gala takes almost a year in the planning. The celebrity attendees were already working with designers, there was a provisional seating plan worked up.’ When the severity of the coronavirus situation became clear, ‘There were panicked phone calls, frantic emailing between reps, celebrities and stylists; no one could really believe that it wasn’t going to happen.’

Last year’s highlights – celebrating the museum’s exhibit, Camp: Notes On Fashion – included Billy Porter being carried on to the carpet by six men in gold trousers, before unfurling a pair of huge gold wings, Lady Gaga performing a striptease on the red carpet, and Katy Perry dressed as a Moschino crystal chandelier. The previous year, Rihanna came as the Pope.

This year’s theme was to be About Time: Fashion And Duration, with Louis Vuitton the sponsor and Nicolas Ghesquière one of the Gala’s co-chairs, along with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Emma Stone and Meryl Streep.

The sums involved are as sizeable as the stars it draws. An individual ticket costs $35,000 and can only be purchased by invitation, and brands typically spend more than $200,000 to secure a table.

‘Anna Wintour controls every detail very tightly – nothing slips by her discerning eye,’ says fashion writer and historian Bronwyn Cosgrave, host of the podcast A Different Tweed. ‘She pairs the designers with their guests and vets every outfit.’

Beyond the froth and flamboyance of the starry red carpet, the event is also ‘about business – it’s a forum for the New York fashion industry and is there to support it’, says Cosgrave. ‘It’s where designers and agents network, where deals are made.’

‘It’s the Oscars of the East Coast,’ says British milliner Stephen Jones, who creates the flamboyant hats for both the museum’s exhibitions and the party itself.

While the red carpet event has been cancelled, the exhibition is still set to go ahead in October, with the Met announcing a provisional month when it might reopen as mid-August. With some serious fashion history to celebrate, let’s hope all goes to plan.

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