Every year, like clockwork, May means one thing and one thing only in the fashion circles: the Met Gala. The year's most anticipated red carpet outside of the Oscars, which will be held on 6 May 2024, will be a who's who of Hollywood - and, as usual, the celebrities lucky enough to score a ticket will have been preparing their talking-point outfits all year. The Met Gala theme is based on the museum's upcoming exhibition, which has just been announced as Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.
What Do We Know So Far About The Met Gala Theme?
According to the press release, the exhibition will use, 'the natural world as a uniting visual metaphor for the transience of fashion, the show will explore cyclical themes of rebirth and renewal, breathing new life into these storied objects through creative and immersive activations designed to convey the smells, sounds, textures, and motions of garments that can no longer directly interact with the body.'
The exhibition will run from 10 May to 2 September 2024 - and, thanks to behind-the-scenes video posted by @metmuseum, we can already see some of the exquisite pieces that will be displayed like a butterfly dress by Alexander McQueen. Part of the museum's extensive collection, the dress is actually made of feathers that have been cut, dyed, painted and then painstakingly applied by hand to create a spectacular rendition of a monarch butterfly.
While we wait for the next Met Gala, take a trip down memory lane by revisiting every theme since 1971...
SEE: Every Met Gala Theme From 1971 - 2021
1 of 431971-1974
1971: Fashion Plate
1972: Untailored Garments
1973: The World of Balenciaga
1974: Romantic and Glamorous Hollywood Design
Pictured: Cher, 1974
2 of 431975
American Women of Style
Pictured: Pat Buckley
3 of 431976
The Glory of Russian Costume
Pictured: Imelda Marcos and Christina Ford
4 of 431977 - 1978
1977: Vanity Fair: A Treasure Trove
1978: Diaghilev: Costumes and Designs of the Ballets Russes
Pictured: Barbara Walters, 1977
5 of 431979
Fashions of the Habsburg Era: Austria-Hungary
Pictured: Margaux Hemingway and Bernard Foucher
6 of 431980
The Manchu Dragon: Costumes of China, the Chi'ng Dynasty
Pictured: Carolina Herrera
7 of 431981
The Eighteenth Century Woman
Pictured: Bianca Jagger
8 of 431982
La Belle Époque
Pictured: Raquel Welch
9 of 431983
Yves Saint Laurent: 25 Years of Design
Pictured: Carolina Herrera
10 of 431984
Man and the Horse
Pictured: Candy Pratts Price and Chuck Price
11 of 431985
Costumes of Royal India
Pictured: Cher
12 of 431986-1987
1986: Dance
1987: In Style: Celebrating Fifty Years of the Costume Institute
Pictured: Linda Carter and Blaine Trump
13 of 431988
From Queen to Empress: Victorian Dress 1837-1877
Pictured: Zandra Rhodes
14 of 431989
The Age of Napoleon: Costume from Revolution to Empire, 1789-1815
Pictured: Anna Wintour
15 of 431990
Théâtre de la Mode: Fashion Dolls: The Survival of Haute Couture
Pictured: Naomi Campbell
16 of 431991
The gala was held without a theme.
Pictured: Calvin Klein and Kelly Klein
17 of 431992
Fashion and History: A Dialogue
Pictured: Christy Turlington
18 of 431993
Diana Vreeland: Immoderate Style
Pictured: Joan Rivers
19 of 431994
Orientalism: Visions of the East in Western Dress
Pictured: Oscar de la Renta and his stepdaughter Eliza
20 of 431995
Haute Couture
Pictured: Princess Diana
21 of 431996
Christian Dior
Pictured: Iman
22 of 431997
Gianni Versace
Pictured: Salma Hayek
23 of 431998
Cubism and Fashion
Pictured: Sigourney Weaver
24 of 431999
Rock Style
Pictured: Liv Tyler and Stella McCartney
25 of 432001
Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years
Pictured: Naomi Campbell
26 of 432003
Goddess: The Classical Mode
Pictured: Stella McCartney and Kate Hudson
27 of 432004
Dangerous Liaisons: Fashion and Furniture in the 18th Century
Pictured: Eva Mendes
28 of 432005
The House of Chanel
Pictured: Nicole Kidman
29 of 432006
AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion
Pictured: Sarah Jessica Parker
30 of 432007
Poiret: King of Fashion
Pictured: Lucy Liu
31 of 432008
Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy
Pictured: Taylor Swift
32 of 432009
The Model As Muse: Embodying Fashion
Pictured: Winona Ryder
33 of 432010
American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity
Pictured: Mila Kunis
34 of 432011
Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty
Pictured: Emma Stone
35 of 432012
Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations
Pictured: Amber Heard
36 of 432013
Punk: Chaos to Couture
Pictured: Kate Beckinsale
37 of 432014
Charles James: Beyond Fashion
Pictured: Rita Ora
38 of 432015
China: Through the Looking Glass
Pictured: Beyoncé
39 of 432016
Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology
Pictured: Zayn Malik and Gigi Hadid
40 of 432017
Comme des Garçons' Rei Kawakubo
Pictured: Rihanna
41 of 432018
Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination
Pictured: Cynthia Erivo
42 of 432019
Camp: Notes on Fashion
Pictured: Kim Kardashian
43 of 432021
In America: A Lexicon of Fashion
Pictured: Yara Shahidi