With the 2025 Met Gala just around the corner—this year’s event will be held on May 6, 2025 (Australian time)—there’s never been a better time to look back at our favourite moments from the famous red carpet.
As is the case each year, the Met Gala chooses a theme in line with the adjoining exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. From Catholicism and Punk to Camp, it often references a specific designer, period or movement within fashion. And whether it’s honouring Gianni Versace or the house of Chanel, the theme sets the tone for outfits on the night, with celebrities and designers planning months in advance to create the perfect gown-meets-costume.
Since 1995, when the Met Gala as we know it started, the themes have been the Met Gala’s biggest point of difference from any other red carpet. Unlike the Oscars or the Golden Globes, the fashion world isn’t bound by traditional black-tie rules. Instead, imagination runs free and virtually anything goes. The results? Think Rihanna as the Pope and Beyoncé in a naked dress.
Below, we’ve rounded up every single Met Gala theme over the past 28 years, so you can improve your Met Gala trivia ahead of the 2025 red carpet.
Every Met Gala Theme In History
2024: Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion
The 2024 theme took some deciphering. Sleeping Beauties referred to garments so fragile they’re no longer wearable, while the reawakening referenced a desire to bring these garments back to life. The theme saw some iconic looks like Tyla’s Balmain sand dress and Zendaya’s two couture gowns.
2023: Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty
According to the Met, the 2023 theme focused on “the designer’s stylistic vocabulary as expressed in aesthetic themes that appear time and again in his fashions from the 1950s to his final collection in 2019.” It saw endless nods to the house codes of Chanel such as tweed and monochromes as well as Nicole Kidman don her famous Chanel No 5 advertisement look.
The 2022 theme saw guests embody the grandeur of Gilded Age New York and led to some ouf our favourite looks, such as Blake Lively’s two Statue Liberty inspired gowns.
2021: In America: A Lexicon of Fashion
Somewhat of a patriotic theme, 2021 was rather self explanatory, serving as an “exploration of fashion in the United States”.
2020: Postponed due to the pandemic
Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay “Notes on ‘Camp'” served as the framework for the 2019 Met Gala theme and looked to examine “how the elements of irony, humor, parody, pastiche, artifice, theatricality, and exaggeration are expressed in fashion.” Some of the best looks included Kendall and Kylie Jenner’s matching feather gowns and Lady Gaga’s multiple outfit changes.
2018: Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination
One of our favourite themes in Met Gala’s history, the Heavenly Bodies theme of 2018 saw the exhibition display papal robes and accessories from the Sistine Chapel sacristy as well as celebs like Rihanna done a crystal-adorned pope robe.
2017: Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between
The 2017 exhibition examined ” the work of fashion designer Rei Kawakubo, known for her avant-garde designs and ability to challenge conventional notions of beauty, good taste, and fashionability.”
2016: Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology
Exploring the relationship between handmade and machine-made garments of haute couture and avant-garde ready-to-wear saw some of the most intricate and interesting looks in Met Gala history.
2015: China: Through the Looking Glass
Explores “the impact of Chinese aesthetics on Western fashion and how China has fueled the fashionable imagination for centuries.”
2014: Charles James: Beyond Fashion
Examines the career of legendary twentieth-century Anglo-American couturier Charles James. More specifically, his design process and “sculptural, scientific, and mathematical approaches to construct revolutionary ball gowns.”
2013: Punk: Chaos to Couture
The 2013 Met theme examined “punk’s impact on high fashion” from its 1970s origins to 2013.
2012: Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations
In 2012, the Met looked the explore “the striking affinities between Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada, two Italian designers from different eras.”
2011: Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty
A year on from his death, the Met Gala theme celebrated the work of designer, Alexander McQueen, “from his Central Saint Martins postgraduate collection of 1992 to his final runway presentation.”
2010: American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity
According to the official Met site, the 2010 exhibition “explores developing perceptions of the modern American woman from 1890 to 1940 and how they have affected the way American women are seen today.”
2009: The Model As Muse: Embodying Fashion
Inspired by fashion muses over the years from Dorian Leigh, Sunny Harnett, and Twiggy to Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, and Kate Moss.
2008: Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy
The 2008 theme explored how superheroes sartorial choices as well as their superpowers (speed, strength, agility) influenced both street wear and high fashion.
Met Gala Themes From 1995 – 2007
2007: Poiret: King of Fashion
2006: AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion
2005: The House of Chanel
2004: Dangerous Liaisons: Fashion and Furniture in the 18th Century
2003: Goddess: The Classical Mode
2002: There was no theme
2001: “Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years”
2000: There was no theme
1999: Rock Style
1998: Cubism and Fashion
1997: Gianni Versace
1996: Christian Dior
1995: Haute Couture
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