It is one of the most anticipated fashion events of the year, it is a triumph of creativity and style, it’s the place of unusual beauty and where actresses and models become fashion icons: we are talking about the Met Gala, of course, which has taken place for more than 70 years every first Monday of May at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
The Met Gala (or Met Ball) celebrates the opening of the annual exhibition dedicated to fashion of the Met in New York and the theme of the evening is strictly related to that of the exhibition, curated by the brilliant curator Andrew Bolton, in charge since 2002. Anna Wintour, instead has been president of the event since 1995. The Met Gala is the museum’s main source of annual funding for exhibitions, publications, and acquisitions of works of art.
In addition to being an important beneficial evening, the Met Gala is a fundamental red carpet for designers, VIPs and fashion addicted from all over the world: it is almost a competition between those who have the dress that respects the theme the most, who has the most eccentric outfit and who, on the contrary, wears the most classic one… In other words, it is a magical, exclusive evening, full of inspiration as well as memorable outfits worthy of entering in the rank of the best Met Gala looks ever.
While waiting to find out in which and how many ways we will be amazed by the 2019 edition, whose theme is “Camp: Notes on Fashion,” let’s take a dip in the past and discover the best looks of the Met Gala from 2011 onwards!
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MET GALA BEST LOOKS
2011 – “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty”
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The 2011 exhibition was dedicated to the visionary designer Alexander McQueen, who died tragically in 2010. Romanticism, Gothic aesthetics and sensuality were protagonists of the exhibition, which has reworked the designer’s 19 years of career between dresses, corsets and a reconstruction of his ingenious but eccentric style. As a result, even on the red carpet, we witnessed a riot of looks that fully respected and honored these issues.
Beyoncé – Emilio Pucci
Blake Lively – Chanel
Liv Tyler – Givenchy
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MET GALA BEST LOOKS
2012 – “Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations”
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In 2012, the Met Gala paid tribute to two of the most important female figures in the fashion world, Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada. Past and present met in an exhibition that has put together the different inspirations, creations, and innovations of the two famous designers. It was also a tribute, in a broad sense, to the traditional Italian fashion and its global importance.
Diane Kruger – Prada
Carey Mulligan – Prada
Florence Welch – Alexander McQueen
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MET GALA BEST LOOKS
2013 – “Punk: Chaos to Couture”
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The 2013 exhibition was one of the most memorable and transgressive, as it analyzed the influence that the punk movement has had on couture and Pret-a-Porter: just think about the creations of brands such as Moschino, Givenchy, and John Galliano! Extremism, provocation, and chaos were the protagonists of an exhibition, and a red carpet, beyond every logic and far away from the canons of traditional beauty.
Anne Hathaway – Valentino
Rooney Mara – Givenchy
Cara Delevingne – Burberry
Lily Collins – Moschino
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MET GALA BEST LOOKS
2014 – “Anna Wintour Costume Centre”
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The Met Gala of 2014 witnessed a double celebration: the opening of the exhibition dedicated to the couturier Charles James and the inauguration of the “Anna Wintour Costume Centre,” a new wing of the Met Museum dedicated to the Chief Editor of Vogue USA and to the celebration of fashion and haute couture.
Sarah Jessica Parker – Oscar de la Renta
Beyoncé – Givenchy
Rihanna – Stella McCartney
Emma Stone – Thakoon
Blake Lively – Gucci
Ashley Olsen and Mary-Kate Olsen – Chanel and Gianfranco Ferrè
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MET GALA BEST LOOKS
2015 – “China: Through the Looking Glass”
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The theme of 2015 represented the second involvement of the Met Gala’s Chinese Galleries in the organization of the event (the first time was in 2006 with the exhibition “Anglomania”). The aim of the exhibition was to explore the impact of Chinese aesthetics on Western fashion, couturier and fashion designers. Celebrities spotted on the red carpet had then honored this fashion dialogue during the opening night.
Anne Hathaway – Ralph Lauren
Cara Delevingne – Stella McCartney
Emily Blunt – Prada
Solange Knowles – Giles Deacon
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MET GALA BEST LOOKS
2016 – “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology”
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Although we immediately think of handmade clothes if we think about fashion, it is undeniable that technology has led to significant development within the industry, even changed it in some way, from conception to implementation. The technological innovation, at the base of the exhibition of 2016, has given life to some naïve and surprising looks that made the red carpet of the Met Gala a parade of trendy “machines.”
Zoe Saldana – Dolce & Gabbana
Beyoncé – Givenchy
Emma Watson – Calvin Klein
Blake Lively – Burberry
Kate Bosworth – Dolce & Gabbana
Claire Danes – Zac Posen
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MET GALA BEST LOOKS
2017 – “Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between”
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The 2017 exhibition celebrated the work of designer Rei Kawakubo and her outstanding stylistic contribution to the Maison Comme des Garçons, for which she has been the creative director since the early ’80s. “In-Between” means the space between the boundaries that characterize Kawakubo’s plurality of aesthetic language: and these borders have been explored by the guests of the Met Gala with their amazing, colorful and unique looks, just like Kawakubo’s work.
Katy Perry – Maison Margiela
Ruth Negga – Valentino
Priyanka Chopra – Ralph Lauren
Zendaya – Dolce & Gabbana
Gigi Hadid – Tommy Hilfiger
Lily Rose Depp – Chanel
Rihanna – Comme des Garçons
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MET GALA BEST LOOKS
2018 – “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination”
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The meeting between fashion, sacred and profane took place on the red carpet of the Met Gala 2018, where celebrities took inspiration from the religious clothes and icons to be artistically aligned with the objects on display, coming from both the Sistine Chapel and the archive of designers such as Balenciaga and Riccardo Tisci. The theme, in fact, was the encounter between fashion and religion over the centuries. It was certainly one of the most interesting exhibitions in the history of the Met Gala and now the question that everyone is asking is: will “Camp: Notes on Fashion” be able to impress us in the same way?
Jared Leto, Lana Del Rey, Alessandro Michele – Gucci
Ariana Grande – Vera Wang
Chadwick Boseman – Versace
Lily Collins – Givenchy
Zendaya – Versace
Blake Lively – Versace
Stella Maxwell – Moschino
Frances McDormand – Valentino
Kate Bosworth – Oscar de la Renta
Rihanna – Maison Margiela
