Met Gala 2022: What is the theme?

The Met Gala 2022 is just days away.

The biggest night in fashion will take place on the first Monday in May (2 May), resuming its pre-pandemic schedule this year.

This year’s theme - “In America: An Anthology of Fashion” - is based on part-two of an exhibit from the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, where the annual event is held.

Part one of the exhibit, “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion”, was the theme of the Met Gala 2021 and saw iconic outfits like Kim Kardashian’s all-black ensemble and Billie Eilish’s Marilyn Monroe inspired look.

Last year’s soirée departed from tradition and was postponed to September, due to Covid-19. The 2020 Met Gala was cancelled after the museum was forced to close during the pandemic.

Largely regarded as the fashion equivalent of the Oscars, the Met Gala is both one of the most star-studded events of the year and an important fundraiser for the Costume Institute’s annual exhibitions, publications and acquisitions.

Here’s everything we know about the event so far.

This year’s theme centers on the “tenets of American style” and celebrates the “anonymous and unsung heroes of US design”, Vogue reports.

While “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion” – part one of the exhibit and theme of the September 2021 event – offered an “expansive” exploration of fashion in the US, “anthology” is more specific and delves into the “backbone” of the nation’s style.

The stories reflect the evolution of American style, including the work of tailors, dress-makers and designers, said head curator of the Costume Institute, Andrew Bolton.

open image in gallery

“What’s exciting for me is that some of the names will be very familiar to students of fashion like Charles James, Halston, and Oscar de la Renta,” added Bolton, “but a lot of the other names really have been forgotten, overlooked or relegated into the footnotes of fashion history.”

“So one of the main intentions of the exhibition is to spotlight the talents and contributions of these individuals, and many of them are women.”

While the theme for the gala is “In America: An Anthology of Fashion,” the official dress code is slightly different, as Vogue notes that attendees will be expected to adhere to a white-tie “gilded glamour” dress code.

According to Vogue, the dress code means that guests should look to Gilded Age New York for inspiration, a time period that spanned 1870 to 1890. As for what we can expect of the fashion choices, the outlet acknowledges that the period saw fabric become “faster and cheaper to produce,” and, as a result, meant that “women’s dresses often featured a combination of many textiles, like satin, silk, velvet, and fringe, all adorned with over-the-top textures like lace, bows, frills, and ruffles”.

The Met Gala takes place on the first Monday in May. This year, the event will be held in the evening of 2 May.

Regina King, Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds and Lin-Manuel Miranda will serve as co-chairs of the 2022 Met Gala.

Designer Tom Ford, Instagram’s Adam Mosseri, and Vogue’s Anna Wintour will remain as honorary co-chairs.

This year, the museum has also partnered with a group of top film directors, including Regina King, Sofia Coppola, Martin Scorsese and last year’s Oscar winner, Chloé Zhao, to create “cinematic vignettes” to accompany the exhibit.

The Met Gala has served some of fashion’s most iconic looks since it first began in 1948.

Last year, model Cara Delevingne divided fans after arriving at the event wearing a vest with the words ‘peg the patriarchy’ written across the front, which she said was about “women’s empowerment” and “gender equality”.

Kim Kardashian wore an all-black Balenciaga outfit complete with a black face mask that covered her entire face and head.

Rapper A$AP Rocky arrived wearing a huge, quilted blanket, which he found in a thrift store in California and wore when walking the carpet with partner Rihanna.

It later emerged that the blanket was made by a woman named Mary Ann Beshers after her granddaughter Sarah recognised the family heirloom and shared a photograph of it on their old bed.

Despite being a fan-favourite for her Met Gala looks, Rihanna has not confirmed her attendance and is heavily pregnant and actor Zendaya has said she will be missing the event.

However, if the dress code is any indication, the looks at this year’s gala may be some of the most extravagant yet.