There is enough going on in the world, who has time for fashion — right?

We currently exist in a world where daily devastating news has become the unavoidable norm. Somehow we’ve become accustomed to staying engaged with the latest updates on international conflict, keeping up with the latest Supreme Court judgments and former president’s criminal trials while simultaneously clocking into work, turning in our homework and analyzing the latest Beyoncé and/or Taylor Swift albums. 

Being connected to every consequential current event on the planet through our phones makes us capable of being the most well-informed version of humanity that has ever walked this Earth. We see destruction, death and human-rights violations on social media every day. We are only a few YouTube videos from learning a new language or becoming a modern-day Galileo. 

Who among us, then, with our access to information, expanded minds and critical-thinking capabilities, actually cares about the Met Gala? 

Turns out, most of us do. In fact, millions of us do. 

We, like, really care about the Met Gala. 

What started out as a $50-per-person fundraising event is now the American fashion event of the year. Invitation only, attendees to the 2024 Met Gala reportedly paid at least $350,000 for a table or $75,000 for an individual ticket. Unless they were a celebrity invited (and dressed) by a luxury fashion brand. Celebrities typically just have to show up, walk the red carpet in a look designed by the brand that paid for their ticket and make all the fashion dreams of people sitting at home come true. 

An event like the Met Gala is not without criticism. This year members of the Pro-Palestinian group, Within Our Lifetime, led a rally from nearby Hunter College right to steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The New York Police Department set up barricades in anticipation of the protest and by the end of the evening had taken 27 of the protesters into custody. In response to the exorbitantly expensive event, social media users on TikTok began intertwining videos from the event with images of the destruction in Gaza, set to music from The Hunger Games with the caption, “same planet, different worlds.” 

While the Gala might sound like just another opportunity for the fashion elite to shamelessly flaunt their wealth, there is actually a more charitable intention for the evening. The money raised through tickets and tables does not line the pockets of the gala’s host, Vogue magazine, nor its publisher, Condé Nast. Instead, the money goes to the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute, or as the New York Times’ fashion director and chief fashion critic, Vanessa Friedman, described it, “the only curatorial department at the Met that has to pay for itself.”

The event, originally established in 1948 by fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert, has always celebrated fashion and raised funds for the Costume Institute. Since 1995 Anna Wintour has been the woman running the show. As the Vogue magazine editor-in-chief, Wintour has access and connections to all aspects of the fashion industry. She oversees the theme and the guest list, and reportedly approves most of the looks we see celebrities wearing on the carpet.

Lauren Sherman is the fashion correspondent for Puck News and produces the must-read (even if you can’t afford to buy shoelaces from the companies she reports on) industry newsletter, “Line Sheet.” 

“The Met Gala used to be a fundraiser for the museum, tangentially connected to the fashion and publishing industries by a few star editors,” Sherman said. “Now it is a machine run by Anna Wintour that benefits Vogue and Condé Nast as much as it does the museum.”

Sherman is right, of course, she’s the expert and the numbers don’t lie. The 2023 Met Gala raised $22 million for the Costume Institute. 

According to media outlet The Business of Fashion, for ad placement in their 2022 Met Gala livestream, Vogue charged “$1 million for two six-second spots over the course of two hours.” The magazine also sells advertising space on their website and live blog of the event. All altruistic fundraising kudos aside, the Met Gala has evolved into a money maker for Vogue, too. 

To put the $1 million ad spot price into context, last year more than 53 million people watched Vogue’s red carpet live stream. One of those 53 million people who turned in was DePaul student Rose O’Keefe. O’Keefe is a member of, as she puts it, “Gen Z, unfortunately,” and tuned into the Met Gala’s live coverage for the first time last year. 

“I had time and was curious but the theme was not very exciting,” O’Keefe said. She explained she was “more eager to tune in this year and see the styles just as they’re hitting the red carpet.” 

This seems to be one of the main reasons millions of people tune into the event: fear of missing out on the latest viral celebrity fashion moment. 

Gone are the days of New York City’s wealthy elite attending the gala to donate their millions in the name of philanthropy. These days the Met Gala is all about clever marketing and securing publicity off the fashionably adorned backs of celebrities. Or, as Sherman puts it, “it’s pop culture now.”

The co-chairs for the 2024 Met Gala were Jennifer Lopez, Zendaya, Chris Hemsworth and Bad Bunny. The sponsors were the luxury Spanish fashion brand Loewe and the popular social-media platform TikTok.

This year’s theme of “The Garden of Time ” was unsurprisingly expressed by florals upon florals upon florals. In the most literal sense, celebrities like Nicki Minaj and Ayo Edebiri wore gowns covered in multicolored floral appliques. Others embraced the pastel tones of flower gardens, like Laufey and Maria Sharapova. The rich color of a red rose made celebrities like Teyana Taylor and Gwendoline Christie stand out on the white and green carpet. 

Some celebrities like Zendaya and Kendall Jenner were lucky enough to have stylists, Law Roach and Dani Michelle respectively, who felt inspired to go back in time and scour the fashion archives for show-stopping pieces. Even luckier celebrities, like Nicole Kidman and Zendaya (the actress walked the carpet twice), had designers create completely new looks that referenced particular fashion moments from times gone by.  

The culmination of each outfit’s interpretation of the theme made “The Garden of Time” Met Gala fantasy come to life for the millions of us watching at home. 

“I love fashion, and the Met is a great occasion to see experimental styles and expression,” O’Keefe said. “It’s fun to daydream about attending someday.” 

Anna Wintour’s deliberate inclusion of celebrities plus the mainstream curiosity around unreachable fashion goals have made the Met Gala an unmissable moment for fashion lovers, all 53 million of us. 

Who cares about the Met Gala?  We do.

Header by Emily Bradley