This is what happens inside the Met Gala after the red carpet

On May 6, 2024, the Metropolitan Museum of Art will host its famous Met Gala to raise funds for The Costume Institute. The event will also kick off the latest costume exhibition titled “Sleeping beauties: the awakening of fashion“, with “The Garden of Time” as the dress code.

The institute was renovated in 2014 as the Anna Wintour Costume Center with the help of the Vogue editor-in-chief whose name is on its doors. Wintour, a Met administrator, has spent decades growing the gala into what the museum calls one of the “most visible and successful charity events in the world.”

“It was a society event. People weren’t very enthusiastic about attending.” Wintour told “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King in 2023. “Taking it over and trying to make it a night was pretty intimidating.”

What exactly is the Met Gala?

The Met Gala is a fundraiser that brings together some of the biggest names in the most famous industries. Guests flock to New York City on the first Monday in May to showcase collaborations with famous designers and brands on looks that take months to make.

“The Met Gala has always had a mission, and that is to raise money for this important work,” Wintour said.

The guests follow a annual theme and work to reference historical garments, incorporate innovative ideas, and execute complex concepts that resonate beyond the walls of the Met.

“We’re always interested in trying to reflect a cultural moment and what we feel is happening in the world at any given time,” Wintour said of the guests.

“Every year is different and we try to select the guest list in a way that makes sense for whatever the theme of the exhibition is,” Wintour said.

It has been the scene of notable and much-discussed pop culture highlights, from Rihanna’s 2015 arrival in a long Chinese cape, to Lady Gaga’s multifaceted reveals at 2019’s Camp-themed gala. Over the past decade, the Fashion nerds, critics and consumers review the red carpet with great precision to understand, through photos and videos, the efforts (and sometimes, mistakes) that go into preparing for the event.

What is the inside of the Met Gala like?

Although many have entered the museum and visited its exhibits, very few have done so wearing the best pieces to have fun and spend thousands (sometimes millions) among titans of cinema, sports, business, music and society. That rarefied appeal is what attracts many to follow and analyze the gala.

Hanan Besovic, the post-pandemic viral voice behind Instagram’s @ideservecouture, will have a seat next to the action. She will join a handful of influencers at the Mark Hotel, where many gala attendees are preparing for the event, on the day of the gala on the Upper East Side, five blocks from the Met.

There, Besovic will watch arrivals and create social content alongside a room of other fashion-obsessed creators hosted by Meta.

When hotel guests emerge from their temporary lair at the Mark after spending hours on their hair, makeup and styling, they emerge into a crowd of fans and press waiting for a first glimpse of their outfit, before it’s time to line up alongside to the stairs of the museum.

“Everyone has a minute of our attention and then there’s the next person,” Besovic said.

Normally, the first to appear are the presidents of the event. This year Zendaya, Bad Bunny, Chris Hemsworth and Jennifer Lopez co-chair along with Anna Wintour.

One by one, celebrities are carefully dragged up the carpeted steps of the Met, where thousands of global media wait to photograph and record every angle. The perfect choreography is seen by millions of people through its viral broadcasts, according to Vogue.

What happens at the Met Gala after the red carpet?

What happens next is what fuels the greatest intrigue. In stark contrast to what happens outside, most of what happens inside the Met goes unrecorded.

“Those tickets are very expensive. The brands buy the tables,” Besovic said.

It is well known that the evening includes dinner and a performance. Cher, Rihanna, Madonna and Lady Gaga have performed in years past, among the most coveted and notable artists in the world.

Vogue is usually the only insider publication. In 2023, they brought forward the gala dinner portion, guided by what they say was one of Karl LagerfeldThe most famous gatherings: Paloma Picasso’s wedding reception.

Those dishes look delicate, colorful and healthy in Vogue’s images, with cold pea soup and Ōra King salmon served on vintage plates with a variety of fruits and vegetables for last year’s attendees.

Are photographs allowed inside the Met Gala?

“The only snippets we get are from social media,” Besovic says of the exclusivity of the event.

Viral bathroom videos and selfies taken by celebrities are the only view inside. Katie Perry rushes back into her cheesy burger outfit for the 2019 gala after running into Jennifer Lopez near the booths. The Kardashians posing with Paris Jackson and a group of supermodels. Lil Nas X, Erykah Badu and Jack Harlow posing for a photo. Or celebrities post elevator videos, like the viral moment where Reese Witherspoon chats with Cara Delevingne, Zooey Deschanel and Kate Upton. These end up being the only glimpses inside the gala that can be seen before the common people go to sleep.

What else do they do at the Met Gala?

When the gala is over, guests rush to attend the after-parties, many of which zip around New York City throughout the night. The Standard Hotel’s “Boom Boom Room” often hosts celebrities: in 2023, singer and actress Janelle Monáe was at the helm, according to Women’s Wear Daily.

Brands and designers also unleash more fashion moments during the after parties.

In 2016, when model Karlie Kloss came to town after the gala, American designer Brandon Maxwell adapted her “after” outfit by cutting her structured dress into a mini. This year, designers Jean Paul Gaultier and Shayne Oliver will debut a capsule collection that will include around 50 collaborative pieces.