The Met Gala returns in full glamour
Fashion's biggest night drew stars to the steps of the Metropolitan Museum for its annual celebration and fundraiser.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted its annual gala this spring, fashion's most glamorous and closely watched night, drawing a parade of celebrities, designers and cultural figures up the museum's famous steps for an event that is equal parts spectacle and serious fundraiser.
The gala, a benefit for the museum's Costume Institute, marks the opening of its annual fashion exhibition and sets a theme that sends guests and their designers into months of elaborate preparation. The resulting red-carpet looks, by turns breathtaking, daring and divisive, generate global attention and endless commentary.
Beyond the glamour, the event is a vital source of funding for the Costume Institute, raising millions of dollars that support its exhibitions and operations. It also cements New York's status as a capital of fashion and culture, and the museum as one of the world's great institutions.
The night is orchestrated with legendary precision, its guest list and seating closely guarded, and it has become a cultural phenomenon watched far beyond the fashion world, dissected across social media and the press.
For one evening each spring, the steps of the Met on Fifth Avenue become the most photographed place in the world, a showcase of creativity and celebrity that captures the city's role at the intersection of art, fashion and spectacle, and reminds New York of its enduring pull on the global imagination.