The 2025 Met Gala, fashion’s biggest night, will be held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. While most people know the event for its red carpet full of bold and creative outfits, the rest of the evening is private and follows a strict schedule.
This year’s theme is “Tailored for You.” It matches the Costume Institute’s new show, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style. This exhibition celebrates the history and importance of Black Dandy fashion, focusing on stylish tailoring and the work of Black designers.
Guests will get a private tour of the exhibition before enjoying a fancy dinner and a live performance. Anna Wintour, the Editor-in-Chief of Vogue and the event’s main organiser, plans everything, from where people sit and how they should act to what food is served. Over 400 famous guests are expected to attend.
Here are some of the strict guidelines guests must follow at the 2025 Met Gala:
Phones and selfies are not permitted: Even though many famous celebrities and social media stars walk the Met Gala red carpet, you won’t see Instagram stories or TikTok videos from inside the event. That’s because there is a very strict ‘no phones’ rule once you go inside.
The private tour, dinner, and performances are not recorded or shared with the public. While this rule is taken seriously, some stars still break it by posting quick photos or videos. Most of these selfies usually happen in the bathroom.
No parsley, onions, or garlic allowed: Anna Wintour makes sure the Met Gala is the biggest night in fashion, and that means guests need to look and smell their best. Some foods are not allowed at the dinner to help with this. Onion, garlic, and parsley are left out so no one has bad breath or herbs stuck in their teeth when they smile for pictures. Messy foods like bruschetta are also not served to avoid spills on fancy outfits.
Smoking is not allowed: Once inside the Met Gala, no one is allowed to smoke, not even the most famous and stylish guests. Smoking is banned because it could damage the special clothes on display or leave a bad smell.
TV host Gayle King once asked curator Andrew Bolton what could get a celebrity banned from the Met Gala, and he said smoking in the galleries was the worst thing they could do. Still, some celebrities break the rule by sneaking into the bathrooms to smoke.
Outfits must be approved in advance: If you get invited to the Met Gala and pay for your ticket, you still have to go through more steps to attend. That’s because Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue, personally approves all the outfits. This is so common that it even has a special term: AWOK, which stands for “Anna Wintour Okay.”
Assigned seating: Even if you pay $75,000 for a seat, you can’t choose where to sit at the Met Gala. Ward Durrett, director of special projects at Vogue, says a lot of planning goes into deciding where everyone sits and who sits next to whom. For example, spouses are never seated next to each other, and guests are encouraged to meet new people. The organizers also think about the relationships between people when deciding the seating. The seating chart is so important that it’s usually started as early as December.
Entry isn’t free: It might surprise some people for their tickets to the Met Gala. Even though the event is by invitation only, each seat and table comes with a price.
The Met Gala is actually a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the money raised helps protect its fashion collection, which is over 700 years old.
In 2024, a single ticket cost $75,000, and a whole table cost $350,000. Often, the fashion brands whose clothes the celebrities wear pay for the tickets in exchange for getting their designs shown on the red carpet.
