The first Monday in May has come and gone, and with it, fashion’s biggest night. The Met Gala is an annual fundraising event for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute and is held at the museum. Celebrities from various professional spheres including fashion, film, television, music, theater, business, sports, social media, and politics are invited to the gala organized by Vogue. The Met Gala has been hosted annually since 1948 and has a different theme each year corresponding to the Met Museum exhibit opening the same day as the gala is hosted.  

The 2024 Met Gala was hosted by Bad Bunny, Zendaya, Chris Hemsworth, and Jennifer Lopez who co-chaired with Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour. The price of attendance is $75,000, an increase from last year’s price of $50,000 and includes the opportunity to walk the carpet, see performances, this year by Ariana Grande, and eat the best of the best food. Often, these tickets are bought by fashion and beauty companies and celebrities are invited to the gala as their guests and ambassadors. This year’s theme was “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” to go with the museum’s new fashion exhibition by the same name. The dress code was “The Garden of Time,” inspired by J.G. Ballard’s 1962 short story of the same name. The dress code leant itself to the idea of fashion preservation and conservation, the official message of the exhibit is how technology can “breathe new life into garments that are too old and fragile to be worn again.” Despite these themes, many of the event’s guests walked the carpet in new, custom couture. Anna Wintour even acknowledged the wide array of interpretations of the dress code and apologized for the confusion around the theme.

The Met Gala is famous for being the night millions of people sit at home in PJs and use their non-existent fashion degrees to judge the glitz and glam of the world’s biggest names as they walk the steps of the Met in everything from fashion house archives, custom couture, and dresses made entirely of Swarovski crystals. This not-so-fashion-expert population does not exclude high school journalists. What follows is the top 10 of over 200 looks from the red carpet, ranked by The Warriors co-editor-in-chief, Michelle Smith.

1. 1. Mona Patel

Entrepreneur Mona Patel is being regarded widely as the best dressed at the Met Gala. Patel worked with Zendaya’s stylist Law Roach on her custom Iris Van Harpen dress. The piece heavily resembles a butterfly on the corset top and opened into a train that was reminiscent of a blooming flower. Both of Patels arms were adorned with detached sleeves resembling butterflies whose “wings” fluttered as she walked the carpet. The sleeves were designed by Casey Curra. Patel is an advocate for gender equality and the founder of Couture for Cause, a non-profit organization that aims to empower girls and women worldwide by providing access to education and healthcare resources.

Gallery • 2 Photos

2. Zendaya (not once, but twice)

Zendaya stunned on the red carpet in a custom Maison Margiela by John Galliano styled by the actresses stylist Law Roach. The custom piece was inspired by a Galliano for Christian Dior gown at the Dior Spring Summer 1999 haute couture show. Zendaya made a second appearance later in the night in place of Rihanna, who was supposed to be the final carpet appearance of the night but came down with the flu. Zendaya wore a black taffeta spring/summer 1996 Givenchy by Galliano gown sourced from the Beverly Hills vintage clothing store Lily et Cie. Zendaya is said to have bought the dress herself from the vintage shop, something she does with most pieces she wears to make public appearances. The dress was styled with a headpiece made of over two dozen roses. The piece was designed by Philip Treacy for Alexander McQueen spring/summer 2007. 

3. Tyla

Inspired by the sand in an hour glass and leaning heavily into the “Garden of Time” dress code, the singer-songwriter arrived on the red carpet in a dress made out of sand. The dress was extremely fragile and required that Tyla be carried up the Met Gala steps due to the tight form fitting cut and fragility of the dress. By the end of the night, the dress had almost fallen apart completely, an ironic turn of events for a night dedicated to the preservation of fragile fashion. The dress was paired with a functioning sand hourglass in place of a purse and simple yet beautiful nude stilettos. Earlier this year, Tyla won the Grammy Award for Best African Music Performance.

4. Elle Fanning   

Elle Fanning, the actress who portrayed Princess Aurora in Disney’s live action Maleficent film, walked the carpet in a “naked” dress. The see through gown resembled glass and according to Balmain, the fashion house behind the dress, the organza fabric was covered with four layers of resin by hand to achieve the glass like look. The dress, accompanied with glass statues coming off of her shoulders, resembled the “crystalline flowers” from “The Garden of Time,” the short story that inspired the dress code. 

5. Iris Law

Wearing vintage Versace, model Iris Law dipped into the “reawakening fashion” side of this year’s theme when she walked the carpet in a dress from the fashion house’s autumn/winter 2002 Atelier collection. The dress code’s garden themes were touched upon by the beautiful butterfly wing design of the gown. Law was a guest of Donatella Versace herself as the model was recently named the face of Versace fragrance and eyewear campaigns.

6. Eiza González Rivera

Eiza González Rivera, Mexican actress and singer, arrived at the event in a custom Del Core gown designed to look like the petals of the flower bloomed beautifully over the top of the gown. The rosy hues of the top portion of the dress continued into the dress and train. While florals were all over the carpet due to the wide interpretation of “Garden of Time” as a garden themed flower party, Rivera’s execution of the floral look was creative and miles above others’ attempts.

7. Wisdom Kaye

One of the biggest points of contention of the Met Gala every year is that many of the men in attendance tend to throw on a black tux and bowtie and call it a day rather than dress on theme or in the dress code. One of the best examples this year of men showing up and showing out to break that tradition on the carpet is Wisdom Kaye. Kaye is a model and social media personality known for his viral high quality production videos styling designer clothing in the likeness of movie and television characters. For his first appearance at the Met Gala, Kaye wore a custom Robert Wun ensemble consisting of a red tailcoat extending to the floor with a short, tattered train, a rose on the left side of his chest, ruffles on the collar and sleeves of the jacket, and a matching hat. The hat and coat, which resembles a rose in its color and silhouette, as well as the ends of his matching pants, were burnt or otherwise rotted through intentionally by the designer to represent the powerful forces of nature and their effects on the natural life.

8. Lana del Rey

Playing heavily into the Sleeping Beauty and garden themes, Lana Del Rey wore a custom look by Alexander McQueen’s creative director Seán McGirr. The look referenced an Alexander McQueen design from the fashion house’s fall 2006 collection. The branches and vines as well as the sheer netting making up the outfit resembled not only the garden theme but also the idea of sleeping beauties as the nude tulle over del Rey’s face is reminiscent of the covering placed over Aurora as she sleeps in the woods in the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. 

9. Emma Chamberlain

Emma Chamberlain, known for her iconic Met Gala interviews in recent years, walked the carpet in a custom brown lace Jean Paul Gautier dress. The dress took 640 hours of work by designers and seamstresses to bring to life. Chamberlain was quoted in Vogue saying she wanted to show the darker side of the night’s nature themes and also unveil herself as an adult to the fashion world as her past Met Gala looks have gone in a more simple, youthful direction.

10. Sebastian Stan

While understated, it’s not a plain suit and it hits on the garden theme, so that has to count for something. Stan’s black Cartier ensemble features 3-D flowers on his floor-length coat with crystal brooches pinned to a cummerbund and paired with patent leather boots. Stan’s all black look is a stark contrast to his last Met Gala appearance in a head to toe fluorescent pink outfit in 2022 when the theme was “In America: An Anthology of Fashion”and the dress code was “gilded glamour, white tie.” 

*Note from the editor: All images used in this article are property of Vogue. The use of these images is permitted through fair use laws allowing students to use copyrighted material in educational settings.