The Met Gala 2023

Anna Wintour, who has been at the helm of Vogue — fashion's most influential magazine — since 1988, is a household name not just in the industry, but across society at large.

She's been the subject of documentaries and the inspiration for movies, as talked about as the celebrities she's put on her covers (rumors she was about to leave Vogue back in 2018 fueled a flurry of wild speculation online) and as immediately recognizable, thanks to her power bob and ever-present sunglasses. 

"The amazing thing about Anna is the average person knows who she is," designer Tom Ford told fashion journalist Amy Odell in the first pages of "Anna," a recent biography of Wintour. "You show them a picture and they say, 'That's Anna Wintour from Vogue.'" 

Wintour is "militant" in her planning of the Met Gala, Odell wrote, for which she oversees every detail, including the guest list — "you just can't buy your way into it," Odell said — and the menu. She's banned chives, garlic, onion and parsley.

(Wintour has a habit of not learning the names of the people who work under her, including her assistants and some of the museum staff.) 

This year's most anticipated Met Gala guest has revealed she won't be attending.

It’s Choupette (that's French for "Sweetie"), Karl Lagerfeld's 11-year-old blue cream Birman, who was the designer's pet, muse and best friend. 

Rumors of the fashion aristo-cat’s attendance began as soon as the gala’s theme was announced last year. However, Choupette had been playing a game of cat and mouse with her 154,000 Instagram followers — a recent post included a video of her waking up from a catnap with the caption, “Me, while everyone is wondering if I’m going to the Met Gala.” 

The New York Post reported last month that Choupette had been invited to the event, but her agent did not reveal whether she would accept.

Choupette also recently appeared on the May cover of Vogue, cradled in the arms supermodel Naomi Campbell on a Parisian bridge.

Speculation intensified on Thursday when Kim Kardashian shared Instagram snaps of a trip to the French capital, including a photoshoot with the celebrity feline. 

Born in 2011, Choupette was originally owned by French model Baptiste Giabiconi, a close friend of Lagerfeld's. Giabiconi gave the cat to the designer as a birthday gift. 

Soon Choupette was living the high life, with trips on private jets, appearances at exclusive parties and magazine shoots. Choupette traveled in a custom carrying case with her silver dishes and brushes in their own Goyard bag. (She was also reported to be the inspiration for a line of cat face handbags created by Chanel.)

Her life of luxury continued even after her human’s death in 2019. Often seen in luxury hotels and villas, Choupette celebrated her birthday last August in true supermodel style, appearing in a photo taken on a (grounded) private jet with a bottle of Ruinart champagne, a souffle and a bag of gifts.

Beyond his visionary designs and elaborate runway shows, Karl Lagerfeld was also known for contentious remarks that frequently landed him in hot water.

The designer, a self-described “caricature,” was blunt and unapologetic and had a lot to say about the political and societal issues of the moment, including the #MeToo movement.

Here are some of his most controversial — and widely criticized — comments: 

On the #MeToo movement:

On the debate surrounding thin models:

On sweatpants:

On the fur debate in fashion:

Ahead of tonight's 2023 Met Gala, the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art are carpeted in a creamy white with streaks of pastel blue and red. Though designed to fit this year’s theme, and the Costume Institute's exhibition "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,” the color scheme has reminded some of, well, toothpaste. 

Flanking the carpet is an ornate backdrop that resembles Baroque wallpaper and paneling— reminiscent of the interiors of a luxe French chateau — while several ornate chandeliers hang from the draped ceiling.

The Met Gala’s organizers have put a spin on the traditional red carpet based on a theme before:

At last year's "In America: An Anthology of Fashion" event, the carpet was striped in subtle shades of red, white and blue.

For 2019’s “Camp: Notes on Fashion” theme, celebrities walked a ballerina-pink carpet, and in 2018, to fit the medieval-inspired theme of “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,” the steps were carpeted in a richly patterned beige and trimmed in maroon.

This year's Met Gala red carpet is expected to be a star-studded event.

Some of the biggest names in Hollywood from hit shows and movies this year will be making an appearance, including Pedro Pascal, Jenna Ortega and Quinta Brunson.

Sydney Sweeney, whose upcoming romantic comedy “Anyone But You” has been creating buzz online, is expected to strut the red carpet, along with upcoming "Barbie" star Margot Robbie.

Musicians including Bad Bunny, Lil Nas X, Dua Lipa and Olivia Rodrigo are also on the guest list.

This year, the dress code is "In honor of Karl," a tribute to Karl Lagerfeld, the late fashion juggernaut with an indelible influence but controversial reputation. All eyes will be on the red carpet to see how guests interpret Lagerfeld's complicated legacy

While Karl Lagerfeld will always be remembered for turning Chanel into the iconic brand it is today, it's important to note his legacy outside the realm of fashion.

Lagerfeld's recognition was arguably the ultimate stamp of high-fashion approval; if you could work with Karl, you could work with anyone. His reach as kingmaker spanned decades, ages and industries — it was as if everything he touched turned to gold.

His sphere of influence extended to areas such as branding, photography and filmmaking. Once quoted as saying that people must "embrace the present and invent the future," his boundary-pushing collaborations were also ahead of their time.

Perhaps most memorably, Lagerfeld was responsible for the first of H&M's now hugely popular designer collaboration series back in 2004.

Based on the success of this first capsule collection, which sold out in minutes, Lagerfeld went on to collaborate with watchmaker Fossil, the department store Macy's, makeup brand Shu Uemura and even beverage giant Coca-Cola in the following years — offering more affordable and accessible ways to purchase his creations in the process. There's even a Karl Lagerfeld Barbie doll based on the designer's iconic style.

And just as he pushed the fashion industry to work with other sectors, Lagerfeld wanted runway shows to be about more than just clothing. It's now commonplace for labels to provide audiences with memorable, or better yet, shareable experiences. But before the days of Instagram, Lagerfeld was well ahead of other designers in creating cinematic sets and headline-worthy moments.

The themed shows from his tenure at Chanel have all been photo-worthy, including the larger-than-life carousel built in Paris's Grand Palais for the brand's Fall/Winter 2008 collection, as well as more recent, over-the-top themes like a Chanel grocery store, airport terminal and even a space station, complete with a life-size rocket ship.

Beyond designing, Lagerfeld also had a hand in photography, shooting numerous campaigns for Chanel and others. He directed a short film starring Keira Knightley and even took a voice part in a French animated movie. He was also known for his love of books and for setting up his own publishing imprint.

While red carpet photos of the Met Gala have become instantly accessible, and often iconic, documentation of the splashy event has changed in recent years, as photographers have largely been limited to snapping attendees' highly posed entrances. To see celebrities letting loose (the likes of Bella Hadid and Marc Jacobs gathering in the bathroom for smoking breaks, for example), you'd have to turn to after-party photos or their Instagram feeds. 

Images from the galas of yesteryear are enticing because of their nostalgia factor and retro styling, but they also reveal a more relaxed atmosphere.

Rose Hartman, who photographed the gala for decades until the early 2000s, recalled over the phone a time when there was more freedom to move around and engage with attendees.

"They were just so happily speaking to one another rather than posing," Hartman told CNN in 2020 of the glitzy guests. "I always try whenever possible to capture people who are engaged with one another."

Ron Galella, who has photographed the event since 1967, had a system in place to grab the best shots, from arrivals at coat check to the museum floor and dinner. "It was easy to shoot inside," he wrote via e-mail in 2020. "A New York Press card was all you needed to gain entry." (When press passes eventually became limited, there were years he smuggled himself in through the employee entrance.)

In 1999, Anna Wintour's first year as chair of the event, Hartman snapped a photograph of the Vogue editor-in-chief walking in with former editor-at-large André Leon Talley, who died in 2022. The image of them is joyful, with both editors resplendent in costume and caught in motion.

"I love the fact that they are walking rather than standing," Hartman said. "I love the gesture of their movement."

Galella's vast archive of Met Gala images, which he published in a book in 2019, also shows endearing gestures between celebrities who weren't anticipating the flash of a camera. He believes it's a universal feeling to want to see the entertainment and fashion elite let their guards down.

Click through to see more candid photos of celebrities at the Met Gala.

Singer Dua Lipa, tennis star Roger Federer, and actors Penélope Cruz and Michaela Coel will join Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour as co-chairs of the 2023 Met Gala.   

The annual event coincides with a major new exhibition about the life and work of fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, who died in 2019. Attendees have been asked to dress in accordance with the theme "In honor of Karl." 

The four co-chairs, all of whom have attended the fundraiser in recent years, took to social media when their participation was announced. Federer wrote on Instagram that he was "so excited" to join his "dear friend" Wintour at the event. Cruz, who walked the runway at Lagerfeld's last Chanel show, meanwhile posted the news alongside the caption "Karl" and a heart emoji. 

This year will mark one of the few occasions since Wintour began overseeing the event in the mid-1990s on which no fashion designers are among the chairs. While appointees from the past two years have hailed from other industries (last year's co-chair lineup included Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Regina King), American designer Tom Ford served as honorary chair in both 2021 and 2022. 

On the first Monday in May, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art opens its doors for the Met Gala, an annual fundraiser to benefit the museum's Costume Institute, and a launch party for its spring exhibition. 

The Costume Institute is the only curatorial department at the Met that has to finance its own activities. The gala is its biggest fundraiser. The event was initially named the Party of the Year, but it's only relatively recently that it fulfilled that promise. 

From 1948 to 1971, the benefit wasn't pegged to an exhibition and was held off-site at the Waldorf Astoria or the Rainbow Room. Guests indulged in fine dining and were entertained by "skits, raffles, and pageants of models in historic costume," according to the museum's records. 

Former Vogue editor Diana Vreeland brought new glamor to the Costume Institute when she joined as a consultant in 1972. Vreeland curated some of the most ambitious exhibitions in its history and used the gala as an opportunity to inaugurate them, with designers and fashion industry insiders turning out in full force. 

Anna Wintour, Vogue's current editor, shifted the focus to celebrities when she took over as chairwoman in 1999, recruiting A-list co-chairs and through the years inviting stars such as Lil' Kim and Kim Kardashian to attract more attention to the event.