From An Intimate Fundraiser to Fashion’s Biggest Night: The Evolution of the Met Gala
365 days of fashion: the e-ncyclopedia of fashion
Saturday, May 3, 2025
It’s almost the time of the Met Gala, taking place next Monday at 6 pm E.T. Are you excited? We are, so we wanted to dive into the history of what is known as fashion’s biggest night, the equivalent of the Oscars for fashion.
The Origins of the Met Gala
The Met Gala was founded in 1948 by prominent fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert (the one who founded the first Press Week in New York, too, five years before), starting as a fundraiser event for the relatively newly founded Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute (1937) and its annual exhibit (so for the same purpose as nowadays.) Lambert called it “The Party of the Year”,