It's not informally known as fashion's Academy Awards for nothing.
The Met Gala, the annual fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, may be the single biggest night of the year for fashion, bringing together the top names in entertainment, politics and other high-powered industries for one night of peacocking and partying.
This year's Met Gala unfolds on May 6 in New York, corresponding with the opening of the museum's new fashion exhibit.
Read on for more information about this year's theme and what to expect.
What is the Met Gala?
Celebrating its 71st anniversary in 2019, the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Benefit, better known as the Met Gala or the Met Ball, is a black-tie fundraiser for the museum's Costume Institute. Last year's gala raised over $12 million for the Met. The event also celebrates the opening of the Costume Institute's annual fashion exhibit.
The Costume Institute is housed in the museum's Anna Wintour Costume Center, named after the Vogue editor-in-chief. Wintour has served as the Met Gala co-chair nearly every year since 1995, and famously hand picks the guest list.
How to watch
For viewers at home who want to tune in, E! will begin broadcasting live from the red carpet with Giuliana Rancic at 5 p.m. E.T. on TV and on Hulu and YouTube TV.
Viewers without a cable connection can also stream the red carpet via Vogue's Facebook page.
What is this year's theme?
2018's blockbuster "Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and Catholic Imagination" theme will be hard to top, but the stars will try their best to interpret 2019's theme, "Camp: Notes on Fashion," which has nothing to do with camping equipment.
"Through more than 250 objects dating from the seventeenth century to the present, The Costume Institute's spring 2019 exhibition will explore the origins of camp's exuberant aesthetic," reads the Met's official website."Susan Sontag's 1964 essay 'Notes on 'Camp' provides the framework for the exhibition, which examines how the elements of irony, humor, parody, pastiche, artifice, theatricality, and exaggeration are expressed in fashion."
Sontag, one of the 20th century's most respected authors and critics, defined camp as "a seriousness that fails," the "taste for the androgynous," and "the love of the unnatural."
Expect the stars who decide to adhere to this year's theme to embrace Sontag's theory of camp and embody its outrageous and exaggerated spirit, which will inevitably result in some truly eye-popping sartorial choices.
The celebrity hosts
Since 1995, Anna Wintour has presided over the event alongside honorary hosts from the worlds of entertainment and fashion.
The eclectic co-chairs of this year's Met Gala are Lady Gaga, Harry Styles and Serena Williams.
In 2018, Wintour was joined by Amal Clooney, Rihanna and Donatella Versace as co-hosts.
Considering how Rihanna stole the red carpet show last year with her papal garb, expect this year's slate of celebrity hosts to also appear on many best-dressed lists the morning after.
Last year's gala
While style watchers will likely find plenty to love in the campy looks of this year's Met Gala, the 2018 version was a fashion wonderland, from Lena Waithe's instantly-iconic LGBTQ flag cape to the many angels, popes and renaissance artworks that walked the carpet.
Other attendees included the Kardashian, Jenner and Hadid clans.
Last year's Met Gala: Best-dressed looks from Rihanna, Amal Clooney, Lena Waithe and more
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2019/05/01/met-gala-2019-everything-you-need-know-fashions-big-night/3572315002/
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