The Met Gala 2023: Everything You Need To Know

  ​The Met Gala 2023 theme, titled Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty, will honor the artistic brilliance of the late designer and trace his evolution. As one of the biggest events on the fashion calendar, the Met Gala marks the opening of the Costume Institute’s style exhibition and has long been celebrated for its zeitgeist-defining outfits and sumptuous red-carpet glamour. The Met Gala 2023 theme – Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty – will trace the designer’s evolution from winning the Woolmark Prize in 1954, to being hired as an assistant to Pierre Balmain, and revisits his prolific career at Chanel, Fendi, Chloé, Balmain, Patou and his own eponymous brand, until his death in 2019. Attendees on the night will therefore be basing their red-carpet looks around the dress code ‘In Honor of Karl’. Drawing from Lagerfeld’s seminal oeuvre, there are plenty of legendary pieces to pull from his numerous archives. Who will come as one of Chanel’s beloved couture brides? And who will take their cues more literally, with nods to the designer’s own iconic personal style – from his dark glasses and fingerless gloves to his neatly tailored suits and sleek ponytail? The 2023 exhibition, meanwhile, will feature 150 original looks from the full extent of Lagerfeld’s portfolio. With a keen focus on his impressionistic and precise sketches, Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty will frame the designer’s two-dimensional drawings alongside their three-dimensional counterparts to show how they manifested into living works of art. According to Andrew Bolton, the Costume Institute’s Wendy Yu Curator in Charge, Lagerfeld did not believe fashion belonged in a museum, but “on the street, on women’s bodies, on men’s bodies”. To stay true to Lagerfeld’s unique vision and personal proclivities, Bolton is foregoing the traditional format of a retrospective and prioritizing the designer’s original sketches as the centerpiece of the spring 2023 exhibition. Presented at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Tisch Gallery from May 5 until July 16, 2023, the interior of Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty will be designed by architect Tadao Ando. The exhibit will also include video interviews with the designer’s former colleagues, shot by Loïc Progent, with creative consultancy by Amanda Harlech, a close colleague of Lagerfeld. The event’s co-chairs include Michaela Coel, Penelope Cruz (who made her runway debut at Chanel’s FW19 show), Roger Federer, Dua Lipa and Anna Wintour. While this year’s red-carpet hosts are yet to be announced, the 2022 red carpet was hosted by fashion journalist Hamish Bowles, actor and singer Vanessa Hudgens, and actor and presenter La La Anthony.