Met Gala 2023: Inside Secrets Revealed and How to Watch Fashion’s Biggest Night

The Met Gala is fash­ion’s most pres­ti­gious red car­pet event, but it har­bors many secrets behind the glitz and glam­our. With tick­ets start­ing at $30,000 and tables cost­ing $275,000, the Met Gala is a high-fash­ion affair attend­ed by the biggest celebrities. 

Though it began in 1948 as a fundrais­er for the Cos­tume Insti­tute at the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Muse­um of Art, the gala became a major event under Vogue edi­tor Anna Win­tour’s lead­er­ship in 1995.

As atten­dees pre­pare to daz­zle in looks inspired by this year’s theme from Karl Lager­feld, here are some of the Met Gala’s best-kept secrets:

•The guest list is more exclu­sive than it seems. Despite hav­ing up to 800 atten­dees, the gala strives to remain “inti­mate.” Vogue’s Syl­vana Ward Dur­rett said they have cut the guest list by 200–300 peo­ple in recent years.

•Cer­tain celebri­ties are banned. Win­tour said she would nev­er invite Don­ald Trump, and for­mer Project Run­way star Tim Gunn claims he was black­list­ed for crit­i­ciz­ing Win­tour in an article.

•No self­ies allowed. In 2015, Win­tour banned self­ies and social media use dur­ing the gala. Guests were warned that mobile phones were “pro­hib­it­ed.”

•Seat­ing is strate­gic. Gala atten­dees don’t sit wher­ev­er they like. Vogue care­ful­ly assigns seats to encour­age inter­min­gling between celebri­ties, pub­lic fig­ures and designers.

•After­par­ties are invite-only. The gala after­par­ties at venues like the Boom Boom Room are even more exclu­sive, with a select few celebri­ties and guests on the list.

•You can watch at home. While you can’t attend with­out an invi­ta­tion from Anna Win­tour her­self, you can still watch all the red car­pet action. Vogue will livestream the red car­pet, and E! News and Good Morn­ing Amer­i­ca will air cov­er­age. Catch the dra­ma, glam and gos­sip from your couch!