How Do You Get Invited To The Met Gala?

According to Vogue, some 600 people reportedly attend the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual Costume Institute benefit (aka, the Met Gala) every year. And while the fashion – both on the gala carpet and in the exhibition hall – is the major talking point of the evening, attention often turns to who exactly is wearing what on the evening itself. With the Met Gala guest list as exclusive as it is, we can’t help but wonder: how do you get invited?

The Met Gala Guest List Explained

As one of the biggest nights in both pop culture and fashion, it’s an understatement to say that tickets to the Met Gala are some of the most coveted out there. The event, which is held every year on the first Monday of May, is organised to commemorate the opening of the Costume Institute’s annual exhibit – with the gala dress code running in tandem with the exhibition theme.

Vogue Editor-in-Chief has helmed the Met Gala for three decades, helping shape the event (and its guest list) into what it is now. The gala’s star-studded cohort – typically comprised of actors, musicians, socialites, athletes, fashion industry heavyweights  and even political figures – is notoriously tricky to get into. But it’s not impossible.

Doechii at the Met Gala 2025, in Louis Vuitton (c) Theo Wargo/FilmMagic

How Do You Get Invited To The Met Gala?

The Met Gala is famously an invitation-only event. Wintour, as the event’s chairwoman, decides who gets a spot on the guest list (as well as the additional waitlist). The criteria for getting on the list remains a mystery to all but Wintour herself, but speculation suggests that attendees are picked based on cultural relevance, upcoming projects and recent achievements.

But it’s also thought that Wintour sees the event as an opportunity for celebrities to connect with one another, both socially and from a workplace perspective. And who knows, some conversations may even lead to potential collaborations later down the line.

Usher at the Met Gala 2024, in custom-made McQueen by Sean McGirr (c) Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue; courtesy of McQueen

According to fashion and culture journalist Amy Odell, who wrote Anna: The Biography, those that make it onto that year’s guest list are part of Wintour’s ‘in’ group. ‘[An invite is] really a huge signifier that you are “in”,’ she explained in a conversation with Time, highlighting that the Met Gala works as more of a multi-industry networking event for those in (or want to creep closer into) the spotlight. ‘If you go to the Met Gala, you’re gonna be in a room with people who are esteemed within the fashion industry or you might find yourself sitting next to a cosmetics executive and the seating plan is designed so that those kinds of conversations can unfold.’

Who Decides The Met Gala Guest List?

The act of whittling down the guest list is a multi-layered (and rather mammoth) job. It starts with a team of planners, who compile a list of hundreds of potential guests. This list is then reviewed by Wintour, who cuts it down to a final edit of guests.

The actual number of guests that are selected differs from year to year. Pre-Covid, the Met Gala regularly welcomed 800 people to its famous carpeted steps each year, but more recently this number has been slashed. The first few years after the pandemic, the guest list sat at around 400, while the last year crept back up to 600.

Jaden Smith in Ozwald Boateng (c) Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

Who Goes?

As mentioned, guests span anywhere from pop stars to politicians. Notable attendees from the 2025 Met Gala included Zendaya, Aimee Lou Wood, Doechii, Lewis Hamilton, Rhianna, Demi Moore, Colman Domingo, Diana Ross, Janelle Monáe, Law Roach and Kamala Harris. For the full list, see our highlights from the event here.

And this is with a much smaller number of guests than pre-Covid. Exclusivity lends itself well to an event like this, but it makes narrowing down the attendees all the more difficult – and prone to criticism.

Wintour has copped a fair bit of flack for allowing a larger number of influencers onto the Met Gala guest list, especially when it’s becoming harder for traditional celebrities to secure a place. The likes of Liza Koshy, Addison Rae and James Charles have all managed to make Met Gala appearances in recent years, but the same cannot be said for well-known household names such as Meryl Streep, Dolly Parton and Angelina Jolie, who have all never attended.

But according to Odell, the addition of newer talent is part of a much bigger move to keep the Met Gala relevant in an age of social media megastars. ‘She needs people with online followings and traditional entertainers are not always those people, so you need to have the influencers there,’ says Odell. ‘Anna is savvy… Every time there’s a TikTok celebrity there or certain influencers, the online peanut gallery has a lot to say and that’s all generating conversation and coverage for the gala.’

Cardi B at the Met Gala 2025, in Burberry (c) Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

Who Decides The Seating Plan?

While the carpet catwalk is the moment we all line up to witness, the Met Gala doesn’t end there. Attendees have the chance to get a first look at the Costume Institute’s spring exhibition, as well as attend a party inside the museum itself.

The party, which consists of a sit down dinner and musical performances, is renowned for its eclectic seating plan that often leads to unexpected celebrity pairings. Like the guest list, the seating plan is decided by Wintour who, with the aid of event planner Eaddy Kiernan, likes to strategically mix and match attendees. ‘We start with a seating document when the names come together in December,’ Kiernan told Vogue, adding that the final chart is signed off a month before the gala.

With the main goal being mingling, Wintour and Kiernan have a rules in place, the main one being that couples are never seated together. Instead, they are interspersed amongst the other guests to encourage more opportunities for socialising.

Guest mixing is never done with the intention of making anyone feel uncomfortable, highlights Kiernan. ‘Perhaps most importantly, we try to make sure someone isn’t staring into the eyes of a former flame,’ he says.

Lana Del Rey at the Met Gala 2024, in McQueen (c) Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images; courtesy of McQueen

How Much Does It Cost To Attend?

Ticket prices are notoriously high for the Met Gala, with a single ticket costing $75,000 and a table starting at $350,000. Companies, brands and design houses will usually buy a table, and use it to host their desired celebrities from Wintour’s guest list (although they have no say in the actual seating plan).

But the high costs go to a good place: all funds go back to the Costume Institute, which relies on the event for its operating costs, being the only department at the Met that raises its own budget. The 2025 edition of the Met Gala reportedly raised $31 million, making it the most successful fundraiser in the Met’s history.

‘The money that [Wintour] raises is important for the Costume Institute because preserving these clothes, these collections, is very expensive,’ Odell says. ‘The garments have to be cared for in a really specialized way. The money has done a lot for that department and I’m sure that they’ll want to keep it going so they can continue to have the best collection in the world.’

Do Celebrities Buy Their Tickets?

With the above in mind, it’s uncommon that celebrities buy their own ticket. If they nab a spot on the guest list, they’ll usually team up with a brand or designer for the event – who will then cover the cost of the ticket, and dress them for the evening.

Pharrell and Helen Williams at the 2025 Met Gala, in Louis Vuitton (c) Michael Loccisano/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images)

Has Anyone Been Banned From The Met Gala?

While no one has been officially ‘banned’ from attending the Met Gala, the are plenty of rumours to suggest that some people are a lot less welcome than others – but that’s not to say that all attendees who don’t make an appearance at later events are blacklisted.

The reason some attendees only make it to one or two Met Galas usually comes down to logistics. The guest list itself is limited, and sometimes the celebrity in question might not have anything to promote, or the event itself might land on a date that conflicts with their schedule.

Wintour has, however, revealed that there is a certain public figure who she would never invite to the Met Gala again. During a round of ‘Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts’ on The Late Late Show with James Corden, the Vogue Editor-in-Chief crisply replied to the question of who she would strike off the guest list with one name: ‘Donald Trump.’ Watch the moment unfold below: