The Met Gala is coming back with a bang - and breaking tradition with a September event
- The Met Gala is returning this September, The New York Times reports.
- After being canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic, the gala's theme will be American fashion.
- The fall gala will be followed by another event with the same theme in May 2022.
The Met Gala is making a comeback with a two-part event this September and next May, The New York Times reported.
While the event is traditionally held on the first Monday of May, the next gala is returning with a splash, as it will be split into two parts.
The first half of the exhibition will open at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in September after New York Fashion Week, with the second half of the event falling in May 2022, according to Times fashion director and chief fashion critic Vanessa Friedman.
Last year's event was postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Andrew Bolton told the Times this year's gala would be a "celebration of the American fashion community, which suffered so much during the pandemic."
It will coincide with two exhibits at the Met Museum, with the first being "In America: A Lexicon of Fashion," which Friedman wrote will emphasize contemporary designs more than any Costume Institute exhibit in the past, "thus putting the institution's stamp of approval on a fresh generation of names."
The second exhibit, "In America: An Anthology of Fashion," will illustrate through style "300 years of historic narratives, both personal and political," according to Friedman.
The Met Gala has a history dating back to 1948, when it began as a "midnight supper" where guests paid an admission price of $50 to benefit the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In 1995, Anna Wintour - editor-in-chief of Vogue and, since 2020, global chief content officer for Condé Nast - became a co-chair of the event and has overseen the gala every year since.
The event has been dubbed the "Party of the Year," the "Super Bowl of fashion," and the "Oscars of the East Coast."
In recent years, Met Gala themes have included "Camp: Notes on Fashion" in 2019, "Heavenly Bodies and the Catholic Imagination" in 2018, and "Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: The Art of the In-Between" in 2017.
This is a developing story. Please check back for more updates.