Expect To See Some Over-The-Top Fashion Face Masks At This Year’s Met Gala

Update: In addition to gowns, jumpsuits, tuxedos and more — all of which will presumably be designed by American designers — expect to see an impressive array of fashion face masks at this year's Met Gala, too. On Tuesday, the Met confirmed to People that all attendees at the September 13 Met Gala will be required to wear a mask indoors (except when eating or drinking) and provide proof of full vaccination. "We will update these guidelines as needed," a spokesperson for the Manhattan museum told People.

It’s been over a year since it was first reported in March 2020 that the Met Gala would be postponed due to the pandemic. Two months later, Vogue made the official announcement that fashion’s biggest night would be canceled completely. Though the About Time: Fashion and Duration exhibition opened later in the year at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, no pink carpet was rolled out to celebrate it, nor did Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Zendaya, or any of the other stars who frequent the Met Gala, show up in fashion fit for the occasion. According to Page Six, though, the 2021 soirée won’t meet the same fate. 

In April, the publication reported that this year’s Met Gala will take place after all — and no, it won’t exist only on Instagram like many of 2021's award shows. That said, it won’t be on the first Monday in May as we’ve grown to expect. Instead, the benefit, which raises money for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute and is known in the industry as the “Oscars of Fashion,” will take place during New York Fashion Week in September. 

Ahead, everything we know (so far) about the 2021 Met Gala.

The gala will take place on September 13, 2021. According to Page Six, the date was changed in the hopes that, with the current vaccine rollout, it will be safe to gather by then. Whether or not that will turn out to be true is yet to be determined. Furthermore, the date apparently could not be held on the first Monday in September due to the fact that it’s Labour Day, a national holiday in the U.S. 

On May 3, Vogue confirmed the rumours about Inauguration Day poet Amanda Gorman hosting the 2021 Met Gala. That, and they filled out the rest of the event's open seats, naming actor Timothée Chalamet, singer Billie Eilish, and tennis star Naomi Osaka as the poet's co-hosts. CFDA chairman Tom Ford, head of Instagram Adam Mosseri, and Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour will be the evening’s honourary chairs.

According to Vogue, each of the four co-hosts embodies American individualism. "They may approach the concept differently," says the announcement, "but their shared passion for expressing themselves through clothing connects with the exhibition’s theme."

According to Vogue, the 2021 Costume Institute exhibit will combine with the one for 2022, thus creating a two-part fashion display. The theme for the 24-month show? American fashion. Opening on September 18, 2021, the first half of the exhibition, titled “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion,” will be held in Anna Wintour's Costume Center and focus on fashion's ability to tell stories through time. According to Andrew Bolton, Costume Institute's curator, the Costume Center will be transformed into an "imaginary house" for the exhibit, which will run until September 5, 2022.

The second half of the show, which opens on May 5, 2022, will also run until September 5, though it will be housed in the American Wing's period rooms. Titled “In America: An Anthology of Fashion,” this display will "address the subject of inclusivity," with the primary question being, “Who gets to be American?” The show will discuss names that have and have not been left out of this group in the past, and explore why.

According to the announcement, the brands on display will include Pyer Moss, LaQuan Smith, Oscar de la Renta, Prabal Gurung, Andre Walker, and Ralph Lauren, among others.

Prior to 2020, Met Gala themes included Camp: Notes on Fashion, which saw Lady Gaga, Cardi B, Janelle Monáe, and Ezra Miller, among others, don fashion at its most over-the-top, in 2019; Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination in 2018, which was unofficially won by Rihanna, when she showed up wearing a Pope costume by Maison Margiela; and Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between in 2017, which featured co-host Katy Perry in custom Maison Martin Margiela, Lily Collins in Giambattista Valli, and Zoë Kravitz in Oscar de la Renta.