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.

Update: On May 3 — the first Monday in May — Vogue revealed the hosts for the 2021 Met Gala, as well as the official dress code for the evening, which is American Independence. Find out everything we know about this year's event, below.

Update: On April 12, Vogue announced the theme for the 2021 and the 2022 Costume Institute exhibitions, both of which will be centred around American fashion. Read on for more details.

It’s been just over a year since it was first reported that the 2020 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. 

On Thursday, the publication reported that this year’s Met Gala will take place, and no, it won’t exist only on Instagram like this year’s award shows. That said, it won’t be on the first Monday in May as we’ve grown to expect, either. 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 reportedly 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 Labor Day, and national holidays trump even Vogue’s Anna Wintour. 

According to Page Six sources, Vogue is considering Inauguration Day poet and the magazine’s May cover star Amanda Gorman for its 2021 Met Gala host. Tom Ford, the CFDA chairman and designer, is said to be joining her. Of course, Wintour will also be a host. 

The theme for the 2021 Met Gala hasn’t yet been released, though, given that we’re still five months away from the alleged event date, not to mention the special circumstances this year, we’re not all that surprised about the delay in the announcement. Insert *only (About) Time will tell* reference. 

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.

We will update this story as more information regarding the 2021 Met Gala is confirmed.