A Tribute To The Best Met Gala Looks Of All Time

It’s the first Monday in May, but for the first time in nearly two decades, no one will be lining up on the steps of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art tonight for the Costume Institute’s annual Met Gala. Central Park might be open (to the dismay of many worried New Yorkers), but the museum that calls it home is not. And neither is the About Time: Fashion and Duration exhibition.

As New York City itself hits pause, fashion’s most elite people — from the gala’s co-hosts Nicolas Ghesquière, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Emma Stone, Meryl Streep, and of course, Anna Wintour, to the most notorious Met Gala dressers (think Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Jared Leto, and Cardi B) — are at home, probably posting photos from Met Galas past (bathroom pics included).

But just because we can’t tune into fashion’s biggest night tonight doesn’t mean that we can’t still celebrate what could’ve been. To do so, we’re taking a trip down memory lane, re-visiting some of our all-time favourite Met Gala looks, from Kate Moss’s Marc Jacobs golden mini dress circa 2009 to Cardi B’s staircase-enveloping Thom Browne gown from last year. Don’t worry, SJP and Alexander McQueen in matching tartan, Naomi Campbell in glittering Versace, and Kim Kardashian West in Thierry Mugler’s first original design in 20 years also made the cut. 

So shake (or stir) up a quarantini, put on a #throwback ensemble, and prepare to be amazed by the ethereal looks that have garnered attention every year since the first Costume Institute Benefit in 1948. Click on for our list of the best Met Gala looks of all time.