The Met Gala—It’s a night of glittering beauty and fashion at its finest. Designers dress celebrities in outlandish garb and they walk the red carpet while photographers capture the spectacle.

The gala is a fundraiser that is famously known to have a guest list of 600 elite people and is one of the most anticipated fashion events held every year. It is treated as highly as the Oscars.

That fundraiser is the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Gala also known as the Met Gala. 

The gala was established in 1948 by fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert to raise money for the opening of the Costume Institute in Manhattan, New York. 

Since then, the people in attendance have been known to be highly recognized in the arts, fashion, film and music worlds.

The first gala was $50 per ticket. Now it is at least $30,000 per ticket and between $200,000 to $300,000 for a table where they are served drinks, dinner and are entertained.

Each year the Met Gala gives the attendees a theme to dress by and the guests are expected to choose their outfits to match the theme of the exhibit.

The most iconic attire worn at the Met Gala was in 2015. 

The theme of the night was “China: Through the Looking Glass.” Rihanna wore a golden floral headdress and an imperial yellow, fur-trimmed cape dress that was embroidered with beautiful floral scrolls. The dress was hand-made by Chinese fashion designer Guo Pei.

This year’s theme was named “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion.” The outfits worn had to represent what modern vocabulary in American fashion meant to each attendee.

According to the Cut magazine, the exhibition aimed to “present a diverse range of perspectives on how fashion reflects the evolving notions of identity in the country.”

Musician Billie Eilish wore a light peach-colored dress made by Oscar de la Renta and Lil Nas X was layered in three outfits made by Versace.

Fashion model Iman outshone all the guests quite literally by wearing a Dolce & Gabbana x Harris Reed custom brocade bustier, gold pants paired with a tiered, gilded feather cage overskirt and a matching angelic-like headpiece.

Timothée Chalamet, Billie Eilish, Amanda Gorman and Naomi Osaka all co-chaired this year’s event. 

They were chosen by Anna Wintour, Vogue’s editor-in-chief, to help host and make sure that the Met Gala ran accordingly while also strutting the red carpet in their themed attire.