The 2023 Met Gala may be several months away, but its theme has officially been revealed. The star-studded fundraiser will celebrate late fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, who died in 2019 at age 85.
"'Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty'" will be the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Spring 2023 costume institute exhibition," the official Met Gala Instagram account shared.
Additionally, Andrew Bolton, Head Curator of the Met Costume Institute, shared why honoring the late German icon is the right choice. "He would sketch everything," Bolton told Vogue. "He would always say that he could draw before he could talk or walk. In many ways it was his primary form of communication, whether he was delivering them by fax machine or iPhone. So at its heart the exhibition will look at the evolution of Karl’s two dimensional drawings into three dimensional garments. And what’s fascinating to have discovered: I always thought that his drawings were very spontaneous and almost impressionistic. But they were in truth extremely precise, almost mathematical. We couldn’t see it because we are not trained, but his premiers knew down to the millimeter what each line meant. It was almost a secret code, a language shared between him and those premiers, that only they could fully decipher."
The Met Gala, as always, will take place on the first Monday of May. Next year, it falls on May 1, and "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty" will be on display at the museum from May 5 to July 16.
On the first Monday in May, a wide variety of designers, actors, singers, sports stars and more join together at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City to celebrate a specific fashion theme at the Met Gala. On March 17, it was announced that Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Regina King will be co-hosts alongside Vogue editor-in-chief
Anna Wintour, Tom Ford and Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram.
Each year, the Met Gala has a different theme determining stars' outfits. This year's theme is In America: The Anthology of Fashion. This theme is a second part of last year's, In America: A Lexicon of Fashion. These themes take a look at the fashion world in America.
Before the 2022 Met Gala, here's a look back at the Met Gala themes spanning over the last five years.
2021: "In America: A Lexicon of Fashion"
Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Met Gala was postponed from May to September last year. In part one of the American fashion theme, this year paid tribute to American fashion designers. Celebrities that attended were Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, Rihanna, Regina King, Zoë Kravitz, Lil Nas X and Timothée Chalamet.
2020: "About Time: Fashion and Duration"
The gala was cancelled in 2020 due to the height of the pandemic. However, the theme of that year was looking back at over a century of stylish fashion.
2019: "Camp: Notes on Fashion"
This year was influenced by Susan Sontag's groundbreaking 1964 essay "Notes on Camp."
"Camp is a vision of the world in terms of style — but a particular kind of style. It is the love of the exaggerated, the 'off,' of things-being-what-they-are-not," Sontag wrote. A modern example of "camp" is Lady Gaga's infamous controversial meat dress she wore at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards.
2018: "Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination"
Mixing fashion and influence from the Catholic Church, Ariana Grande, Rihanna, Lana Del Rey, Nicki Minaj, Zendaya, Cardi B and more dressed appropriately for the occasion. Rihanna turned heads with her outfit inspired by the Pope.
2017: "Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between"
In tribute to Rei Kawakubo, the famous Japanese fashion designer behind the Comme des Garçons label, some of her "objects" were displayed in the museum while some celebrities showed off her work. Celebrities in attendance were Katy Perry, Celine Dion, Kate Hudson, Gwyneth Paltrow and Donald Glover.
The 2022 Met Gala will take place on Monday, May 2 in New York City.