Met Gala Venue: Where The Event Is Held & All About The Costume Institute

The Met Gala is an annual celebration of fashion, but why does it occur? Here’s what you need to know about The Costume Institute and where the gala is held.

The Met Gala 2022 is just days away and some of the biggest stars will walk its famous steps to show off their interpretations of this year’s theme, “In America: An Anthology Of Fashion,” or “Gilded Glamour” for short. The event has returned to its signature date, the first Monday of May (May 2, this year), after the 2021 Met Gala was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. And while fans sit on the edges of their seats to see their favorite celebrities’ creative ensembles, the evening is about so much more than adhering to the gala theme.

The Met Gala red carpet is not just a fashion show; It’s the entrance to an annual fundraiser for The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York City. And there’s a reason why you won’t see common folk on the coveted guest list: The tickets cost approximately $35,000 a head.

The Costume Institute is located on the ground floor of the north side of The Met within the Anna Wintour Costume Center. It’s composed of more than 35,000 costumes and accessories originating across five continents and through seven centuries of fashion, from the fifteenth century to today. Here’s everything to know about The Costume Institute and this year’s exhibition.

All About the Costume Institute 

The Costume Institute, curated by Andrew Bolton since 2017, was originally created in 1937 as the Museum of Costume Art by Neighborhood Playhouse founder Irene Lewisohn and was independent of The Met. However, it partnered with The Met in 1946 and was renamed The Costume Institute. It became an officially curated entity in 1959.

While The Costume Institute ran a few exhibitions once it became a curated department, the annual rotation of exhibits museum goers are now used to did not start until 1989. To date, the exhibition “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” is The Costume Institute’s largest and most-visited ever, seeing more than 1.6 million visitors between The Met’s main museum on Fifth Avenue and its smaller showroom at The Met Cloisters.

This Year’s Exhibition

The Costume Institute’s 2022 exhibition is taking place in two parts. “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion” will be displayed in the Anna Wintour Costume Center through September 5, 2022. It celebrates the 75th anniversary of The Costume Institute and “establishes a modern vocabulary of fashion,” according to a press release. The collection consists of about 100 pieces of men’s and women’s clothing. The second part, “In America: An Anthology of Fashion,” will be viewable in the American Wing of The Met between May 5, 2022 and September 5, 2022 and “will highlight sartorial narratives that relate to the complex and layered histories of the American Wing period rooms.”

For those who want to see the American fashion-inspired exhibits, tickets are $25 for adults, $17 for seniors, and $12 for students. New York state residents and New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut students can pay as they please.