Met Gala outfits are designed to stop traffic — red carpet traffic, that is. Each year, on the first Monday in May, a hand-picked selection of the world’s most famous gather at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the Met Gala.
Working with stylists and designers, attendees try to ensure their look is the talk of the town. But sometimes, that talk isn’t all positive, with some looks spurring controversy (or at least conversation).
Here are a few debates inspired by Met Gala outfits.
Kim Kardashian, 2022
Kim Kardashian donned the exact dress that Marilyn Monroe wore when she famously sang “Happy Birthday” to President John F. Kennedy for the 2022 Met Gala.
The outfit caused two separate controversies. First, rumors emerged that the historic dress was damaged. The owners of the dress, the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum, addressed accusations in a blog post, writing that Kardashian’s appearance at the Met Gala “did not cause damage to Marilyn Monroe’s famed ‘Happy Birthday’ dress from 1962.”
Then, Kardashian said she lost 16 pounds to fit into the dress, sparking more criticism.
“I looked at like a role, and I really wanted to wear this dress. It was really important to me,” she told TODAY co-anchors Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 2021
New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wore a white gown emblazoned with the words "tax the rich" in red to the 201 Met Gala. The theme was “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion."
The dress and its statement elicited strong reactions from people on both sides of the aisle.
Then, Ocasio-Cortez was investigated by the House Ethics Committee over allegations that she may have accepted impermissible gifts to attend the Gala, violating the House rules, standards of conduct and federal law.
House rules prohibit lawmakers from accepting gifts such as “a gratuity, favor, discount, entertainment, hospitality, loan, forbearance, or other item having monetary value.”
Per an 18-page report prepared by the Office of Congressional Ethics and made public in March 2023, Ocasio-Cortez paid for her outfit and other items associated with the event, but only after she was contacted by the ethics office.
The House Ethics Committee said it would continue to investigate, but has provided no update.
Ocasio-Cortez addressed the tardy payments through a spokesperson.
“The congresswoman finds these delays unacceptable, and she has taken several steps to ensure nothing of this nature will happen again,” said Communications Director Lauren Hitt in a statement.
“Even after OCE’s exhaustive review of the congresswoman’s personal communications, there is no record of the congresswoman refusing to pay for these expenses,” said Hitt. “To the contrary, there are several explicit, documented communications, from prior to OCE’s review, that show the congresswoman understood that she had to pay for these expenses from her own personal funds — as she ultimately did. We are confident the Ethics Committee will dismiss this matter.”
Cara Delevingne, 2021
For the theme "In America: A Lexicon of Fashion," Cara Delevinge wore Dior, wearing white pants, white heels and a white fencing vest that said "peg the patriarchy" in red letters.
On the red carpet that year, Delevinge offered insight as to what her outfit meant.
“If someone doesn’t know what this means, you’re gonna have to look it up,” she said.
"It’s about women empowerment, gender equality — it’s a bit like, ‘Stick it to the man.'"
Toronto-based sex educator Luna Matatas, who trademarked the term, reacted to Delevigne's look after the Met Gala red carpet unfolded. She said she had no idea the phrase would be used on such a public platform.
"Cara spoke to media as if she owned it, no credit to me, and gave it a different performative feminism take instead of my meaning behind the phrase," Matatas wrote on her website.
Delevingne did not comment at the time.
Karlie Kloss, 2019
The internet had a lot to say about Karlie Kloss’s look for the 2019 Met Gala, meant to complement the theme “Camp: Notes on Fashion.”
Wearing a gold dress with puffy black sleeves, Kloss posted a photo of herself looking into a small mirror, and wrote on Instagram that she was “Looking camp right in the Eye #metgala.”
Kloss revisited the look during a 2023 Vogue interview. “Yes this was the Met Gala that I think I broke the internet, but not in a good way. I still get trolled about this look, where I was ‘looking camp straight in the eye,’ she said, adding that she still gets trolled. “I’ll accept it, honestly I deserved that one,” she said.
Frank Ocean, 2019
While many celebrities go viral for doing the most at the Met Gala, singer Frank Ocean when viral for doing the least.
He wore a black Prada hoodie to the red carpet to the 2019 Met Gala spent much of the night taking photos, which were featured in Vogue.
Did this fit the camp theme? Perhaps its very ordinariness, in a sea of extravagant costumes, made it stand out.
Rihanna, 2018
Rihanna dressed like the pope for the 2018 Met Gala theme “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.”
The theme and participants, Rihanna included, were criticized amid dialogue about whether outfits were offensive.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, head of the New York Catholic Archdiocese, attended the event, and defended it in later interviews.
Speaking to the Catholic publication Crux.com, Dolan said attendees were “very appreciative, approachable, and very respectful."
“I did not find the spirit of the evening to be offensive or blasphemous at all,” he told Cruz. “Was some of it edgy? Yes, but I never met any person that seemed to be snippy or snotty about the Church, or who intended anything to be offensive.”
Scarlett Johansson, 2018
The #MeToo movement in 2017 was sparked, in large part, by accusations of sexual misconduct against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
Weinstein was convicted of rape and sexual assault in New York in 2020, though his conviction was recently overturned. Weinstein was also convicted for rape and sexual assault after a different trial in California in February 2023. He has maintained innocence.
In 2018, the year after accusations emerged, Johansson wore Marchesa, a brand co-founded by Weinstein’s ex-wife, Georgina Chapman. She and Weinstein divorced in 2021.
Johansson was the first celebrity to wear her brand to a major event since the scandal broke in 2017.
“I wore Marchesa because their clothes make women feel confident and beautiful and it is my pleasure to support a brand created by two incredibly talented and important female designers,” she told People Magazine.
Vogue global editorial director Anna Wintour supported Johansson’s decision during an appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
“Georgina is a brilliant designer and I don’t think she should be blamed for her husband’s behavior,” said Wintour.
“I think it was a great gesture of support on Scarlett’s part to wear a dress like that, a beautiful dress like that, on such a public occasion.”
Liv Tyler and Stella McCartney, 1999
For the 1999 theme “Rock Style” Liv Tyler and Stella McCartney took their rightful place on the red carpet as rock music royalty and celebrities in their own right.
Tyler is an actor and the daughter of Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler. McCartney is a fashion designer and daughter of Beatles rocker Paul McCartney.
Speaking to Vogue in 2020, Tyler and McCartney described how the look came together. They had found out about the theme the night before. The morning of the Met Gala, McCartney took Hanes tank tops to be customized by a store in Little Italy, “adding ribbons and studs,” per Vogue.
Their outfits were taken as rebellious, but that wasn’t their plan.
“I didn’t come at it intentionally to be rebellious at all. I didn’t know what people wore,” McCartney said.
“It wasn’t really appropriate that we wore those shirts. Officially, we weren’t following the honors of the dress code. It was very cool and rebellious of Stella,” Tyler said. “It was an amazing thing, in a way. We were just being ourselves.”
Princess Diana
Princess Diana wore a Dior silk slip for her one and only Met Gala. More than a controversy, her dress was a statement. Later that year, Charles, who is now King Charles, and Diana would finalize their divorce. Like her so-called "revenge dress," the Met Gala dress was thought to send a signal about fashion free from royal convention.