All the 2024 Met Gala’s Wildest Looks

It seemed to be a jet-black wig, but—as ever with the Met Gala—the drama, not the possible dye-job, was the point.

Sydney Sweeney was just one of a host of stars, wearing exceedingly, sometimes deliciously OTT looks, dramatic hairstyles, and astonishing couture for the Met Gala, in which the people deemed by Anna Wintour to be the (multi-defined) hottest and most influential of the moment converge to essentially play dress-up, and celebrate the achievement of not eating for weeks in order to squeeze in whatever improbably designed threads have been dreamt up for them. It is both extremely entertaining and inevitably exhausting—the red carpet arrivals never stop arriving for over four hours. It feels like it will only end when the Golden Globes organizers begin to tap their watches.

For Sweeney, her game of dress-up involved a severe black bob, which is a world away from the blonde easy-breeziness her fans know her for. The daring do was accompanied by a baby blue Miu Miu ball gown with a full tulle skirt that had delicate embroidered flowers on it. You want more? IKt also came with an all-conquering train, and opera gloves.

Sweeney and others like her got the memo: at the Met Gala more means more.

The celebrities came ready to slay, delight, outrage, and garner as many headlines as possible—and if any outfits didn’t immediately seem to echo the theme, the Met Gala’s grand organizer, Vogue’s global editorial director and Condé Nast’s chief content officer, Anna Wintour, had already taken responsibility for it. Wintour told the Today show’s Jenna Bush Hager that she “deeply apologized” for “unleashing a lot of confusion” around what to turn up in after “The Garden of Time” was named as the dress code, its name taken from J.G. Ballard’s dystopia-streaked 1962 short story. “I imagine we’ll see a lot of flowers,” Wintour said.

This year’s Met Gala is the grand opening to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute’s latest exhibit, Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion (May 10-Sep. 2), a survey of around 250 of the museum’s most ancient garments. While the Gala guest list remains a mystery until the first wild outfits appear, the chairs of the Gala are well-known: Jennifer Lopez, Bad Bunny, Zendaya, and Chris Hemsworth. Yes, Wintour told Today, she has advised attendees on what to wear in previous years, suggesting to Serena Williams when she co-chaired that she should wear sneakers: “She has said many times that she was grateful for that suggestion.”

Asked about her grandchildren, Wintour said they were “magical and amazing and funny, and they bring a perspective to everything.” What do they call you, Hager asked. “Anna,” Wintour replied, confirming something she had originally revealed in 2022.

Asked if it was true she had banned chives, onion, and garlic form the Gala menu, Wintour said, “Those are three things I’m not particularly fond of, so yes, that’s true.” Of the ban on cellphones (frequently contravened in the bathrooms, as multiple past celebrity selfies testify to), Wintour said that after dinner attendees said they had had “the most wonderful conversations. That’s the idea. Life can exist without a picture on your cellphone.” Time will tell how not-in-use those cellphones remain as the night goes on.