New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is set to host on on September 13 the 2020 Met Gala which was cancelled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In April, the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that the annual fundraiser, which provides the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute its primary funding and is dubbed as “fashion’s biggest night,” will return in its full glory in September and the usual slot of the first Monday in May 2022. For the cancelled Met Gala, fans recreated their favourite red carpet looks as part of a social media challenge.

The 2021 Met Gala will be celebrated in a “more intimate” manner around the theme of ‘In America: A Lexicon of Design’, which honours the Costume Institute’s 75th anniversary. The first of a two-part exhibition, ‘In America: A Lexicon of Fashion,’ will run from September 18, 2021 to September 5, 2022, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the museum’s Costume Institute and “explore a modern vocabulary of American fashion.”

‘In America: An Anthology of Fashion,’ the second part, will open in the museum’s American Wing period rooms on May 5, 2022, and will explore American fashion, with collaborations with film directors, by “presenting narratives that relate to the complex and layered histories of those spaces.”

Celebrity co-chairs for this year’s benefit event include actor Timothee Chalamet, singer Billie Eilish, American activist and poet Amanda Gorman and tennis star Naomi Osaka. Designer Tom Ford, sponsor Instagram’s Adam Mosseri, and Vogue’s Anna Wintour will be the honourary chairs for the 2021 Met gala. American Independence has been listed as the official dress code for the evening.

Pop star Rihanna, who is expected to make her red carpet return at the even, revealed on Instagram that she would be hosting the Met Gala afterparty.