Lana Del Rey in Alexander McQueen, trapped in beige veils embroidered with brambles, some hanging over her head like a mosquito net. Aya Nakamura in a Balmain sheath adorned with crystal flowers. Gigi Hadid in a Thom Browne corset dress, with a gigantic train crisscrossed by tangled 3D yellow roses. These were just some of the looks on show Monday evening, May 6, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Gala in New York. Most of them followed the 'Garden of Time" dress code, which echoed the Met's "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion" exhibition, inaugurated this evening by the stars and officially open to the public from May 10.

It's hard to escape the images of the Met Gala that flood the media and social media every year on the first Monday of May. This New York charity evening has become an international event whose influence extends far beyond the boundaries of fashion, in the same way that the Cannes Film Festival and the Oscars are not only followed by moviegoers.

Launched in 1948 by journalist Eleanor Lambert, the Met Gala raises funds for the Costume Institute, the fashion department of the largest art museum in the US. American cultural institutions are less dependent on public subsidies than in France. The Costume Institute must not only finance its own operating costs, but also pay rent to the Met. This explains the idea for a big charity gala. By 2023, $22 million had been raised. A new record.

Before getting there, admission cost $50 in 1948, guests were limited to New York high society and the local fashion industry, and the venue changed every year. It was still just another charity dinner. When Diana Vreeland, former editor-in-chief of American Vogue, became special advisor to the Costume Institute between 1972 and 1989, she laid the foundations for the winning recipe that would make it a popular event: attract stars – Andy Warhol, Diana Ross, Cher – bring the evening back to the museum and link the gala with the launch of a themed fashion exhibition.

"I remember first going to the Met when I was working with New York Magazine [in the 1980s], and it was the most glamorous evening I'd ever been at. I didn't go to the dinner, I couldn't afford to go to the dinner, I was just at the cocktails," recalled Anna Wintour, now the editorial director of the Condé Nast group. "I was in awe of what Mrs. Vreeland had done. But after she left, there was no real leadership. In 1995, [designer] Oscar [de la Renta] asked me to step in. If Oscar called, you always said yes. And I was really very naive, I didn't realize what I was stepping into."

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