The details have been announced for the 2023 Met Gala, which means the biggest night in celebrity fashion is drawing nearer. On May 1st, the world’s biggest stars will grace the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s iconic stairs dressed by fashion’s best of the best. This year’s theme, “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,” is an homage to the late designer, who passed away in 2019 at 85. The theme is likely to see hundreds of Lagerfeld’s closest friends, admirers, and collaborators working to best embody the spirit of Lagerfeld’s iconic legacy.
The Met confirmed the 2023 theme with a press presentation at Paris Fashion Week in September. One of the most celebrated and influential designers of all time, Lagerfeld has helmed some of the world’s leading fashion houses including Chanel, Fendi, and his own. The highly anticipated annual event raises money for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s costume institute, The Anna Wintour Costume Center. The center, which has derived its name from Vogue‘s editor-in-chief since reopening in 2014, houses the collection of the Costume Institute. The Institute’s upcoming exhibition will also center around Lagerfeld.
According to the museum, the exhibit will showcase over 150 of Lagerfeld’s greatest designs created over the course of his six-decade career. Undoubtedly, pieces completed during Lagerfeld’s time as creative director of Chanel, as well as those hailing from his eponymous brand, will make an appearance.
Curator Andrew Bolton says Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty will strive for an unconventional approach in order to best capture Lagerfeld’s monumental legacy. “At its heart, the exhibition will look at the evolution of Karl’s two-dimensional drawings into three-dimensional garments,” he told WWD. “We could not do a traditional retrospective. For one thing, I think Karl would have hated that.” Bolton explains that while he was a historicist and often revisited older themes in his work, Lagerfeld was always looking to the future with his designs. “He hated looking back at the past,” he added. “It was something he had a very conflicted relationship with.”
As far as the Gala, the rest is up to the designers as they collaborate with the world’s most high-profile A-listers to interpret the theme. This year’s co-chairs, appointed by Wintour, will be Grammy-winning artist Dua Lipa, BAFTA and Emmy-winning actress and screenwriter Michaela Coel, Oscar-winner Penélope Cruz, and tennis icon Roger Federer. This year’s Met Gala will be held on Monday, May 1st, with the coinciding exhibition opening at the Costume Institute on May 5th. It is set to run through July 16th, 2023.
