Bold & Beautiful: The Best Looks of the Met Gala
In 2020, the Met Gala was canceled due to COVID-19, so we revisited the wildest looks from the year before. Six years later, the spectacle is back on the steps. Time for an honest assessment: Which 2019 looks have stood the test of time?
The three looks that truly endured from the 2019 Camp Met Gala are by Billy Porter, Lady Gaga, and Jared Leto. In May 2020, the original spectacle fell victim to the pandemic and shifted to a Vogue livestream. We looked back then. Today, after the May 4, 2026 edition under the theme “Costume Art,” we can say which appearances have passed the test of time-and which were merely carried by the moment. This is our verdict.
- The Met Gala takes place on the first Monday in May at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It was canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19 and returned in 2026 under the theme “Costume Art.”
- The 2019 theme was “Camp: Notes on Fashion,” inspired by Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay. Camp means: deliberately over-the-top, with a wink.
- Billy Porter arrived in a golden catsuit, carried on a palanquin by six men. The spectacle-not his Oscar robe-is the image that has endured.
- Lady Gaga changed through four Brandon Maxwell looks on the carpet. Jared Leto wore a Gucci replica of his own head.
- The takeaway: Camp wasn’t a costume party; it was the moment men’s fashion on the red carpet finally ditched the rulebook.
We’ve never had much time for the red carpet. Too much posing, too little substance. There’s one exception: the Met Gala on the first Monday in May. No other night dares the fashion world to step so far out of line. In 2020, the whole affair flatlined; the museum pivoted to a livestream on the Vogue channel. Back then, we dusted off the previous year’s looks. Now, after several regular editions and the 2026 gala, we’re taking stock.
What is the Met Gala, and why was 2019 so special?
The Met Gala is the opening gala for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute annual fashion exhibition. Once a year, the grand Fifth Avenue steps become a catwalk, and it’s here that the images that circulate the globe are made. What sets the evening apart from any other gala is the dress code. It sets a theme, and the guests are measured against it. Standout years included “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” (2018) and “China: Through the Looking Glass” (2015).
In 2019 the theme was “Camp: Notes on Fashion,” a direct nod to Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay “Notes on ‘Camp.’” Camp celebrates an aesthetic that embraces the exaggerated, the artificial, the deliberately excessive. Irony as style, not mockery. It was an open invitation, and few themes pushed guests as far. That’s why our favorite moments still come from that year. If you’re interested in fashion as attitude, the Berlin Fashion Week offers a closer, less glamorous version of the same game.
Billy Porter: the entrance, not the outfit
Any Met Gala best-of list without Billy Porter is incomplete. His 2019 arrival is the image that defined the Camp year: Porter arrived on a gold litter carried by six men in gold trousers, wearing a gold catsuit with ten-foot wings. A nod to Egyptian sun worship staged as the arrival of a deity. If you’re looking for the moment men’s fashion on the red carpet finally shed every rule, this is it.
A quick fact-check, because the two often get mixed up: the black tuxedo gown-half suit, half evening dress-by Christian Siriano that Porter wore didn’t appear at the Met Gala but at the Oscars in early 2019. Both appearances belong together; they mark the same year Porter systematically ignored the divide between men’s and women’s tailoring. Yet the Met Gala image is the golden angel on the litter. That’s the look that stuck-and rightly so.
Camp in 2019 wasn’t a costume party. It was the moment men’s fashion on the red carpet lost its last rules.
Lady Gaga: one look wasn’t enough
When it comes to staging, Lady Gaga is unavoidable. In 2019 she didn’t arrive in one, two, or even three outfits by designer Brandon Maxwell-she arrived in four, and changed mid-carpet. She began in an enormous pink cape dress accompanied by assistants and a cart of champagne, shed it for a black corset gown, then a tighter black number, and finished in pink lingerie. A tiny stage show on arrival. Pure Camp: the point wasn’t to arrive beautifully, but to tell a story.
Jared Leto: the man with his own head
The hardest-to-forget appearance came from Jared Leto. He wore a red, crystal-encrusted Gucci robe and carried an uncannily lifelike replica of his own head under his arm, also by Gucci. The idea echoed a moment from the Gucci Autumn/Winter 2018 show, when models wore replicated heads. Absurd, slightly unsettling, exactly what Camp means when it celebrates the artificial. More statement than taste-and that was precisely the point.
What remains of it all? From today’s vantage, Camp 2019 feels less like a costume ball and more like a milestone. What stood in sharp relief on those steps has since entered the mainstream: fashion has no gender, an entrance can be a statement, and exaggeration can be a form of precision. The 2026 gala took “Costume Art” as its theme with the dress code “Fashion is Art.” In other words, the museum is still asking whether fashion can be more than fabric. In 2019 a handful of guests answered that question especially loudly. How the runway translates into your own wardrobe is something we explore elsewhere. And if you’re curious how far a statement can go with jewelry, take a look at our jewelry trends.
Quick Answers
▸When does the Met Gala take place?
Traditionally on the first Monday in May, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In 2020 it was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, and in 2026 it was held on 4 May under the theme “Costume Art”.
▸What did the 2019 Met Gala theme “Camp” mean?
Camp describes an aesthetic of deliberate excess, artifice and irony. The term goes back to Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay “Notes on ‘Camp’”. The gala’s motto was “Camp: Notes on Fashion”.
▸What did Billy Porter wear at the 2019 Met Gala?
A golden catsuit with long wings, carried on a litter by six men. His well-known black tuxedo gown by Christian Siriano, by contrast, was worn at the 2019 Oscars, not the Met Gala.
▸How many looks did Lady Gaga wear in 2019?
Four, all by Brandon Maxwell. She peeled off each look in turn on the red carpet, from the voluminous pink coat-dress to the matching pink lingerie.
