2023 Met Gala co-chairs and dress code guidelines revealed

Save the date: Monday, May 1, 2023. We are more than three months away from the evening when the fashion elite and celebrities of the moment don their most beautiful and dramatic gowns to walk the red carpet of the most anticipated event of the year, but the hype is already skyrocketing. We are, of course, talking about the Met Gala, which this year, as announced last September, will be dedicated to Karl Lagerfeld and, as usual, will be the occasion to see so many stars and personalities of the fashion system, starting with Anna Wintour, gathered in one place, the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Joining the director of Vogue US in the organization this time will be four exceptional co-chairs from the worlds of film, music, and sports: singer Dua Lipa, who from her Instagram has already expressed her enthusiasm for the nomination; Penélope Cruz, a very famous actress and brand ambassador for Chanel; Michaela Coel, an up-and-coming talent known for the TV series I May Destroy You, Chewing Gum, and the movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever; and tennis player Roger Federer.

As always, the Met Gala, will be the occasion to present the exhibition hosted at the Tisch Gallery of the Metropolitan Museum of Art from May 5 to July 16, 2023. Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty will trace the designer's evolution from winning the Woolmark Prize in 1954, to his hiring as Pierre Balmain's assistant, continuing to chronicle his prolific career at Patou, Chloé, Fendi, and Chanel through 150 looks, numerous original sketches, and a series of video interviews with the designer's premiers, filmed by Loïc Prigent. Andrew Bolton, curator at the Costume Institute who, along with Amanda Harlech, a longtime Lagerfeld collaborator, curated the exhibition, emphasizes the great work done to sum up the German designer's talent: 

"He would sketch everything. He would always say that he could draw before he could talk or walk. In many ways it was his primary form of communication, whether he was delivering them by fax machine or iPhone. So at its heart the exhibition will look at the evolution of Karl’s two-dimensional drawings into three-dimensional garments. And what’s fascinating to have discovered: I always thought that his drawings were very spontaneous and almost impressionistic. But they were in truth extremely precise, almost mathematical. We couldn’t see it because we are not trained, but his premiers knew down to the millimeter what each line meant. It was almost a secret code, a language shared between him and those premiers, that only they could fully decipher."

Another fun fact? The interior design of the exhibition was entrusted to the great Japanese architect Tadao Ando.

These hours also saw the unveiling of the 2023 Met Gala dress code, which will be "In honor of Lagerfeld," a generic designation that leaves plenty of choice for the event's guests. The German designer's career certainly offers plenty of insights and a wardrobe made up of cult garments, perfect for a red carpet, belonging to different eras and brands, since throughout his life the Kaiser of fashion has worked not only for his namesake brand, Chanel and Fendi, but also for Balmain, Patou and Chloé. Announcing the diktat to follow for the evening, Vogue suggested some possible declinations of it. The first and most obvious is to opt for one of his most vintage creations, following the love of vintage that so many celebrities have already shown in recent years; the second option is to go for one of the most recent outfits seen on the Chanel and Fendi runways; the third possibility is to replicate Lagerfeld's look, the iconic one made of a black-and-white suit and hair gathered in a small ponytail; the fourth option is definitely the most daring: dressing up as Choupette, Karl's beloved cat. What do you guys think?