Lizzo's flute, Billy Porter's wings and Cher's 'naked dress': the Met Gala through the years - in pictures

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  • What better way to kick things off than with Billy Porter in 2019. The theme was Susan Sontag's essay Notes on Camp, and the Pose actor took inspiration from ancient Egypt. Carried by six topless men and wrapped in a gold catsuit featuring 10ft wings, he polished off his look with a 24-karat gold headpiece. Porter reflected ahead of the event: 'Camp is often used as a pejorative. What I love about having it at the Met Gala ... is it brings honour to a word and genre that can be discounted very often ... When it's done properly, it's one of the highest forms of fashion and art.'

  • In her only appearance at the Met Gala, in 1996, Princess Diana paid tribute to Christian Dior wearing a lingerie-inspired royal blue satin slip dress designed by John Galliano, who at the time was the head designer at Dior. It was five months after the announcement had been made that her marriage with Prince Charles was over and the dress signalled her style was now free to shift away from the strict Kensington Palace dress code. In 2019, this Dior gown featured at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London at the Christian Dior: Designer of dreams exhibition.

  • The 2023 Met Gala theme was all about honouring the late designer Karl Lagerfeld. The US musician Doja Cat gave one of the night's most on-the-nose interpretations, morphing into his beloved Birman cat, Choupette. Working closely with the house of Oscar De La Renta, whose late founder had a close bond with Lagerfeld, the look consisted of a hand-beaded hooded backless gown and intricate prosthetics. While Doja Cat was seen miaowing on the red carpet, the real Choupette took to Instagram to say she 'preferred to stay peacefully & cozy at home'.

  • It might now be ubiquitous, but in 1974 when Cher wore this Bob Mackie 'naked dress' to the Met Gala, it was a pioneering move. A year later the naked dress and Cher made another appearance, this time on the cover of Time. 'It created a lot of hubbub,' is how Mackie has described it. 'In those days, Time reserved its covers for world leaders or someone who invented something important, like a vaccine. Then there was Cher on the cover in that incredible piece of clothing, and newsstands sold out of it almost immediately. Some cities even banned it from being sold.'

  • Channelling her inner Cinderella, Zendaya evolved into the Disney princess for the Met Gala in 2019 with the help of stylist Law Roach and a powder blue Tommy Hilfiger gown. Underneath it was a feat of engineering that had taken a team of eight three months to complete, and which allowed a moment of magic on the red carpet when Roach waved his wand and the gown lit up. In signature meta-style, Zendaya also left a single glass heel behind on the steps.

  • 2009 was the year the Met Gala chose the theme The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion. Marc Jacobs, who was the creative director of Louis Vuitton at the time, designed this teal mini dress for his muse Madonna. Even though it was paired with her trademark fingerless gloves, thigh-high latex boots and a bright blue headpiece styled as bunny ear, it seems tame compared to today's looks - and even landed Madonna on many worst-dressed lists.

  • Rihanna's 2015 'omelette dress' was a viral sensation. To nail the theme China: Through the Looking Glass, the singer/beauty entrepreneur turned to Chinese avant-garde designer Guo Pei. Weighing 55lb, the gown took two years to complete and three people to help Rihanna up the Met steps. Pei was at the time a relatively unknown designer in the US and Europe but Rihanna's decision to wear her design catapulted her into the spotlight. The memes were so prolific even Rihanna weighed in, telling Access Hollywood: 'Frying pan with the egg. Legendary.'

  • Venus Williams attended her first Met Gala in 2008 with the late great fashion writer André Leon Talley. The theme was Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy, and the five-time Wimbledon winner wore a bronze Carolina Herrera dress. Talley wrapped his cardinal red cape around himself and Williams, which had been made exclusively for him by Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel . Talley had been a fixture at the gala since 1974 and once described it as 'the Super Bowl of fashion ... a grand affair - the party of the year'.

  • Cardi B made her first appearance at the 2018 Met Gala one to remember. The theme was Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination, and the rapper wore a beaded Moschino gown with an intricate headpiece. Her gloves had the finger tips cut out to make room for her talon-likenails. Commentators speculated that the look was a reference to La Virgen de Alatagracia, the patron image of the people of the Dominican Republic. Pregnant at the time, Cardi B noted: 'When you see my look, I feel like you don't just see a pregnant woman. I feel like you see royal-goddess-woman-motherhood.'

  • Turning up an hour late, Beyoncé in 2015 picked up the naked dress baton in custom sheer Givenchy. Ty Hunter, her stylist at the time, revealed to industry publication WWD that despite appearing lightweight, the diamond ensemble was actually one of the heaviest dresses ever worn by Beyoncé. The singer has attended the Met Gala a total of seven times, wearing custom designs from Givenchy's previous creative director Riccardo Tisci for five of those appearances. She has not attended since 2016, however, leaving fans wondering if 2024 could be her big comeback.

  • Former EIC of Vogue, Diana Vreeland, was a special consultant at the Met from 1972 until her death in 1989. She is said to have shifted the narrative of the event, making it more star-studded and celebrity-focused. Attending here with Yves Saint Laurent in 1983, she wore an embellished burgundy gown. Known as the Oscar Wilde of fashion for her outgoing personality and her value of style over substance, Vreeland's influence can still be spotted in the clothes we today, wear decades later, from her love of blue jeans to the bikini, which she said was 'the most important thing since the atomic bomb'.

  • With this Thom Browne black and gold ensemble, Lizzo perfectly coordinated with her prized flute. Her chesterfield jacket gown was paired with finger waves and extremely long acrylic nail extensions. Lizzo said the outfit took 22,000 hours to make and that she felt like a piece of art wearing it. A flautist since the age of 10, it is rare to see Lizzo without the instrument and she serenaded the crowd at the Met Gala playing Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune.

  • Punk: Chaos to Couture was the theme of the 2013 Met Gala and model Lily Cole wasaccompanied by the Queen of punk herself, Vivienne Westwood. Cole wore a corset gown made with rubber from the Amazon rainforest after her trip to Acre, Brazil. Westwood made her own statement holding a photo of then-imprisoned Wikileaks whistle-blower Chelsea Manning. Cole told Vogue: 'Passing a swarm of lenses, Vivienne pivots every interviewer's question to her accessory - Vivienne's activism was without limit.'

  • Kate Moss co-chaired the 2009 Met Gala alongside Marc Jacobs. In a one-shoulder backless metallic gold dress with turban to match, Moss perfectly embodied the The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion. She completed the look with towering custom Yves Saint Laurent stilettos. Speaking to W Magazine in 2020, Jacobs said the look was one of his favourites. 'As always she outshone everyone, actual gold metal threads woven on a silk warp. Divine."