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Each year, as red carpet events like the Oscars decline, the Met Gala seems to come out on top in the ongoing Hunger Games for online impressions.

There could be a few reasons for this. One, all those celebrity photos have a way of conquering the algorithm and surfacing for lots of us all at once. (Or, maybe Meta makes them surface because it sponsors the event and wants to get its money’s worth.)

Two, in this TikTok age, when people can’t sustain interest in watching a full movie, you don’t need to watch any television shows or films to get the event — anyone can look at the photos and decide “slay” or “boring” or “not on theme.”

And three, the winners and losers are not decided by committee, like the Oscars, where Academy members vote on winners. At the Met Gala, the people who are invited and therefore “in” are simply decided upon by one woman, Anna Wintour. This has made the Met Gala a fascinating view on culture as dictated by a single authority.

Anna seems to have been trying to soften her image in recent years. Her dogs joined Instagram. She said recently on Good Morning America that she doesn’t approve every look, but it may be more accurate to say that she doesn’t micromanage each one, since she does likely know what the vast majority of guests will wear. (Though someone like Rihanna probably isn’t calling and asking what she thinks of her planned outfit.) Despite these efforts, Anna has hardly shaken her reputation as the iron fist in charge. One commenter on an Instagram reel by Hanan Besovic about what appeared to be a tiny red stain on her dress joked that it was the “blood of an assistant.” Megan Thee Stallion posted a video from inside the gala where she reviewed the food with Doechii and Angel Reese, in apparent violation of Anna’s no social media policy. The top comment with more than 15,000 likes is:

After a slew of tone-deaf themes including the Gilded Age and Karl Lagerfeld, Anna picked one for 2025 that honored Black culture, in particular her late colleague André Leon Talley, who died in 2022. Monday’s gala opening the Costume Institute’s exhibition Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, celebrating Black dandyism, came with the dress code “Tailored for You.” This translated to embellished menswear, dresses with lapels, pantsuits, graphic black and white, and lots of hats. The theme was viewed as so significant and overdue that it dampened the usual complaints about the gala being a shamelessly capitalist reminder of income inequality, billionaires, and so forth. (Lauren Sànchez’s recent girlboss trip to space managed to best the Met Gala in this regard, this year.) But even with an inclusive theme, there was still a “kiss the ring” quality to the night.

Many stars said attending the Met Gala was one of the most high-pressure things they had ever done. And this is a group that has done some high-pressure things! Simone Biles said preparing for the Met Gala was harder than training for the Olympics. Asked by Vogue livestream hosts Teyana Taylor and Ego Nwodim about what the day after the gala looks like for her, Anne Hathaway rambled about doing school drop off, not sleeping, and how “hopefully you don’t have the fear.”

Well, a lot of people weren’t waiting for the next day to have the fear. Taylor asked fellow livestream host Emma Chamberlain to give first-time host Nwodim some advice. She said, “[D]on't waste the evening being stressed and scared,” adding, “I already wasted half my evening being stressed and scared.” Ayo Edeberi said going to the Met Gala is more nerve-wracking than hosting Saturday Night Live. White Lotus star Aimee Lou Wood said she was “terrified because it’s my first Met,” while her costar and date Patrick Schwarzenegger said though it wasn’t his first time, he was still “just terrified.”

Kamala Harris attended wearing Off-White, but didn’t subject herself to the scrutiny of walking the carpet, which did not go over well for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez when she wore a dress that read “tax the rich” in 2021. Maybe this was how she managed the risk of attending something viewed as elitist as a politician.

The designers who create dresses for the gala year after year also face enormous pressure. Marc Jacobs said making clothes for the Met Gala is “tough,” likening it to “designing a wedding dress for a woman — it’s the most important night of her life, and our goal is always to please who we’re dressing.” It may be the most important night of some guests’ lives because there are few guarantees any of them will get invited back. And the stars, sources told me when I was reporting ANNA: The Biography, are generally pretty nervous at this thing because that’s all they want — to be invited back.

Mary J. Blige did her interview standing next to Stella McCartney, who dressed her and who is a friend of Anna’s. Blige said this was her fourth time being invited, adding, “I’m grateful because people don’t [always] invite me.” Then McCartney — perhaps knowing Anna wouldn’t like how that sounded — said, “I’m just gonna reframe this… she’s been invited every fucking year, but she declined.” Blige said, “That’s bullshit.”

The stuffiness of the event was alluded to in other ways. Teyana Taylor, who went viral for bringing Chick-fil-A into the gala two years ago, told Usher (who had tried to stop her) they could expect good food this time. (Keke Palmer’s photo of the food from 2021 made it look like something you’d get on a plane.) Usher laughed, “We’re going to get good food tonight? I’m looking for a Chick-fil-A bag.”

And stars who didn’t profess to being scared didn’t exactly make it sound easy. Sabrina Carpenter said she had never been in the bathroom at the event because she never wore something that allowed her to go to the bathroom. It reminded me of Kim Kardashian undoing her John Galliano corset after last year’s event only to reveal painful-looking marks on her back, prompting her to say that she couldn’t breathe and “literally was dying.” There’s no way she went to the bathroom either.

This all speaks to the power of Anna. In hopes of pleasing her and getting to go again, stars will endure anxiety, fear, and pain; subject themselves to immense scrutiny; and risk reputational damage. All while being served unappealing food (though this year’s may have indeed been better, judging by Megan Thee Stallion’s incredible citizen journalism) and not being able to pee for hours.

But, while Anna’s gala has proven ridiculously effective at raising money (it pulled in a record $31 million this year), maybe it’s also become formulaic. I have no idea when this will be, but when Anna does leave her job and passes the hostessing torch to the next person, the event seems due for a bit of a reinvention. One that makes it feel more fun than scary.

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