US youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman will co-chair this year’s Met Gala alongside Timothée Chalamet, Billie Eilish and tennis pro Naomi Osaka, organizer Vogue revealed Monday.
The announcement follows news that the star-studded event, which is traditionally held in May, will return this September after being canceled last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hosted by Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, the annual event serves as a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. It is considered one of the most exclusive events in the fashion calendar, with tickets starting at $35,000 each and a tightly controlled, invite-only guest list.
As co-chairs, Chalamet, Eilish, Osaka and Gorman will help host and plan the event alongside Wintour and this year’s honorary chairs, designer Tom Ford and Instagram chief Adam Mosseri. Previous co-chairs have typically performed at the event, meaning Eilish and Gorman, who was thrust into the global spotlight after reading a poem at President Joe Biden’s inauguration earlier this year, may both take to the stage.
The four stars each shared the news on social media, with Gorman posting a four-way split image of the group alongside the caption, “Met Gala here we come,” adding that she was “honored to co-host alongside giants.”
Chalamet and Osaka meanwhile posted images of the Met’s famous stone stairs, where the event’s glamorous red carpet takes place, as well as images of their fellow co-chairs.
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Eilish, who was recently revealed as British Vogue’s June cover star and is the youngest person ever to chair the annual fundraiser, posted an Instagram story with the message: “I’m a co-chair at the 2021 Met Gala AHHHHHH.”
The Met Gala is traditionally themed around the Costume Institute’s new exhibition, with September’s event pegged to “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion,” the first installment of a two-part exhibition show on American fashion. The evening benefit will then return in May for part two, titled “In America: An Anthology of Fashion.”
Vogue said in an announcement that the four co-chairs all embodied “the defining factor of American style: individualism.”
Chalamet and Eilish are known as two of Hollywood’s most exciting red carpet fixtures. i who famously has no stylist, is renowned for his sleek combination of avant-garde suit designs and streetwear, while Eilish’s oversized aesthetic has made her one of pop’s most talked-about style icons.
And though Gorman and Osaka made their names for poetry and tennis respectively, both have attracted attention in the fashion world.
After wearing Prada to the presidential inauguration, Gorman was signed by renowned agency IMG Models and made history as the first poet to star on the cover of US Vogue. Osaka, who like previous Met Gala co-chair Serena Williams is known for her on-court fashion, was meanwhile announced as a Louis Vuitton brand ambassador earlier this year.
The September event will mark the first time that either Chalamet, Gorman, Eilish or Osaka has appeared at the Met Gala.
Last year’s edition of the fundraiser was canceled in May 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, though celebrities marked the occasion on social media by recreating previous outfits or previewing what they would have worn. The event remains a crucial source of funding for the Met’s Costume Institute and raised $15 million in 2019, according to the New York Times.
