With the biggest night in fashion—the 2022 Costume Institute Benefit, better known as the Met Gala—only days away, it’s natural to want to revisit the most fabulous looks ever to grace the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Whether you prefer Rihanna's Guo Pei masterstroke or a subtler outing, like Lorde rocking Bode, there’s something for everyone; but perhaps the most appealing element of the Met Gala overshadows even the lure of couture: celebrity chaos.
Think about it: Unlike the Oscars, where everyone (save for Will Smith) tends to be on their best behavior, the extremely heightened and fabulous Met Gala is a petri dish for the collision of extremely famous drunk people who otherwise wouldn’t have a chance to interact. Over the years, this environment has conjured some truly fascinating moments in pop culture, meaning the 2022 Gala has big shoes to fill in order to capture people’s attention.
The most infamous incident is doubtlessly 2014's Elevatorgate, wherein Solange Knowles, Beyoncé’s equally talented younger sister, was caught on camera attacking her sibling’s husband with what appeared to be every ounce of strength she could muster. In the extraordinary footage, Jay-Z cowers against the wall, shrinking away from the blows Solange is raining down upon him; she even throws a shoe. Beyoncé, chillingly, just stands there.
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The public would come to interpret this altercation as proof of Jay's infidelity, an assumption Bey later seemed to confirm in her fiery album Lemonade. But truly, artistic interpretation couldn’t top the sheer insanity of this episode. “Of course sometimes shit go down / When it’s a billion dollars on an elevator.” Like, I guess???? Damn!
FKA Twigs and Robert Pattinson attend the "China: Through The Looking Glass" Costume Institute Benefit Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 4, 2015 in New York City.
Mike Coppola/GettyThe Met Gala is rife for couples drama, come to think of it. There have been sweet, salivated-over debuts, like Robert Pattinson and F.K.A. Twigs coordinating beautifully in 2015 (R.I.P. their love), or more incendiary pairings, like Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston dancing like everyone was watching in the midst of the most scrutinized summer of Swift’s life.
Swift, of course, went on to stomp the gas pedal with Hiddleston only to hit the brakes just as ferociously three months later, but that Met Gala was allegedly where she was also introduced to Joe Alwyn, her current boyfriend and the most frustratingly non-forthcoming man in the world. Give us SOMETHING, Joe. ANYTHING.
And it’s so, so delicious when celebs talk about what it was like to go to the Met Gala. Lena Dunham, an amazing writer with an unfortunate case of foot-in-mouth disorder, humiliated herself when she recounted sitting next to football star Odell Beckham Jr. at dinner. “He looked at me and he determined I was not the shape of a woman by his standards,” Dunham said. “He was like, ‘That’s a marshmallow. That’s a child. That’s a dog.’ It wasn’t mean—he just seemed confused.” You can imagine the backlash.
“I'm never going again,” Gwyneth Paltrow said of the Gala in 2013. “It was so un-fun. It was boiling. It was too crowded. I did not enjoy it at all.” Thank you for your service, queen.
Funnily enough, what may be the best Met Gala story of all time didn't even happen. It’s just a meme, but its a perfect meme: in 2015, someone tweeted that Jason Derulo had fallen down the steps at the Met Gala, using a photo of someone falling down the steps at the Cannes Film Festival. Jason Derulo did not fall the stairs at the Met Gala; he didn’t even attend the Met Gala.
But for some reason, years later, this wonderful joke lives on. So in a sense, it’s true, and it will always be true: Jason Derulo fell down the steps at the Met Gala. You’re up, 2022.
