Toast of the town! The annual Met Gala has been the biggest night in fashion since the 1940s — and being a co-chair for the event has become a coveted title.The Met Gala was established in 1948 to raise money for then-newly founded Costume Institute.

With the help of Vogue, which is a longtime partner for the event, the gala has evolved into the most talked about night in the fashion industry.The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute has housed the gala and the corresponding fashion exhibit since the early 1970s, but before that the Met Gala was held at a variety of New York City venues, including the Waldorf-Astoria, Central Park and the Rainbow Room.The role of celebrity and socialite co-chairs dates back to 1973.

That year, there were two events: one in March and one in December, with Phyllis Ellsworth Dillon helming the second bash (the theme was “The 10s, the 20s, the 30s: Inventive Clothes: 1909–1939.”)Philanthropist Jane Engelhard was the co-chair for the “Romantic and Glamourous Hollywood Design” event and the “American Women of Style” fete in 1974 and 1975, respectively, before Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis brought her own elegance to the role in both 1976.It wasn’t until 1995 that Vogue’s editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, came on board as the chairperson for the Costume Institute.

Since 1997, she has been a co-chair for every Met Gala that has taken place in the Big Apple. In 2021, however, the fashion icon stepped back and took on the role of one of the honorary co-chairs for the first time.“I was very honored when they first asked me to become involved [with the gala] because there was such a tradition of Vogue always supporting the Met,” Wintour told the Business of Fashion in April 2017. “I thought of it

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