The Met Gala is one of the biggest nights in fashion and entertainment, especially when it comes to online discussion. Bringing together the biggest celebrities in the world, dressed by the biggest luxury brands in the world, the event is a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. This year’s theme was “The Garden of Time” in reference to the Met’s current exhibition “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” We used our consumer intelligence solution to uncover the biggest insights and takeaways from the event.
Interested in digging in for yourself? Check out a snapshot of social data from this year’s Met Gala in our exclusive insights dashboard.
The biggest day for the Met Gala is the day after
Conversations about the Met Gala jumped markedly on May 6, the day of the event, but they really surged on May 7. That morning, there were already more than 2.2 million posts about it, which racked up more than 65.7 million engagement actions.
Nevertheless, the three most engaging pieces of content mentioning the Met Gala were posted the day of and the day before. The second- and third-most engaged posts focused on fan favorite looks, Mindy Kaling’s swirling dress by Gaurav Gupta and Chadwick Boseman’s Versace suit from his attendance in 2019. Together, they generated more than 645,000 engagement actions and counting. However, the post that got the most engagement features a look that wasn’t even at the event.
This post on X, featuring an AI-generated image pulled from Katy Perry’s Instagram account, generated more than 348,000 engagement actions as of the morning of May 7.
Stray Kids helped Tommy Hilfiger score big on social
This year, Tommy Hilfiger unexpectedly beat out maisons like Margiela and Burberry to be the most visible brand on the carpet. This was due to its partnership with K-pop boy band Stray Kids. All eight members, attending as Tommy Hilfiger’s guests, were dressed in Tommy as they became the first K-pop band to attend the Met Gala as a group.
The innovative move highlights how luxury brands can leverage stardom and dedicated, global fan bases at high-profile events.
Zendaya was the star of the night
As the chart above shows, Margiela scored the furthest reach of the featured brands, and it’s all thanks to Zendaya. Not only was she the most-talked-about host of the night, but mentions of her also generated more engagement actions than those of any other individual celebrity.
Before the event began, the actor was already one of the most anticipated attendees of the night. Her appearance capped off two long, fashion-forward press tours for her films Dune 2 and Challengers, and she rose to the occasion in not one but two Margiela gowns. Both looks, and her outfit change, drove the conversation.
The second most talked about co-host of the night was Bad Bunny, who also wore a custom Margiela look. However, by sentiment, Jennifer Lopez, who wore a Schiaparelli gown, was the runner-up co-host.
Hats were everywhere
Our analysis found that hats and headpieces, or the lack thereof, were the most talked about accessories of the event, beating out jewelry, watches, and bags. For example, Bad Bunny and Zendaya’s Margiela headwear generated a lot of buzz, as did Sarah Jessica Parker’s sculptural headpiece by Philip Treacy.
Notably, Schiaparelli generated the most headwear buzz by not having any at all in its look for Jennifer Lopez. The farthest-reaching content mentioning Schiaparelli and headwear was an allure.com article titled, “Only Jennifer Lopez Could Get Away with Wearing a Messy Bun to the Met Gala.”
Smaller brands generated the most conversations about the theme
Each year, celebrities and the brands that dress them are judged for how well they embodied the gala theme. This year’s theme, “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion,” and dress code, “The Garden of Time,” was interpreted in many imaginative ways, but no brand was mentioned in relation more than Loewe.
The brand, which was also a co-sponsor of the event, dressed multiple attendees, including Anna Wintour and Ariana Grande. Still, Loewe mentions only accounted for 9.7% of the overall conversation about brands and the theme, while 17.9% mentioned brands outside of the top 20 analyzed. For example, Loewe’s white lace floral dress for brand ambassador Greta Lee was a popular, on-theme look from the night, but so was Doja Cat’s wet T-shirt dress by Vetements, which took the theme in an innovative direction by highlighting “the world’s most-used flower… cotton.”
Compare this brand spread to last year’s when Chanel came out on top, as expected, with 27.2% SOV. The 2023 gala theme honored designer Karl Lagerfeld, who was the artistic director of Chanel from 1982 until his death in 2019. This year’s numbers may suggest that many designers had a harder time interpreting “The Garden of Time” or ignored it altogether.
Many more topics emerged from Met Gala 2024, including the presence of jewelry producers and how topics like sustainability and inclusion fared against geopolitics. Dive into the data first-hand with our exclusive insights dashboard.
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