Here’s the latest. – The New York Times

It’s Met Gala time, also known as the most discussed, debated and otherwise dissected red carpet of the year. Former Vice President Kamala Harris was a surprise guest. She slipped into the party without walking the red carpet. But from Diana Ross to Bad Bunny, the arrivals this year have created a buzz. And many arrivals from some of the biggest names, including Kim Kardashian and Ryan Coogler, showed up well past 9 p.m.

The gala raises money for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. In recent years some of the conversation has focused on the gala as a tone-deaf display of wealth and frivolity, but this year, the anticipation is real.

To celebrate the new exhibition, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” a history-making look at the Black dandy, Anna Wintour has enlisted a who’s who of style-defining Black men as her co-chairs: ASAP Rocky, Lewis Hamilton, Pharrell Williams and Colman Domingo, plus LeBron James as honorary chair. In addition, there’s a host committee filled with a panoply of Black talent, all of whom are presumably going to show (think Jeremy O. Harris, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Angel Reese and Spike Lee).

For them, the dress code of the night — “tailored for you” — isn’t just fashion, it’s personal — meaning that you can expect not just a lot of suiting, but that many of the looks we are going to see will be multidimensional, and a change from what has often seemed the increasingly absurd costuming of Met Galas past. It’s an evening centering Black contributions to fashion that is long overdue.

Here’s what else to know:

• This year’s theme: The party is celebrating the history and influence of the Black dandy in the Western world, and the way fashion has been used as a tool of both enslavement and liberation. The show was inspired by the 2009 book “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity,” by Monica L. Miller, a professor of Africana studies at Barnard College, and it has been jointly curated by Professor Miller and Andrew Bolton, the Costume Institute’s curator in charge. We are live-blogging the event, so tune in here.

• What’s the price?: Individual tickets to the gala start at $75,000, and tables of 10 at $350,000. All the money from ticket sales goes directly to funding the Costume Institute’s yearly budget. This year, those sponsors include Louis Vuitton (Mr. Williams is Vuitton’s men’s wear designer), Instagram, Africa Fashion International, Tyler Perry and Condé Nast.

• A nod to a legend: Anna Wintour said that planning the gala had been emotional because of its deep connection to André Leon Talley, the longtime Vogue editor who died in 2022. She said she pictured Talley standing at the top of the steps, wearing something resplendent. “I think he would be having the time of his life,” she said.