Each year, the Met Gala red carpet pulls in millions of viewers eager to see the most glamorous looks fashion can produce — but if we’re being honest, the truly outrageous outfits are a big part of the appeal too.
There’s also something undeniably entertaining about the strange, over-the-top, and totally baffling ensembles. Especially when the concept doesn’t quite land.
Is it the priciest form of hate-watching on the planet? Quite possibly.
But while the internet tunes in to either gasp in awe or laugh in disbelief, several celebrities have suggested that one of fashion’s biggest nights isn’t always as magical as it appears.
For the five stars below, the experience sounded less like a dreamy celebration and more like a long, uncomfortable evening — packed with people in eye-wateringly expensive clothing, feeling awkward, self-conscious, and wishing they were somewhere else.
Billie Eilish was a co-chair at the 2021 Met Gala and described the event as “amazing” and “beautiful in there” on the night. But when she appeared on Howard Stern two months later, she offered a more candid perspective on what it felt like being in the room.
“The main thing that night made me think of felt was how famous people are literally nobodies,” she said.
“Just randos, and it’s so weird. I was like ‘wow all these people are just somebody that’s in class with you,’ and you think this person’s kinda annoying, you really like this person, and everybody’s just, like, embarrassed and insecure about what they’re doing and saying.”
To be fair, Eilish didn’t say she despised the night — more that it was filled with nervous, awkward energy, with everyone trying to act like they were completely at ease. That assessment feels pretty believable.
Zayn Malik attended the Met Gala in 2016 with his then-girlfriend Gigi Hadid, wearing a custom Armani look.
He later said he’d based his outfit on his favourite Mortal Combat character Jax — and admitted he was “taking the piss” throughout the evening.
Then, two years on, he told GQ he had no desire to repeat the experience.
“Now, it’s not something I would go to,” he said.
“I’d rather be sitting at my house, doing something productive, than dressing up in really expensive clothes and being photographed on a red carpet. To do the self-indulgent ‘look at me, I’m amazing’ thing on the red carpet. It’s not me.”
He did add that Gigi “stole the night” in her stained-glass-inspired dress, noting: “Everyone else just put a cross on.”
SZA arrived at the 2022 Met Gala, posed for photos, and then quietly made her exit.
“I snuck out the back,” she admitted to Finish Line Women’s Community Voices.
“I just tiptoed a couple of blocks and caught a yellow cab back to my hotel because I was overwhelmed.”
She explained that anxiety made the night hard to get through — and that her outfit only added to how she was feeling.
“I hated my outfit, that was another mental health thing.
“You want to do your job, you want to show up, and all these people are excited for you to be there, but it’s like, ‘Damn, I don’t feel confident, I don’t feel comfortable.”
Amy Schumer went to the 2016 Met Gala, met Beyoncé, and later summed up her feelings about the night in blunt fashion — even declaring it would be her last.
“It’s people doing the impression of having a conversation,” she told Howard Stern.
“I don’t like the farce. We’re dressed up like a bunch of f*cking assholes. I got to meet Beyonce, and she was like, ‘Is this your first Met Gala?’ And I was like, ‘It’s my last.'”
Despite that, she did return for later Galas in 2017 and 2022 — proof that even those who complain about it can still get drawn back in.
Gwyneth Paltrow told USA Today back in 2013 that she was “never going again,” after deciding the event was far too crowded, far too hot, and not enjoyable in the slightest.
She said: “It was so un-fun. It was boiling, it was too crowded, I did not enjoy it at all.”
Still, she later returned in 2017 wearing a pale pink Calvin Klein dress and $2.5 million diamond earrings.
And she attended again in 2019.