The official co-chairs for this year’s Met Gala, set to take place on May 1, have been announced: Michaela Coel, Penélope Cruz, Roger Federer and Dua Lipa, along with Vogue’s Anna Wintour, will steer the event. One of fashion’s biggest annual nights, which benefits the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, will this year honor the late Karl Lagerfeld, who was most notably the longtime creative director of French fashion house Chanel. To this end, the dress code is simply, “In honor of Karl.”
The role of co-chair includes curating the guest list, working with chefs to create the thematic menu and helping define the atmosphere by assisting interior designers with decor choices.
Cruz, a longtime Chanel muse and face of the brand, recently earned her fourth Oscar nomination for 2021’s Parallel Mothers and made her runway debut for Chanel following Lagerfeld’s death in 2019. The actress, joined by global pop star Lipa, fellow actress and screenwriter Coel and tennis legend Federer (who Wintour celebrated in a 2017 essay in Tennis Magazine in honor of his retirement, saying: “Everyone calls themselves Roger Federer fans. I consider myself a groupie”) make for an eclectic group across various lanes of pop culture.
“Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,” the gala’s tandem exhibition, will honor Lagerfeld’s career, which also saw stints at Fendi, Chloé, Balmain, Patou and his own namesake label. The show will illustrate his creative process from start to finish, from the 1950s to 2019; the designer’s collection of sketches will be accompanied by over 150 of his original, three-dimensional pieces.
