In defence of the Met Gala: Joy, creativity and spectacle still matter

The Met Gala may feel like worlds away, but our obsession with the fashion fantasy reveals something important about wellbeing: we need beauty, rituals and collective moments that feel bigger than ourselves.

Every year, on the first Monday of May, the internet can temporarily agree on one thing: the Met Gala still matters. Whether out of love or hate, users digitally gather on their timelines filled with red carpet commentary, clips of their favourite celebrities and debates over who understood the assignment.

It is almost too easy to dismiss it all as pop culture nonsense, but we have to acknowledge that there is an enduring appeal of the Met Gala that runs deeper and resonates with onlookers – year after year after year.

This year, the 2026 theme was ‘Costume Art’ with a dress code of ‘Fashion Is Art’, emphasising fashion as something beyond just clothing. Each year, the Met exposes how the industry is a major player in visual storytelling and cultural expression, which is perhaps why the event continues to capture millions worldwide. Vogue reports that the 2026 Met Gala has generated 1.696 billion global video views and 108 million social engagements, with YouTube’s livestream hitting one million viewers.

As our attention spans get shorter in the digital age, very few events can hold collective attention like this one. It turns out, we humans are wired to take notice of a spectacle. Anthropologists have argued that ritual, symbolism and pageantry are central to our social existence. Think about it: from religious ceremonies to royal coronations, carnivals to sporting events, we repeatedly create and crave moments that feel heightened and communal. These joint experiences offer structure and meaning away from the monotony of ordinary responsibility.

The Met Gala, in that case, functions as a modern secular ritual. We know when it's going to happen, it marks the beginning of a season, and it is symbolic of our cultural state right now. Moreover, pre and post-Met, we anticipate, discuss and debrief collectively.

It may sound like frivolous gossip on the ‘gram, but it all matters more than it sounds. A 2018 study in Nature Communications found that synchronised and shared activities increase social bonding and feelings of connection. As our modern culture is increasingly shaped by individualised, online scrolling, captivating a collective's attention is extremely rare - thus more psychologically valuable.

And to do this, the Met creates moments of awe. Psychologists define this feeling as when we encounter something vast, novel, or difficult to mentally categorise. It can be triggered by nature, music, architecture, art or displays of creativity. Fairs, Beyoncé’s Olivier Rousteing skeleton gown with a dramatic feathered train and crystal headpiece isn’t the Grand Canyon, but it sure is awesome. The brain doesn’t care if awe comes from mountains or Margiela; it triggers the same response.

Research from Greater Good Science Centre has linked awe to lowered stress, increased generosity, and a greater sense of connection to something larger than oneself. In one 2015 study, participants who experienced awe reported feeling less focused on themselves and more connected to the wider world.

Fashion, specifically, offers an accessible form of art. Other artistic practices mean that they sit behind glass with a ‘No Touch’ sign, whereas clothing has to be touched: it's designed to be worn. What we wear communicates mood, values, belonging, aspiration and identity.

This is also known as ‘enclothed cognition’, which is the idea that clothing influences how others perceive us, as well as how we think and feel. The 2012 study that coined the term found that what people wear can also measurably affect cognitive performance and self-perception.

The Met Gala does represent fashion at its most exaggerated, but the benefits of aesthetic engagement are not just reserved for the attendees. In everyday life, it looks like dressing with intention, rearranging your room, hosting a dinner party and even creating a Pinterest moodboard. This kind of novelty matters neurologically. Novel experiences stimulate dopamine away from the fragmented bursts of social media serotonin, creating a sustained and memorable dopamine high.

Events like the Met remind us that we can’t just live on efficiency; we crave fantasy, ritual and imagination. Sometimes watching Heidi Klum dressed like a ‘Doctor Who’ weeping angel is a reminder that creativity and collective wonder are worth making time for.

However, this year, the Met has faced criticism for celebrating fantasy when disconnected from reality, when a lot of people cannot indulge in excess in a time of economic instability, global conflict and widening wealth inequality.

Watching celebs arrive in garments worth more than most people's annual salary can be jarring. The tension is not new, but social media has made this harder to ignore as the event follows the news cycle. It’s not that beauty, glamour and fantasy aren’t allowed to exist, but that this world feels increasingly distant from those consuming it.

That’s why events like the Met Gala have to remain culturally relevant and meaningful, rather than voyeuristic and a spectacle of simply wealth and status. We should focus on craftsmanship, emerging designers, exhibitions, digital education and accessible conversations. The value of the spectacle and the joy derived from that is not about wealth. We should emphasise the ability to remind us how important creativity and the collective aremet and how we all deserve access to this.