'The 5 types of Met Gala guests I look forward to seeing every year.'

The Met Gala is fashion's biggest night out.

Each year we see the same celebrities attempt to follow a theme that's typically obscure enough to ensure at least 40% of attendees will get it completely wrong. It's that special time when the rich and famous spend more on a single outfit than most of us earn in a year, only to be roasted mercilessly online.

As we prepare for another year of fashion hits and misses, here are the types of guests I secretly love to judge while scrolling Instagram in my PJs.

Watch Kim Kardashian in her 2019 Met Gala look. Article continues after video.

On theme and everyone gets it.

These blessed souls actually understand the assignment and execute the theme in a way that makes fashion historians weep with joy. They're the straight-A students of the Met Gala, having clearly done their research, consulted with designers who understand the brief, and delivered something that makes us all collectively gasp.

Exhibit A: Lady Gaga for the Camp theme in 2019. Her Brandon Maxwell masterpiece wasn't just one look — it was a performance art piece involving four separate outfits revealed in succession on the pink carpet. Beginning with a voluminous fuchsia cape with a 25-foot train, she proceeded to strip down through three more looks — a structured black gown, a fitted pink dress, and finally, sparkling lingerie with fishnets — all while wielding props and performing a 16-minute entrance choreography.

She didn't just wear the theme… she embodied it, with theatricality that left the crowd breathless. So camp.

Image: Getty

Then there's Zendaya. Zendaya's transformation into a modern Joan of Arc at the 2018 Met Gala wasn't merely fashion — it was divine intervention with a side of "thou shalt slay."

Dressed in a bespoke Versace chainmail creation that perfectly embodied the 'Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination' theme, the actress commanded the red carpet mediaeval magnificence. Paired with a striking red bob with dramatic bangs — a nod to the French saint's iconic hairstyle — Zendaya did that. On theme and on all our minds.

Image: Getty

Too on theme that nobody gets it.

There are always a few. You know, the ones who get it right, but the majority of the public just can't see the genius behind their look. Not everything has to be so on the nose.

This is where we find Kim Kardashian's 2019 Mugler 'wet look' for the Camp theme. While everyone was busy criticising her for being "too simple" and "basic" compared to the feathered, voluminous extravagance around her, fashion intellectuals were slow-clapping her genius.

As explained by fashion critics (who actually read Susan Sontag's essay on Camp), Kim's look was the epitome of "non-natural" Camp — a dripping-wet dress that appeared to be perpetually soaked, the impossibly cinched waist, the wet-look hair and droplets on her skin that never dried.

It was a carefully constructed artificial reality, a California girl fantasy emerging from water — which is precisely what Camp celebrates: the artificial, the exaggerated, the "too much" that exists as performance.

Image: Getty

This also reminds me of Dove Cameron's skeletal, deconstructed Iris van Herpen creation for the 2022 Gilded Glamour Met Gala that had people clutching their pearls in confusion.

What the naysayers missed was actually quite brilliant — those intricate strings formed the precise outline of a Victorian bustle silhouette, the exact structural underpinning that defined Gilded Age fashion. GENIUS.

While others went obvious, these icons went academic Camp, and most of us weren't smart enough to get it.

Image: Getty

So on the nose it's bad.

Increasingly, each year at the Met Gala, we're witnessing the rise of the dreaded "costume party approach," where nuance and artistry are sacrificed for something that is just too obvious. Too easy.

Take Jared Leto's furry Choupette cosplay from the 2023 Karl Lagerfeld tribute. While everyone else attempted varying degrees of sartorial homage to the legendary designer, Leto simply... became a cat. A giant, mascot-level cat. It wasn't fashion — it was just bad.

Image: Getty.

Then there's Katy Perry, who, for 2019's Camp theme decided the most sophisticated interpretation was to dress literally as a chandelier and later, a hamburger.

While Camp certainly embraces the outrageous, Perry's approach seemed to miss the knowing wink that defines true camp. It felt more like a Halloween costume.

Image: Getty

Definitely not on theme but still pretending to be.

This might be my favourite type of Met Gala guest, particularly when they're asked to explain the logic behind their look, and you can immediately tell… it's a stretch. The mental gymnastics these celebrities perform when explaining their outfits truly deserve Olympic gold.

Take Hailey Bieber at 2022's Met Gala, for example. She showed up in a stunning white dress and a fluffy shawl from YSL. She looked amazing.

But sadly, not on theme… even though she claimed to be trying to be during a red carpet interview. Which part of the attire was Gilded Glamour? I'm still not sure.

Image: Getty

That random prom dress or suit.

Every year, without fail, someone shows up in what can only be described as a department store formal dress that would look perfectly appropriate at a regional high school formal.

They've donned a nice black dress or simple tux and called it a day. When asked about the theme, they respond with vacant smiles and vague statements.

Image: Getty

It's not offensive, it's just... there. Making everyone wonder how this person got an invitation to Anna Wintour's exclusive party in the first place. I swear, if I see one more beaded or crystal-encrusted formal dress at the Met Gala… I might scream.

Think Chris Hemsworth showing up to the 2024 Met Gala — dress-code themed 'The Garden of Time' and of which he was a co-chair of — in a beige suit. A BEIGE SUIT. Not even a flower for effort. Man had no idea what was going on and it shows.

Image: Getty

We see you, celebrities who couldn't be bothered Googling what 'Camp' meant beyond somewhere you toast marshmallows. We see you. And we're judging you.

Feature Image: Getty.