Anna Wintour lures Beyoncé back to the Met Gala

Fashion Christmas has come early with the announcement that next year pop singer Beyoncé will attend her first Met Gala since 2016.

The acclaimed performer will return to the May fundraising event for the New York Museum’s Costume Institute as co-chair alongside recently appointed Chanel ambassador Nicole Kidman, tennis champion Venus Williams and Vogue’s Anna Wintour.

Beyoncé last graced the Met Gala’s red carpet for the Manus x Machina exhibition in 2016 wearing a latex Givenchy haute couture gown. Since then, she has prioritised family and tour preparations, letting fellow performer Rihanna dominate the showcase of international luxury labels.

The evening’s dress code has not been revealed but will be inspired by the gala’s theme Costume Art, which was announced last month.

“I wanted to focus on the centrality of the dressed body within the Museum, connecting artistic representations of the body with fashion as an embodied art form,” Andrew Bolton, Costume Institute curator said in a statement. “Rather than prioritising fashion’s visuality, which often comes at the expense of the corporeal, Costume Art privileges its materiality and the indivisible connection between our bodies and the clothes we wear.”

Translation: Anything goes. For the red carpet Beyoncé could wear her own costumes from the movies Dreamgirls or Austin Powers in Goldmember (don’t hold your breath for that one) or outfits from the Renaissance and Cowboy Carter tours. A gown from Balmain, which provided costumes for the Renaissance tour would have been odds on favourite, except for Olivier Rousteing’s surprise departure as creative director of the French fashion house last month.

This will be Beyoncé’s second and Kidman’s third time as co-chairs. In May, Kidman attended the event wearing a dress from Balenciaga and a short wig that fooled many onlookers.

Next year it is most likely that Kidman will wear Chanel in her role as ambassador, with the French label having returned to the forefront of fashion following new creative director Matthieu Blazy’s acclaimed debut at Paris Fashion Week in October.

Venus Williams will be co-chair for the first time, with sister Serena having performed the role in 2019.

While Wintour relinquished her role as US Vogue editor to Chloe Malle - journalist daughter of actress Candice Bergen - in September, she maintains control of the Met Gala as global editorial director of the title and publisher Condé Nast’s chief content officer.

The exhibition will be held in the new Condé M. Nast Galleries at The Met.

Along with event sponsors Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sanchez Bezos, a Met Gala host committee including Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki, Sabrina Carpenter, Doja Cat, Malle, All’s Fair’s Teyana Taylor and French pop singer Yseult offers further red carpet insights.

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