On the first Monday of May, celebrities, socialites and fashion tastemakers descend upon the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for the Met Gala. The idea is this: attending A-listers are required to dress to the theme of the Costume Institute at the Met’s accompanying exhibition, which the night is ostensibly a fundraising event for. Some basically ignore the prompt. Others take the opportunity to wear a statement-making suit; something a little jazzy. A special few make headlines with an out-there outfit that lives long in the memory.

As well as being one of the biggest social events on the calendar, it’s also one of the few that allows its guests to get really creative with their outfits. Over the years, we've seen fully masked, Dementor-esque dresses, metallic armour and even a hamburger walk the red carpet, but amidst the madness, there's always a selection of great formalwear on show. To give you a hint of what to expect on today's carpet, we’ve rounded up the best-dressed men in Met Gala history.

1

Chiwetel Ejiofor

Year: 2019

Theme: Camp: Notes on Fashion

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2

Harry Styles

Year: 2019

Theme: Camp: Notes on Fashion

3

The Weeknd

Year: 2017

Theme: Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between

4

Sebastian Stan

Year: 2022

Theme: In America: An Anthology of Fashion

5

Colin Farrell

Year: 2016

Theme: Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology

6

Robert Pattinson

Year: 2015

Theme: China: Through the Looking Glass

7

Mark Ronson

Year: 2015

Theme: China: Through the Looking Glass

8

Jay-Z

Year: 2014

Theme: Charles James: Beyond Fashion

9

Timothée Chalamet

Year: 2021

Theme: In America: A Lexicon of Fashion

10

ASAP Rocky

Year: 2021

Theme: In America: A Lexicon of Fashion

11

Ryan Reynolds

Year: 2014

Theme: Charles James: Beyond Fashion

12

Kyle MacLachlan

Year: 1996

Theme: Christian Dior

13

Tom Ford

Year: 2012

Theme: Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations

14

Jude Law

Year: 2010

Theme: American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity

15

Adrien Brody

Year: 2003

Theme: Goddess: The Classical Mode

16

Alexander McQueen

Year: 2006

Theme: AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion

17

Idris Elba

Year: 2016

Theme: Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology

18

Pharrell Williams

Year: 2018

Theme: Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination

Originally published on Esquire US