The 2020 Met Gala Ball Is Cancelled but We've Still Got These Memorable Moments From Met Carpets Past

By Marina Watts On 5/4/20 at 2:48 PM EDT

May 4, the first Monday of May, was supposed to be the 150th anniversary of the Met Gala in New York. Unfortunately due to the coronavirus pandemic, fashion's biggest night was cancelled this year.

"About Time: Fashion and Duration" was the original theme for the 2020 Met Gala, inspired by the 1992 Sally Porter film Orlando. It was meant to accompany the spring exhibition at the museum. Andrew Bolton, the Wendy Yu Curator in Charge of the Met's Costume Institute, told Vogue at the time that the 2020 exhibit was "nuanced and open-ended" and a "reimagining of fashion history that's fragmented, discontinuous, and heterogeneous."

Met Gala 2020 Theme, About Time: Fashion and Duration, Explained — Lady Gaga attends the 2019 Met Gala Celebrating Camp: Notes on Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 6, 2019, in New York City. The 2020 gala was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

"There's a wonderful scene in which Tilda Swinton enters the maze in an 18th-century woman's robe à la Francaise, and as she runs through it, her clothes change to mid-19th-century dress, and she re-emerges in 1850s England. That's where the original idea came from," Bolton continued. "What I like about [Virginia] Woolf's version of time is the idea of a continuum. There's no beginning, middle, or end. It's one big fat middle. I always felt the same about fashion. Fashion is the present."

Despite the cancellation, fashion fanatics have recreated some of their favorite red carpet looks and shared them on social media using the hashtag #MetGalaChallenge. Fans can also check out some of the most memorable looks from Met Galas past. Keep scrolling for some stylish nostalgia.

In 2019…

Jared Leto Met Gala 2019 — Jared Leto entered the 2019 gala which had the theme "Camp: Notes On Fashion," with his head held up high, well, one of them. Angela Weiss

Also 2019 - "Camp: Notes on Fashion"

Who are the Richest Members of the Kardashian-Jenner Family? — In 2019, Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian and Kendall Jenner rocked bold looks on the red carpet. Kevin Tachman/MG19/Getty Images