The Met Gala 2025 is right around the corner, with the first Monday in May feeling like it comes around faster and faster every year. For most people, the Met Gala begins and ends at the red carpet: the arrivals are live-streamed, the official photographs disseminated across the world, and the outfits endlessly critiqued. This year’s Met Gala theme is Tailored for You, in connection with the Costume Institute's new exhibition, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style. You can expect to see lots of menswear and (hopefully) plenty of creations by Black designers, in keeping with the exhibition’s focus on Black Dandyism. But have you ever wondered what happens once all the celebrities are inside the museum? Due to the no phones rule (more on that later), little is documented from within the walls of the Met, but there’s a tour of the exhibition, a dinner and a private performance for the guests. While it may feel like all bets are off when the most famous people in the world enter the Met, there are still some very firm rules enforced by the museum — and by Anna Wintour herself (who is chair of the Costume Institute). Here are some of the best ones we’ve managed to uncover from the super secret world of Met Gala lore. Wonder why you don’t see reams of Instagram stories and TikToks from inside the Met? That’s because there’s a very strict ‘no phones’ policy within the event to allow people to enjoy their first look at the exhibition, along with dinner, dancing and private performances. These performances are not filmed in full or distributed to the public, leading many netizens to complain last year when Ariana Grande shared snippets from her Met Gala performance (courtesy of someone filming on a phone in the audience, confusingly) but never shared a full recording. Perhaps the worst-enforced rule of the Met Gala, the ‘no phones’ statute is often broken. Primarily in the bathroom, where you’ll notice the majority of Met Gala selfies are located. The most famous of these is undoubtedly the 2017 bathroom selfie taken by Kylie Jenner, which also includes A$AP Rocky, Kendall Jenner, Luka Sabbat, Kim Kardashian, Frank Ocean, Brie Larson, Slick Woods and, regrettably, P Diddy. You can’t say Anna Wintour doesn’t have your back. According to The New York Post, certain food items are banned from the Met Gala’s dinner menu at the request of Wintour herself. That means no onion, garlic, or parsley can be found in the food — apparently to prevent bad breath, while herbs are omitted to stop them from getting lodged in people’s teeth. Still, shame about the flavour profile of the meals. This is from the reliable source of Amy Odell, the former Vogue employee who penned Anna Wintour’s 2022 biography, Anna: The Biography. Similarly, bruschetta isn't offered to guests in case of any food spillages on extravagant ensembles. In 2016, model Karlie Kloss famously had to alter the length of her Met Gala gown following a red wine spill on the white fabric. Even the most powerful and stylish people in the world aren’t allowed to smoke inside at the Met Gala. And for good reason: there’s a painstakingly curated collection of clothes on show that you’re there to see. Risking the smell of smoke, or worse, incurring some form of damage, would be amongst the worst thing you could possibly do. Don’t believe us? On a 2023 episode of CBS Mornings, Gayle King asked curator Andrew Bolton, "What's the best way to never be invited back again?" He replied, "Smoking. Smoking in the galleries. Touching the artwork. Those would be no-nos.” However, anyone familiar with recent Met Gala lore will be acquainted with the many pictures of celebrities like Bella Hadid and Dakota Johnson smoking in the Met’s bathrooms, so it appears smoking in the bathroom has become a workaround. And in 2023, Billie Eilish posted a picture posing in the Met’s bathroom with Maya Hawke, Halle Bailey and Elle Fanning that she embellished with the No Smoking emoji — though it’s worth noting that everyone’s hands were conveniently out of shot. It’s hard enough to snatch an invite to the Met Gala, with only the best and brightest A-listers getting the call-up. But then you have to pay for your seat! To be fair, the Met Gala is still a fundraising event for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, so the earnings go towards preserving its extensive fashion collection, dating back seven centuries. According to Time, an individual ticket cost $75,000 (£56,000) in 2024 (up 30 per cent from the 2023 cost, which was $50,000/£37,000). Meanwhile, an entire table will set you back $350,000 (£261,000). However, fashion houses will often cover attendees’ ticket prices in return for the guest wearing their work, so not everyone is stumping up 50k. Ever heard of AWOK? It’s the four-letter, time-conserving acronym that signifies Anna Wintour’s approval, meaning “Anna Wintour Okay”. It’s also the required response to many Met Gala outfits, which have to be run past Anna before they walk the red carpet. We can’t imagine it’s every single outfit (would Wintour really have agreed to that Jared Leto cat suit?), although Amy Odell does imply this in her biography of the Vogue chief. Thought that £50k would afford you the right to choose your own seat? Think again! In the 2016 documentary The First Monday in May, Sylvana Ward Durrett (director of special projects at Vogue) explains the Met Gala’s official seating plan, saying: “A lot of thought goes into who sits next to who, if they sat together last year, if they've sat next to each other at other events, so much goes into it, it's shocking.” According to Ward Durrett, spouses are never seated next to each other and instead people are encouraged to mingle. “The whole point of these things is to meet new people, and to be interested in what others are doing. What's the point if you come here to hang out with your husband?” Meanwhile, current seating plan organiser Eaddy Kiernan told Vogue in 2024 that Met organisers begin putting together the seating chart as early as December, though the actual seating plan isn’t finalised until about a month before the gala. This early-stage process apparently gives organisers "A sense for the layout of the room and the flow of the evening.” Plus, you won’t have to worry about being sat by an ex. "We try to make sure someone isn’t staring into the eyes of a former flame,” Kiernan told Vogue.