Celebrities and the designers who love them will gather Monday night for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2012 Costume Institute Gala.
More than 700 famous faces are expected to attend the $25,000-a-pop event, meaning that if each guest paid for a ticket, $17.5 million would be raised in a single night.
“This fundraising event is The Costume Institute’s main source of annual funding for exhibitions, acquisitions and capital improvements,” said Nancy Chilton, the senior press officer/adviser to The Costume Institute, which is something of a miniature museum within The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It houses a collection of 35,000 costumes and accessories from the 15th century to present day.
The theme of this year’s event is "Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations," and it will explore the similarities between Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada.
But not every guest really shells out the big bucks to party at the Met. It was reported last week that Sports Illustrated cover star Kate Upton wrote her own $25,000 check to Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, one of the event's co-hosts, in order to attend. But paying full price is a rarity, and plenty of guests are given discounted or comped tickets in order to ensure lots of famous faces on the steps of the art museum on the big night.
According to Chilton, The Costume Institute Benefit raised $10 million in 2011.
What will the stars wear tonight? Take a peek at the best Met Gala fashion from 2011:
