The highly-anticipated 2022 Met Gala is almost here. On Monday 2 May, the Metropolitan Museum of Art will host its annual fundraiser for the Costume Institute, returning to its traditional date of the first Monday in May after the pandemic delayed the event for two years.
Since 1995, Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour has carefully presided over the Met Gala’s exclusive guest list. The biggest names in fashion and entertainment — including Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga, and Rihanna — have walked the red carpet wearing iconic looks, from headdresses to head-to-toe masks. However, one A-list celebrity that has not attended the Met Gala since 2016 is Taylor Swift.
Will the legendary singer-songwriter make an appearance at this year’s fundraiser? Her fans, also known as Swifties, seem to think yes.
Ahead of the 2022 Met Gala, Vogue announced the co-chairs of this year’s event — which is themed “In America: An Anthology of Fashion” — as Regina King, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and none other than Taylor Swift’s besties, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively.
One dedicated Swiftie named @thethriftyswiftie posted a theory to TikTok explaining why they think the singer will make an appearance at the Met Gala for the first time in six years.
“This came to me through a very accredited source,” they began the video. “But I have a family friend whose very, very closely associated with the Met Gala.”
She claimed that Swift has accepted her invitation to the Met Gala, and will possibly use the event to tease the release of her next album. There is also a chance that Swift will attend the event with her rumoured fiancé Joe Alwyn, who stars in the upcoming Hulu adaptation of Conversations With Friends.
Swift is currently in the process of re-recording her masters. Some fans believe that Swift’s Met Gala outfit choice will also hint at her next album. The singer is notorious for dropping easter eggs for Swifties to decode release dates.
The Grammy-award winning singer has a long history with Hollywood’s favourite married couple, after she first met Lively in 2015. Since then, the two have travelled to Australia together, posted birthday tributes of each other to social media, and even collaborated on creative projects.
Swift, 32, has used the names of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds’ three daughters throughout her music as well. In the song “Betty” off her 2020 album Folklore, Swift namedrops their daughters James, Inez, and Betty. On Swift’s album 2017 Reputation, a little girl — who was credited as James Reynolds in the album’s liner notes — calls out the word gorgeous in the beginning of her song “Gorgeous”.
After Lively and Reynolds showed up to support Taylor Swift’s appearance on Saturday Night Live last November, the singer dropped the music video for her vault track “I Bet You Think About Me,” which was directed by Lively.
The Met Gala red carpet livestream begins on 2 May at 6pm eastern, across Vogue’s website and social media platforms.