Should We Get Ready For a K-Pop Takeover of This Year’s Met Gala?

It’s the first Monday in May, and that means one thing and one thing only—the Met Gala. The fashion world is converging on New York to get ready for one of its biggest nights—the annual fundraising event in favor of the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, famously organized by Vogue.

And then there’s everyone on social media, anxiously waiting to give their opinions on the looks sported by the many high-profile celebrities in attendance—all while wearing their comfiest loungewear or pajamas, as one should for any and all big red carpet events—and whether or not they have honored the year’s theme.

The theme this year is “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion,” to celebrate the Costume Institute’s new exhibition of the same name, and the official dress code is “The Garden of Time.” So hopefully, stylists have managed to pull out every single striking archive piece they could get their hands on. And now that the anticipated strike announced by the union of Condé Nast workers has seemingly been averted with a tentative deal between representatives of the union and Condé Nast itself, everything seems to be ready to go.

Only two questions remain, really—who are the celebrities attending? And among those celebrities, will there be any K-Pop idols like in the previous years? Let’s see what info we have at the moment.

BLACKPINK in your area?

Among the most hotly rumored attendees are Rosé and Jennie of BLACKPINK, one of the biggest girl groups in the entire K-Pop scene. Both idols have already made their Met Gala debut—Rosé in 2021, the first female idol to so do, and Jennie in 2023—and are pretty big ambassadors in the world of fashion, tied to the Yves Saint Laurent and Chanel brands respectively. 

It only makes sense for fans to speculate that they’re finally gonna walk up the Met steps in 2024, especially since they have been spotted in New York together. Then again, Rosé did post a pretty cryptic Instagram story with the caption “Bye NY, until next time” on Sunday evening, so we’ll just have to wait and see once the Met Gala actually starts.

There’s a third BLACKPINK member currently stateside and that’s the youngest of the group, the main dancer Lisa. She attended the Miami F1 Grand Prix on Sunday, so it’s not a stretch to think she might make an appearance in New York this evening. She’s also the ambassador of several high-end brands, particularly Celine, so her attendance would very much be justified.

Will Stray Kids really be everywhere?

All eight members of the boy group Stray Kids, one of the most famous currently active on the scene, could also be gearing up to attend this evening’s fashion event. In an Instagram live recorded at the beginning of May, member Seungmin stated that the group was getting ready for it, going through several fittings and other preparations.

The official Stray Kids TikTok account also posted a video about prepping for the event just today:

Just like BLACKPINK, Stray Kids also has a place in the wider fashion industry. The entire group was the Asian ambassador for Tommy Hilfiger in 2023, and members Hyunjin and Felix were chosen as the global ambassador for Versace and the house ambassador for Louis Vuitton, respectively. We’ll have to see if all the rumors are true and if the entire group will really make its Met Gala debut tonight.

There have been several other K-Pop idols who have attended the Met Gala over the years, ever since PSY became the very first South Korean singer to attend the event back in 2013—together with Super Junior’s Siwon. The 2023 edition saw Jackson Wang of GOT7 among the attendees, alongside Jennie, while Johnny of NCT made his Met Gala debut in 2022 and the iconic soloist CL—formerly of 2NE1—graced the steps of the Met back in 2021. Going even further back, EXO’s Lay was in attendance in 2019 and soloist Rain made his appearance in 2015.

I guess there’s nothing else to do but see if any of them return to the Met Gala or if any new face will appear in this year’s “Garden of Time.” I personally will be refreshing the hashtags over on X (formerly Twitter) as soon as the clock strikes 6 PM EST, the scheduled start time for the event.

(featured image: Kevin Mazur/MG23/Getty Images)