In what year was the first Met Gala held?

The first Met Gala was held in 1948.

The event was founded as a midnight supper by publicist Eleanor Lambert to raise money for the newly established Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was originally a fundraising dinner rather than the highly staged global celebrity event known today.

The gala’s modern format developed later, especially after Diana Vreeland became a consultant to the Costume Institute in the 1970s. Anna Wintour has chaired the event since 1995. The Met Gala is formally the annual fundraising benefit for the museum’s Costume Institute, not a Vogue-owned award ceremony.