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The 2025 event saw a +30% year-over-year increase in EMV. This milestone highlights the Gala’s heightened cultural relevance and increased creator engagement.
Published On: May 16, 2025
Here’s who came out on top
The Met Gala is an annual charity fundraiser for The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute – it’s also one of the most iconic events in the fashion calendar. The world’s most influential figures in fashion, art, and music come together to experience the gala’s theatrical excitement every single year.
The Met Gala always follows a striking theme, 2025’s edition was no exception. This year’s theme, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” showcased Black menswear and dandyism, a heightened cultural shift that marked a new chapter in the Met Gala’s legacy.
As a result, we’ve seen a significant rise in global buzz and EMV. Yes, this year’s instalment has been one of the most successful to date. Here’s what you need to know about the Met Gala 2025’s most influential brands.
The Met Gala’s 2025 theme was backed by four legendary new chairpeople: Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, A$AP Rocky, and Pharrell Williams. The influential power of these celebrities, coupled with a concept that inspired storytelling with substance, sparked epic levels of engagement across media outlets.
First of all, the event grossed $31 million which museum officials have confirmed as a new fundraising record. While not directly linked, this colossal level of buzz and buy-in likely boosted overall event engagement. Early results show the 2025 Met Gala generated significant global buzz from May 5 to 6 across influential voices, including VIPs, creators, and media outlets. Here’s what we discovered:
Profiles Engaged: 2.7K
Content Pieces: 16.7K
Earned Media Value (EMV): $1.3B
Engagements: 866.2M
What we found most remarkable is a +30% year-over-year rise in EMV – a testament to how meaningful cultural moments have a positive impact on creator engagement.
We saw a mix of magnificent spectacles on this year’s Met Gala Red Carpet. Amplified by the ever-influential Pharrell Williams, Louis Vuitton brought its ’A game’ with a wealth of VIP names dressed by the house.
The likes of Marc Jacobs, Valentino, and Thom Browne also took the spotlight with themed creations that became a talking point throughout the event. While many revered fashion brands earned a fair media share at this year’s Met Gala, here are the true champions according to our data.
EMV is a creator marketing metric that gives a monetary appraisal of a brand’s organic or non-paid exposure. The numbers don’t lie and this year, there were 15 clear winners, with Louis Vuitton earning an incredible $157.1 million in EMV.
What’s also interesting from this data is that eBay has made the top 15 EMV list. Its success here is likely influenced by a greater focus on circular fashion at this year’s event – a concept that aligns with eBay’s brand mission.
Once again, our numbers show that Louis Vuitton is a clear winner, with engagement levels that far surpass those of every other name featured on our top 15 list. In terms of engagement, Marc Jacobs and Valentino retain a top three position, showing some correlation between EMV and Engagements.
Most of the brands in our top 15 EMV list also feature in our Engagements list, but there are some differences. Ruth E Carter and Torishéju, for instance, have replaced Ferragamo and eBay.
We also recorded impressive Content numbers during this year’s event. As you can see, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, and Valentino came out on top in this category. Louis Vuitton’s string of A-lister advocates and striking aesthetics stole the show, earning an average content reach of 3.1k, with Marc Jacobs and Valentino achieving 1.6k and 1.1k respectively.
FYI: Our platform captured all EMV data and Engagements from The Met Gala, interactions that look beyond traditional tags, vanity metrics, and brand mentions alone. Our numbers paint a true and accurate picture of campaign activities and coverage at this year’s event.
The Met Gala 2025 was momentous in every way imaginable. In addition to record fundraising and EMV numbers, Shah Rukh Khan became the first male Bollywood star to attend. We also saw iconic musical performances from Usher and Stevie Wonder, not to mention Rihanna stealing the show with her third pregnancy reveal.
Rihanna’s big reveal drove almost 6% of all mentions, 7% of EMV, and 6% of Engagement from influential sources.
Among the pageantry and excitement, there were certain brands (all of which feature in our ’Top 15’ lists) that really pushed the envelope. Here’s a roundup of our five stand-out brands.
Louis Vuitton (LV) is the undisputed champion of the Met Gala 2025. The brand earned an EMV of $154.1 million.
As an official sponsor of this year’s exhibition, the maison made a substantial impact, which was complemented by Pharrell Williams (LV Men’s Creative Director), acting as the Met’s co-chair. Iconic attendees, including Anna Wintour herself, Zendaya, Doechii, Lisa, Pusha T, and Sabrina Carpenter, were clad in LV garments.
Marc Jacobs comes in at second place with an EMV value of $94.7 million. As mentioned, one of the brand’s biggest wins for this year was Rhianna’s branded baby bump reveal, which became a huge talking point and sparked significant levels of engagement.
Doja Cat, Teyana Taylor, and Tracee Ellis Ross also attended the event bespoke Marc Jacobs, epitomising the event’s lean towards razor-sharp tailoring.
Filling our number three spot, Valentino showed up in style this year. Under the creative leadership of Alessandro Michele, Valentino harnessed its theatrical flair with a diverse mix of attendees.
This year’s Valentino advocates included Colman Domingo, co-chair of the evening, plus Lana Del Ray, Barry Keoghan, Clairo, and Justice Smith. Thai actor, model, and brand ambassador Freen Sarocha also turned heads with her debut Valentino appearance.
Thom Browne made waves as a standout designer, achieving an EMV of $56.3 million at this year’s event.
Nailing the theme of Black dandyism, the brand dressed over 10 VIP guests in bespoke creations with attention-grabbing visual appeal. This year’s Thom Browne attendees included Janelle Monáe, Whoopi Goldberg, Mona Patel, Nicki Minaj, Angel Reese, Demi Moore, and Anok Yai—a dazzling lineup in anyone’s book.
The Balmain collective, headed up by the legendary Olivier Rousteing, consisted of Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Jenna Ortega, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Rosalia, and Jeremy O. Harris.
Together, these personalities and their influential followings contributed to a total (and pretty noteworthy) event EMV of $50.1 million.
The Met Gala exceeded expectations this year. Branded campaigns and fashion contributions aside, the 2025 event conjured up a real cultural moment.
Black-owned brands made a bold statement, challenging the monopoly of heritage luxury houses, driving almost 20% of all brand-related EMV and Engagement. The total? $226M in EMV and 175M in Engagement.
While the press led with a firm foot, it was influential celebrities that took the spotlight. The press may have won in terms of volume – with 73% of content, 85% of EMV, and 88% of overall engagement – but the biggest moments came from candid, VIP-driven content, including:
Hailey Bieber’s pre-Gala skincare routine collected 14 million Engagements and $653.8K in EMV.
Megan Thee Stallion’s “Hottie Cam” moment on the red carpet earned 2.69 million Engagements and $496K in EMV.
The Met Gala 2025 is a masterclass in culturally-led event curation and creator marketing and we’re proud to have the numbers to prove it. We can’t wait to see what 2026 brings.
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