The Met Gala has been held at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art on the first Monday of May for more than a decade, but the coronavirus outbreak prompted a venue change for this year’s event.

This time last year, social media feeds were clogged with photos of celebrities walking the red carpet in elaborate and fabulously impractical outfits.

But in 2020 the bold looks were being served from backyards and lounge rooms as the fashion event was moved online.

Vogue ran a live-stream YouTube version of the event, featuring the magazine’s editor Anna Wintour, Florence Welch, Cardi B and a DJ set from Virgil Abloh.

In partnership with red carpet icon Billy Porter, the fashion magazine also encouraged people to get into the Met Gala spirit by participating in the #MetGalaChallenge to recreate looks from previous years.

Repurposing the looks from yesteryear tied in perfectly with this year’s Met Gala’s theme, About Time: Fashion and Duration.

It gave designers a chance to show off their skills, like Olivia Mears, who runs the popular cosplay account AvantGeek.

Mears recreated Gigi Hadid’s Versace look from 2018 using Christmas wrapping paper and a pillowcase.

Finished my #metgalachallenge with a paper dress based on Gigi Hadid’s Versace look. I’m really pleased with how it turned out considering it’s made ENTIRELY of last Christmas’ leftover wrapping paper, glue, paint, and a pillowcase for the sleeve. 😄 pic.twitter.com/QgpWXVe0Jx

— AvantGeek (@AvantGeekArt) May 3, 2020

Fellow cosplayer behind the Twitter account crescentshaycos recreated Lady Gaga’s theatrical entrance in 2019, comprising of four outfits and a whole lot of sass.

She used only items she had at home, however, she had to splash out for a set of bright pink bed sheets for the first stage of the outfit.

The costumer designer replicated Lady Gaga’s black structured dress with the help of a laundry basket, a bit of cardboard and a bum bag.

my recreation of @ladygaga ‘s 2019 met gala look for the #MetGalaChallenge! (yes, all 4 of them) Made from pink bedsheets, a laundry bin, black photo backdrop, and other stuff from around the house!

feat. my dad as my umbrella assistant and my mom as the camerawoman! 💕 pic.twitter.com/zTgHoU6K6J

— Shay 💕 (@crescentshaycos) May 3, 2020

Sanja Nestorovic used newspaper, specifically The New York Times, to fashion Rihanna’s pope-like ensemble from 2018:

 

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A post shared by Sanja 🇷🇸 Kosovska Mitrovica 🇺🇸 (@sanja_nestorovic_) on Apr 13, 2020 at 1:20pm PDT

Nestorovic also used sparkly sticky tape, a plastic bag and a cereal box to make Emily Ratajkowski’s 2019 outfit come to life in all its shimmery splendour:

 

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A post shared by Sanja 🇷🇸 Kosovska Mitrovica 🇺🇸 (@sanja_nestorovic_) on Apr 29, 2020 at 1:18pm PDT

Lana Condor’s pink puffy look from last year was reimagined by the designer behind the noedresses Instagram account.
She used materials salvaged from bins in her neighbourhood, including padding used for protecting furniture in transit: