Hello! Ellie and Morwenna from the Guardian’s fashion desk here in London. We’ll be watching the Met Gala – fashion’s Oscars/Baftas/Olympics – so you don’t have to, guiding you through the probable hits and possible misses from a starry guest list which includes Zendaya, Ariana Grande, Rihanna, and multiple Jenner/Kardashians. To recap on what you’re watching: as ever, the Met Gala takes place on the first Monday in May as the opening of New York’s Costume Institute exhibition. There is always a theme, and usually some sort of accompanying text, and this year’s it’s called “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” which will look back at 300 years of Black fashion alongside the history of Black dandyism. To get you up to speed, do have a read of this brilliant piece by the Guardian’s Sasha Mistlin from earlier this week. Last month, Sasha interviewed Monica L. Miller, whose 2009 book, Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, interrogates of the strategic use of fashion by Black men throughout history, which is the inspiration behind both the exhibition and gala. The theme is notable for various reasons, not least because it’s the Met’s first ever fashion exhibition devoted entirely to designers of colour so is being viewed by some as a wider effort to incorporate more diversity into the collection. It’s timely too. Previous galas have been criticised for being tone-deaf, little more than peacocking, and a parade of privilege and elitism. In her preview piece for the Saturday paper, Jess Cartner-Morley describes this year’s theme as an “intellectually minded celebration of diversity [which] lands at a moment when the Trump administration is pushing back robustly against both diversity and intellectualism”. However you view it, the event itself has huge cultural and celebrity cachet, helped no end by Anna Wintour and her assembled co-hosts: Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, ASAP Rocky and Pharrell Williams with LeBron James as the honorary chair. This is handy given the main thrust of the gala is making money. A choice guest list of designers, celebrities and other notables will have bought tickets or a table at great cost. An individual ticket is $75,000, or over £55,ooo, while a table of ten goes for more than a quarter of a million pounds. Donations also roll in from donors. Proceeds then go to the Costume Institute, which is dependent on the gala for its main operating costs, though it’s worth mention that the gala itself costs a lot of put on too … The gala’s arrival is fleeting: stars arrive, walk up the stairs, and disappear inside. There is a party with dinner and music, more on what that involves later. And there is almost always Rihanna. Fashion-wise, what does that mean? We can probably expect some radical tailoring, a little menswear-as-womenswear, flamboyant spins on the modern dandy and a diverse raft of designers. But what we want to see is a celebration of fashion at its most multicultural, expressive and absurd. Fashion as high art. We all know that the red carpet is now an economy unto itself, a strangely cultivated branding exercise for celebrities and marketing tool by the fashion industry built on an illusion that the gowns and dandy suits are an expression of a celebrity’s personal style when in fact, they’ve been picked by a stylist. But that doesn’t stop it being wonderful to watch.