Celebrity. Money. Fashion. It’s Met Gala Night.

Good morning. It’s Monday. The Met Gala, where money and power intersect, is tonight. We’ll look at why the event is important.

Rihanna’s arrival at the Met Gala last year.Credit…Nina Westervelt for The New York Times

New York City’s biggest fashion event — the Met Gala, officially the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute benefit — is tonight. You would know if you’re going. It’s an invitation-only extravaganza, and the guest list is a closely guarded secret.

The gala is an annual event, but this year, there may be more than the usual crowd of photographers and celebrity-watchers outside. Condé Union, which represents workers at Vogue — the fashion magazine run by Anna Wintour, who has been the mastermind of the Gala for 25 years — and other Condé Nast publications threatened to appear. “Condé Nast management: Meet us at the table, or we’ll meet you at the Met,” a post from the union said on X.

I asked Vanessa Friedman, The New York Times’s fashion director and chief fashion critic, to explain why a showcase for power from Hollywood, fashion and beyond matters to New York — and what to expect as the night unfolds.

Why is the Met Gala so important in New York?

I think it’s more than that. It’s global. You see that with designers flying in, celebrities flying in, powers-that-be flying in.