The theme of the Met Gala in 2020 was "About Time: Fashion and Duration." This theme was inspired by Virginia Woolf and 20th-century French philosopher Henri Bergson, and it explored the timeline of women's fashion over the last 150 years, coinciding with the Metropolitan Museum of Art's 150th anniversary. The theme reflected on how fashion is connected to time, representing and evolving with the spirit of different eras. The exhibition and gala drew inspiration from the 1992 film Orlando , which features time-traveling fashion spanning several centuries, encouraging attendees to interpret the theme through looks that could range from historical to timeless styles

. The 2020 Met Gala was ultimately canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the exhibition proceeded as planned later that year