Anna Wintour facing calls to ‘step down’ from Met Gala after ‘stale and forgettable’ 2025 event
Anna Wintour is being advised to step down from the Met Gala by a leading PR expert after this year’s event was blasted as ‘forgettable’ and declared ‘dead’ by spectators across the globe.
The biggest night in fashion took place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City on Monday but failed to deliver the star power and glamour of years past.
The 2025 theme – Superfine: Tailoring Black Style – presented an opportunity for ‘boundary-pushing’ looks, but big names such as Kim Kardashian, Hailey Bieber, and Kendall Jenner, struggled to stand out in their unremarkable looks.
Now, leading PR expert Sarah Schmidt has advised Wintour to end her three-decade reign and pass on the baton in a bid to introduce ‘radical imagination.’
Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, Schmidt, who is the President of Interdependence, suggested that Wintour stepping down from the Met Gala could be the ‘most strategic move.’
She pointed out that in doing so, she would not only be able to walk away ‘with her legacy intact’ but also uphold the Met Gala’s prestige and prevent it from becoming a ‘relic.’
Schmidt said: ‘If Anna Wintour were to step down now, it could be the most strategic move of her career — a final act that reasserts her power by knowing when to pass the torch.
‘This year’s Met Gala was polished but forgettable, and that’s the problem. When fashion’s biggest night feels safe, it stops shaping culture and starts chasing it.’
Anna Wintour is being advised to step down from the Met Gala by a leading PR expert
The Vogue editor-in-chief has been the Met Gala Chair since 1995 (pictured at the Met Gala on Monday night)
Vogue editor-in-chief Wintour has been the Met Gala chair or co-chair since 1995, although skipped duties in 1996.
In 2023, actress Julia Fox hit out at Wintour and the Met Gala and called for her to step down.
In an explosive interview with DailyMail.com at the time, she said: ‘To be honest with you, the Met Gala has never spoken to me – I mean look at who is running it.
‘If it was about fashion, I’d be there but it’s not,’ she went on. ‘It’s about politics, privilege, who your parents are and how much money you make.’
‘She [Anna Wintour] just won’t quit – how long is she going to keep going?’ Julia added.
PR expert Schmidt argued that Julia’s viewpoint of Wintour and the Met Gala being ‘stale’ was a fair assessment.
‘Julia Fox wasn’t wrong to call it stale, she was just early,’ she continued. ‘A new curator could inject the risk, relevance and radical imagination that Gen Z craves, while Anna exits with her legacy intact.
‘And in a hyper-social era where TikTok sets trends faster than couture can catch up, even the format of the Met Gala may need a reboot: less fortress, more feed.
Kim Kardashian dressed in a black crocodile-like leather gown by Chrome Hearts
Hailey Bieber opted for a Saint Laurent blazer, platform mule stiletto’s, and YSL branded tights
‘The bigger risk is holding on too long and watching the institution she built become a relic of past relevance.’
As it currently stands, there are no whisperings on whether Wintour intends to step down from her Met Gala chair duties.
In an interview with Good Morning America which aired on Monday morning, Wintour told co-anchor Michael Strahan about the pressure of the job.
She said: ‘Each one is very different.
‘And this one has been, I think, particularly meaningful and emotional and has a real heightened sense of purpose, because of the times that we’re living in.’
