By now, you probably know the first Monday in May is not just any old Monday: It’s the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute benefit, a.k.a. the Oscars of the East Coast or the party of the year. We think of it as the Fashion X Games or the All-Star Game of Entrances.

This year, however, things are a little more complicated, partly because the first Monday in May is also the middle of the N.B.A. playoffs, and the start of jury selection in the Sean Combs trial.

Wait, why do the N.B.A. playoffs matter?

Because LeBron James is the honorary chair of the gala, and if his Los Angeles Lakers make it through to the conference semifinals, he will not be able to attend.

Who else is a host?

Queen of all she surveys is Anna Wintour, the chief content officer of Condé Nast and the editor in chief of its marquee fashion magazine, Vogue. Ms. Wintour has been the gala’s chief mastermind since 1999, after first signing on in 1995, and has transformed the event from a run-of-the-mill charity gala into a mega-showcase for Vogue’s view of the world — the ultimate celebrity-power cocktail of famous names from fashion, film, tech, politics, sports and, increasingly, social media. Every brand scratches every other brand’s back.

Standing beside Ms. Wintour as the 2025 gala’s co-chairs will be the musician and men’s wear designer Pharrell Williams, the rapper ASAP Rocky, the Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton and the actor Colman Domingo. For the first time since 2019, there will also be a host committee, which, along with the chairs, is pretty much a mosaic of Black excellence: the athletes Simone Biles and Jonathan Owens, the playwright Jeremy O. Harris, the author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the Broadway star Audra McDonald, the singers Tyla and Usher — you get the idea.