Hours before the first Met Gala guests even set foot on the red carpet, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute has already registered another record-breaking fundraiser of $42 million.

Lauren Sánchez Bezos, Venus Williams, Thom Browne , Michael Kors , Tory Burch and Saint Laurent’s Anthony Vaccarello were among the 400-plus attendees to learn the news, while attending Monday morning’s curtain-raiser for the Costume Institute’s spring exhibition “Costume Art.”

The Met’s director and chief executive officer Max Hollein shared the news at Monday’s press preview. The $42 million total is quite a hike compared to last year’s tally of $31 million, which had been the Costume Institute’s largest fundraiser yet.…