The Met Gala red carpet. So glossy. So gorgeous. So thrillingly sartorially outré. So… miserable?

Seriously, you’ve landed a sought-after invite to one of the most elevated events (glamour and philanthropy in one hit: result) on the social calendar; ticket cost rumoured to be up to $50k. You’re dressed in something almost unbelievably fabulous. Surely the very least you want to do it smile? We’d be grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cat.

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But no. The standard look appears to be eyes-front, lips set, we-are-fabulous-but-we-are-not-amused: Cara Delevingne, Lily Rose Depp, Katie Holmes, Rose Byrne – we salute your mastery of this. It’s as though they’re channelling Lady Bracknell: “A smile? On the red carpet?” A pout is acceptable (Kendall Jenner). At most, you are permitted a knowingly arch eyebrow and a slight flicker of the lips (step forward seasoned pros, Kate Hudson and Reese Witherspoon). You can tell Alex Rodriguez (Jennifer Lopez’s gentleman caller) is a novice – look at his grin. And Selena Gomez and her beau, The Weeknd, look positively adorable – but like they’ve stumbled onto the red carpet en route to a birthday party. (Can we come?) In contrast, Amy Schumer, that goddess of comedy, is channelling the gravity of a news-reader.

Show us a red carpet, and we’ll show you a string of celebs who have lost the art of the smile. Instead, they wear their best fashion face. Of course, they still look gorgeous – but they don’t look particularly happy.

Moreover, there’s an intriguing correlation between an individual’s fashion status and their smile: the higher your fashion kudos, the less likely you are to grin. Witness the Olsen twins’ metamorphosis from smiley teens via nonchalance to a slightly haunted, studied severity. Contrast this with Daisy Ridley – grinning like a girl invited to the most amazing party ever for the very first time (i.e. exactly what she was) – who may this morning be thinking, “Eepers. Was I Fashion enough?”