Met Gala 2026: Fashion Is Art, and We Have Notes
5 MIN READ — MAY 2026
The dressed body is not adjacent to art history, it is threaded through every part of it.
This year's theme: 'Costume Art.' Co-chaired by Beyonce, Nicole Kidman, and Venus Williams alongside Anna Wintour. A record-breaking $42 million raised for the Costume Institute. The rules were rewritten, and the looks actually meant something.
Every year on the first Monday in May, we clear our schedules and plant ourselves in front of every live stream we can find. The Met Gala is the one night where the rules are rewritten, the stakes are high, and the looks actually mean something.
Beyonce: Ten Years Was Worth the Wait
Returned after a ten-year hiatus, with Jay-Z and Blue Ivy making her very first Met appearance at 14. The look was custom Olivier Rousteing, and it was everything. A sheer gown with diamonds painstakingly outlining a skeleton across the body, the literal human form mapped in light and stone. From there, a sweeping feathered coat with a train that moved like a living thing behind her. It was fashion as anatomy, as mythology, as monument.
Kendall Jenner: Winged Victory
Kendall Jenner delivered one of the most breathtaking moments, channeling the ancient Greek sculpture Winged Victory of Samothrace in a stunning look designed by Zac Posen for Gap. Draped in a sleek, ivory column gown, elevated by an enormous pair of sculpted angel wings. It was a masterclass in conceptual fashion, equal parts sculpture and spectacle.
Rihanna: Last to Arrive, First in Our Hearts
Closed the carpet in Maison Margiela by Glenn Martens. A bejewelled mock-neck bodice encrusted with fine crystal detail, paired with a shimmery crinkled metallic fabric that coiled around her shoulders. She looked like she had been poured from something precious. A$AP Rocky walked alongside her in a custom baby pink wool robe from Chanel. Not matching, never matching, entirely the point.
Karan Johar: A Debut That Mattered
Made his first-ever Met Gala appearance in a custom Manish Malhotra ensemble inspired by Raja Ravi Varma, the 19th-century Indian painter. As a reference for a night about art, the body, and cultural expression, it was impeccable.
Sabrina Carpenter: The Cleverest Look
Arrived in a Dior gown made from celluloid film strips sourced from the 1954 Audrey Hepburn film Sabrina. A dress, made from a film, named after the person wearing it. Meta-fashion at its finest.
Kylie Jenner & Hunter Schafer
Kylie wore custom Schiaparelli: 11,000 hours of embroidery involving 10,000 baroque pearls and 7,000 painted fish scales. Meanwhile, Hunter Schafer in custom Prada provided a direct tribute to Klimt’s 1912 painting Mada Primavesi. The result was Schafer as Primavesi all grown up, one of the most art-historically precise looks of the night.
Emma Chamberlain: A Walking Painting
Wore a custom Mugler gown hand-painted by artist Anna Deller-Yee. 40 hours of painting, four days of drying. 'There's a creepy, sort of ominous undertone to the gown,' Chamberlain told Vogue. Her makeup was prismatic, fluid, and a little haunted.
Special Mentions: Anok Yai & Ananya Birla
Anok Yai arrived as the 'Black Madonna' in custom Balenciaga, featuring solid gold tear details. Ananya Birla made her debut in custom Robert Wun with a sculptural metallic face mask by Subodh Gupta, repurposed from everyday Indian kitchen items. Both proved that fashion is a language of identity and strength.
The Archive
- 01 Fashion is never just clothes.
- 02 It is history and identity made visible.
- 03 The exhibition opens May 10, 2026.
- 04 We will be there.
