The first Monday in May either means showing up and showing off at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual charity event, the Met Gala, or judging everyone’s outfits via the Vogue livestream from the comfort of your own home – depending on the family, career, and tax bracket you find yourself in.
This year’s spring exhibition at the museum is “Costume Art”, highlighting “the centrality of the dressed body”, as curator Andrew Bolton explained to Vogue. “What connects every curatorial department and every single gallery in the museum is fashion, or the dressed body. The dressed body is front and centre in every gallery you come across. Even the nude is never naked; it is always inscribed with cultural values and ideas.”
Accordingly, the dress code for the 2026 Met Gala was “Fashion is Art”, reflecting the exhibition’s combination of garments and artworks spanning 5,000 years of art history.
This year’s gala co-chairs were music icon Beyoncé – who last attended the Met Gala in 2016 -, actress Nicole Kidman, tennis player Venus Williams, and Condé Nast’s global chief content officer and artistic director, Anna Wintour. Model Alex Consani also made history as the first trans woman to serve on the Met Gala host committee.
Funding for the exhibition and gala came primarily from Saint Laurent, Condé Nast, and American businessman Jeff Bezos. Bezos’ involvement was reportedly one reason several A-list celebrities chose to skip or boycott this year’s event, including supermodel Bella Hadid, actresses Zendaya and Taraji P. Henson, and even New York City’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani. That being said, this year’s Met Gala made it more evident than ever that even though the 1% is trying to buy their way into arts and culture, they cannot buy taste or understanding of a creative theme. We struggled to find ten truly standout looks worthy of highlighting, but here they are, in no particular order.
Influencer Emma Chamberlain wore custom Mugler by Miguel Castro Freitas, inspired by her childhood in a creative household, where her father worked as an oil and watercolour painter. Chamberlain and her stylist, Jared Ellner, wanted to incorporate some of her favourite artists – including Vincent van Gogh and Edvard Munch – into the look. She explained to Vogue that, “there is sort of this watercolour feel […] but then also there’s a creepy, sort of ominous undertone to the gown […] and that is very much my taste in art.” The result was a hand-painted dress by artist Anna Deller-Yee, which took 40 hours to paint, used 30 different base colours, and required four days to dry. Chamberlain paired the gown with custom-dyed navy satin platform heels by Stuart Weitzman. Her makeup was inspired by “the otherworldly” to reflect the dress’s tone, while her platinum blonde hair was styled simply to keep attention focused on the artwork that was her outfit – and she absolutely succeeded.
’90s supermodel Heidi Klum drew inspiration from costume art and from exploring the museum before the gala, as she told models Ashley Graham and Cara Delevingne during her red carpet interview. Her outfit was created by longtime collaborator and Oscar-nominated makeup artist Mike Marino, the creative force behind her iconic Halloween costumes. Made from latex and spandex, the look involved 3D scans of Klum’s entire body, sculpted folds resembling fabric, and intricate detailing inspired by Raffaele Monti’s artwork “Veiled Vestal”. Marino told Vogue that many of the techniques used mirrored “some of the same methods that many classical artists employed when working with materials like bronze or marble, only with advanced materials and technology.” He also meticulously hand-painted details onto Klum’s face. When asked how she managed to get in and out of the outfit, Klum revealed that there was “a zipper somewhere in the back.” Her and her team’s dedication to craftsmanship was undeniable.
Musician María Zardoya made her Met Gala debut in custom Matières Fécales, designed by Hannah Rose Dalton and Steven Raj Bhaskaran, accessorised with Pandora jewellery and a small porcelain doll made between 1910 and 1925 that resembled her exactly. “I wanted this look to feel like stepping inside a painting – romantic, delicate, and just a little haunted in a beautiful way,”, Zardoya told Cosmopolitan. On Instagram, she explained that her family in Puerto Rico used to call her “la muñeca de porcelana (the little porcelain doll)” when she was a child. They would dress her up, just as she dressed the doll she brought to the gala, symbolically bringing both her younger self and her family with her to the event. Zardoya stated that her intention is to “always celebrate art, and recognise the role that art plays not just in the telling of our shared history, but of our own individual histories as well.” The final result, complete with her mini-me accessory, was both breathtaking and deeply heartfelt.
Media personality Kylie Jenner wore a “dropped ball gown” called “Kylie Undressed” by Schiaparelli, designed by Daniel Roseberry. “The dress feels like it’s slipping away, it becomes this living sculpture in motion,”, hairstylist Iggy Rosales told Vogue. Her look reminded of the “Venus de Milo”, an ancient Greek marble sculpture created during the Hellenistic period (between 160 and 110 BC). The goal for makeup (by Ariel Tejada) and hair was to work as an extension of the dress; her brows were bleached, and her hair was in a soft blowout. Rosales wanted to highlight the “tension between something sculpted and something undone”. For the first time, Kylie Jenner not just stuck to the gala’s theme, but fully embodied it while remaining true to her signature style.
Supermodel Kendall Jenner surprised couture fans by showing up in a GAP dress, designed by Zac Posen. And we were even more surprised to find out the dress was not just made of upcycled GAP t-shirts, but also revealed a pair of wings once she stepped off the carpet and into the building. The process started with a simple white shirt, Posen told Cosmopolitan, and with him manipulating, pulling and draping it to “echo the movement you see in carved parian marble”. The corset Jenner wore underneath was made by 3D-printing her own body and making a bust out of it – the draped fabric making it look like an exposed breast. Jenner noted inspiration from the “Winged Victory of Samothrace”, an ancient Greek sculpture from the Hellenistic era, making the Jenner sisters a united force of ancient Greek-inspired glamour this year.
Socialite Kim Kardashian wore an actual piece of art – a fibreglass breastplate artist Allen Jones repurposed from the late 1960s. “I have seen his work referenced so many times by people in fashion, and I’ve always been a big admirer. I wanted something original, I didn’t want to cast my own body,”, Kardashian told Vogue. The artwork was created over the span of three weeks, from sourcing the glass to painting it at an auto body shop. Originally intended to be full-length, the design was later shortened into a bodysuit to allow for greater movement. Her leather skirt was created by artisans Patrick Wither and Keir Malem of Whitaker Malem, and hand-painted by Jones to match the breastplate. “Allen Jones would be iconic. Sexy. Classic. Cool. Innovative,”, Kardashian stated – and we agree. If anyone was going to successfully flaunt “the centrality of the dressed body”, it was always going to be her.
Like the Kardashians, model and businesswoman Hailey Bieber also wore a sculpted bodice, though hers was moulded from her own body and made entirely of 24-karat gold in custom Saint Laurent. Underneath, she wore a flowing silk chiffon skirt and a pair of metallic leather sandals. To complete the look, Bieber added a matching scarf loosely draped around her neck, styled her hair in a sleek bun, and accessorised with Belperron jewellery, including gold leaf-shaped earrings and rings. Inspiration for her outfit was taken directly from Saint Laurent’s 1969 autumn/winter couture collection, for which Yves Saint Laurent collaborated with French artist and sculptor Claude Lalanne. This marked Bieber’s third time wearing Saint Laurent to the Met Gala, and it is easy to see why the fashion house has become a personal favourite.
Singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams was dressed by the house of Chanel and Matthieu Blazy, particularly inspired by the work of Austrian painter Gustav Klimt. Klimt was famous for incorporating gold leaf into his paintings, such as “The Kiss” and “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Baucher I” – the latter serving as the main inspiration behind Abram’s jewel-embellished look. Much like the painting itself, the dress featured mosaic-like geometric forms and an assemblage-inspired pattern. Her accessories included an Impression Floral ring and earrings, and a Tweed Byzane ring – all Chanel as well. Gold sandal heels from Manolo Blahnik graced her feet as she glided down the carpet, as one of Klimt’s golden muses brought to life.
Musician and actress Janelle Monáe took a futuristic approach to the theme by intertwining technology and nature in a custom look by Christian Siriano. As she later shared on Instagram, the gown incorporated real electrical cables and wiring, live moss, eight succulents, four moving butterflies, two dragonflies, and 5000 black crystals. Monáe also revealed that the look referenced her futuristic alter ego, Cindi Mayweather, whom she has referenced consistently since her 2007 album ‘Metropolis: The Chase Suite’. Celebrity hairstylist Nikki Nelms, in partnership with OGX Beauty, created her sleek black bob topped with a butterfly accessory. Monáe’s look, an entanglement of greenery and circuitry, offered a compelling glimpse into what the future of wearable art could look like.
Music legend Madonna shut down the carpet in spectacular fashion, arriving alongside a coven-like group of seven young women. Designed by Anthony Vaccarello for Saint Laurent, her look featured a satin-and-lace slip dress, a jaunty hat topped with a ghost ship, and a translucent cape carried by the women following behind her. On her feet were chunky leather platform boots, and in her hands was a golden horn instrument. The inspiration came from Surrealist painter Leonard Carrington’s “The Temptation of St. Anthony” and was executed flawlessly. Madonna has long admired Carrington’s work and previously cited her as an inspiration for the music video of “Bedtime Story”. Her makeup artist, Marcelo Gutierrez, used products from KIKO Milano to create a smoky eye and sculptural finish. Hairstylist Merria Dearman styled Madonna’s hair to appear as though it had grown wild and untouched for years: “Organic. Lived in. Completely authentic.” Just like the pop diva herself.
Written and cover design by Vicky Madzak
GEM Magazine 