2026 Met Gala opens Costume Art exhibition, Fashion is Art theme unveiled
The Met Gala’s red carpet doubled as the opening argument for Costume Art, a 12,000-square-foot show pairing nearly 400 objects with garments.
The Met Gala turned the cobblestone carpet into a live debate over how fashion becomes art, with guests arriving in looks that ranged from literal tributes to sculpture-like abstractions. The 2026 gala opened The Costume Institute’s new exhibition, Costume Art, and the first arrivals made clear that the night was not about simple glamour. It was about interpretation, with some attendees leaning into archival references and others pushing toward modern spectacle.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art said the gala took place on Monday, May 4, 2026, and that the livestream began at 5:30 p.m. EDT. The exhibition opens to the public on May 10 and runs through January 10, 2027, in the museum’s new Condé M. Nast Galleries. The show spans nearly 12,000 square feet and brings together nearly 400 objects paired with garments from The Met’s collection to examine the relationship between the dressed body and art. The official dress code was “Fashion is Art.”
The institution also underscored how central the gala remains to its financing. The Costume Institute said the benefit is its primary source of annual funding for exhibitions, publications, acquisitions, and operations. This year’s co-chairs were Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and Anna Wintour, while Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos were named honorary chairs. The host committee included Anthony Vaccarello and Zoë Kravitz, alongside Sabrina Carpenter, Doja Cat, Gwendoline Christie, Alex Consani, Misty Copeland, Elizabeth Debicki, Lena Dunham, Paloma Elsesser, LISA, Chloe Malle, Sam Smith, Teyana Taylor, Lauren Wasser, Anna Weyant, A’ja Wilson, and Yseult. Newly announced committee members included Adut Akech, Angela Bassett, Sinéad Burke, Rebecca Hall, Aimee Mullins, Tschabalala Self, Amy Sherald, and Chase Sui Wonders.
The night’s symbolism was not all celebratory. Bezos’s role drew boycott calls from some New Yorkers, and NBC News reported that he appeared to skip the red carpet. Even so, the arrivals pushed the theme outward rather than treating it as a costume prompt, with early coverage noting art-inspired styling and references to specific artists and historic fashion moments. Beyoncé’s return, her first Met Gala appearance in 10 years, gave the evening one of its clearest headline moments. Rihanna and A$AP Rocky arrived later, extending a procession that made the event feel less like a parade of outfits than a contest over how fashion can hold history, craft, and power at once.
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