Every year, on the first Monday in May, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York transforms for the Met Gala. It is the biggest night in the fashion calendar, designed to raise money for the museum’s Costume Institute and to showcase some of the best red-carpet looks we have seen in the last few decades. The theme of this year’s exhibition is ‘Costume Art’, and the dress code for the Met Gala 2026 is ‘Fashion Is Art.’
The Costume Art exhibition, curated by Andrew Bolton, will examine the centrality of the dressed body throughout time and culture and is organised into 13 thematic body parts. There will be 400 objects in the exhibition, with garments and accessories paired with drawings, sculptures, and photographs. Categories range from the “Naked Body” and the “Classical Body” to the “Pregnant Body” and the “Aging Body.” For the Gala, attendees will reference fashion as an art form, paying homage to famous works of art, and will consider how the human body is fashion’s canvas.
Keep scrolling for some of the best dressed at the 2026 Met Gala and the brands that stole the show.
Saint Laurent
Hailey Bieber wearing an extra-long lavallière in silk chiffon and sculpted bodice in 24 carat gold.
Madonna and seven performers wearing a hooded, sweeping organza cape in reference to Leonora Carrington’s ‘The Temptation of St. Anthony.’
Doja Cat in a chiffon silicone draped gown.
Charli XCX in a silk tulle gown with an iris flower.
Amelia Gray in a one-shoulder lace gown adorned with rhinestones.
Rosé in a silk satin gown with an embellished bird.
Imaan Hammam in a ruffled Saint Laurent gown in nylon.
Zoë Kravitz in a basque waist gown in guipure lace.
Rauw Alejandro in a lavallière shirt in silicone and tuxedo pants.
Kate Moss in a long-sleeve lace dress and bodysuit.
Dior
Alexa Chung wore a satin halter-neck dress featuring a chiffon insert embroidered with a chartreuse-coloured geometric pattern. The outfit is completed by a fabric waterlily brooch at the waist and a headpiece composed of fabric lily-of-the-valley bouquets and black satin ribbons.
JISOO wore a strapless, backless column dress, draped in gazar, entirely embroidered with a garden scene and trimmed with floral bouquets.
Sabrina Carpenter wore a tulle slit dress with an appliqué of rhinestone film strips from the film Sabrina.
Sunday Rose wore a strapless organza dress entirely embroidered with fabric flowers and a georgette skirt embroidered with a gradient of flowers.
Marc Jacobs
Serena Williams wears a custom silver lamé draped gown adorned with gold leaf accents.
Cardi B wears a custom lace ruffle dress layered over a color-blocked bodysuit with fetish boots featuring a 9 ½ inch platform.
Anna Weyant wearing a pink lace-trim organza slip dress and bordeaux satin bow chisel pump from the spring 202 runway collection.
Rachel Sennott wears a v-neck jersey gown featuring colour-blocked circle detailing paired with the D’orsay peep toe pump in complementary colours and a headpiece by Stephen Jones. The look was inspired by American conceptual artist John Baldessari.
Michael Kors
Anne Hathaway wore a custom Michael Kors Collection black silk-and-wool mikado strapless gown with a cascade skirt, featuring one-of-a-kind hand-painted motifs by artist Peter McGough.
Devyn Garcia wore a custom Michael Kors Collection black-and-suntan tromp l’oeil viscose jacquard knit column gown with crystal embroidery. The gown is custom-engineered to her measurements and natural contours using a state-of-the-art Stoll knitting machine, and finished with thousands of individually placed crystals.
Misty Copeland wore a custom cocoa plongé leather bandeau top paired with a tulle skirt and leather belt.
Liu Wen wore a custom white crepe jersey draped gown with a matching ruched bra and wrist-train swags.
Suki Waterhouse wore a custom guava jersey goddess skirt paired with a plunge halter bodysuit featuring two 9-foot sash trains.
Gabrielle Union-Wade wore a custom Michael Kors Collection cocoa cutout gown with scattered sequins. Requiring 480 hours to embroider, the gown features over 107,000 crystals, in two different sizes, individually placed atop a layer of delicate tulle.
Schiaparelli
Kylie Jenner wears a “dropped ball gown” with over 2,000 sating stitch balls, 10,000 natural baroque pearls and more that 7,000 painted pearlescent fish scales. The look required roughly 11,000 hours of embroidery work.
Gucci
Alex Consani wore a custom Gucci gown with nude tulle corseted bustier and a voluminous feathered skirt and train, a white faille cape and black satin pumps.
NINGNING wore a custom Gucci sculptural gown made of pleated silk organza ruffles with rhinestone embroidery details.
Bottega Veneta
Julianne Moore wearing custom Bottega Veneta
Prada
Amanda Seyfried wore a custom Prada alabaster pink silk faille dress with a wide, low-waist skirt constructed with symmetrical bows on the front paired with pearl satin platforms and a pink silk embroidered clutch.
Hunter Schafer wore a custom Prada linen gown with an empire waist and printed silk chiffon devoré detailing – inspired by Gustav Klimt’s painting portraying the young Mäda Primavesi.
Carey Mulligan wore a custom strawberry red silk radzmir column gown featuring a solarized rectangular motif print from the Prada Spring Summer 1998 collection.
Maya Hawke wore a custom white double satin dress covered by a layer of black organdy with floral micro-embroidery – inspired by the work of the 18th century painter, Jean-Honoré Fragonard.
McQueen
Daisy Edgar-Jones wears a custom-made dress with sculpted hip detail in ivory silk georgette and floral heritage lace, with three-dimensional Lyon lace appliqué and shredded tulle Banshee embroidery.
Chase Sui Wonders wears a dress in lilac silk georgette and satin with oversized bow detail.
Louis Vuitton
Jay-Z wears a black wool peak lapel tailcoat with matching trousers, a black wool double-breasted waistcoat, a white cotton poplin shirt, a white flower brooch, and black patent leather LV Premiere Oxfords.
Tyriq Withers wears a black wool coat embroidered with raindrop-inspired crystals, a black silk organza shirt with matching embroidery, black wool trousers and an embroidered black silk cummerbund, completed with a custom mini metal trunk and black leather LV Rider boots.