Met Gala 2026: Framing the Body, Defining “Fashion Is Art”
The first Monday in May. Met Monday has always been the most anticipated Monday in the fashion scene for quite some time. This year is no different. The theme is Costume Art. The dress code is “Fashion is Art.” All the big names and A-listers show up and show off. Thousands of hours with tremendous amount of support from their teams made this night possible. However, before we get into all the details, first and foremost, what is Costume Art?
Beyonce in Olivier Rousteing
The theme Costume Art pair historical/contemporary fashion with art to explore the dressed body. It focuses on bodily shapes and cultural representation across time, celebrating fashion as an art form by juxtaposing garments with artworks to illuminate new connections, focusing on the “dressed body.” As we all expected, a lot of the designers successfully pay homage to different art; mainly paintings and sculptures, and we will dissect the best of them.
One notable outfit that has been catching waves is Eileen Gu “Airo” bubble couture piece designed by Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen in collaboration with the artist duo Azusa Murakami and Alexander Groves of A.A. Murakami. They turned the Met Gala into a performance art piece with a dress that features 15,000 hands formed, individually bonded glass bubbles using uv lights and actually blew real bubbles on the carpet. It took over 2,550 hours to create. Supported by microprocessors, air pumps, and a specific digital interface as well as algorithmically engineered code, this dress is the melding manifestation of fashion, art, and science. This piece creates a full live experience and easily one of the most unforgettable Met Gala moments.
Eileen Gu in Iris Van Herpen
Another moment from the carpet no one can stop talking about is Emma Chamberlain’s hand painted Mugler’s gown. Designed by Miguel Castro Freitas and created in collaboration with artist Anna Deller-Yee as the painter, this look features long fringe sleeves and Impressionist-inspired art that is styled by Jared Ellner to complete the look. As her 6th time attending the Met Gala as Vogue’s special correspondent at the carpet, Chamberlain stun the carpet with a very personal statement to her dress, while paying homage to Vincent van Gogh and her dad, who is an oil and watercolor painter. This dress took 40 hours to paint and four days to dry. It also took influence from Mugler’s archive butterfly dress from 1997.
Emma Chamberlain in Custom Mugler
Sabrina Carpenter took the steps by storm, transporting us into the film world and immediately made us think about the art of film and its history through her Dior piece. Created by Jonathan Anderson, this dress is made out of film strips of “Sabrina”, the 1954 film starring Audrey Hepburn, which is an Oscar nominated picture and won the best costume award. Completed by a headpiece and rhinestones, Sabrina took us straight back to Old Hollywood glamour.
Sabrina Carpenter in Custom Dior
Last but not least, a spotlight is much deserved to the Hong Kong-born designer Robert Wun, who seemed to have dominated and succeeded on the met carpet last night; he clearly understood the assignment. His artistry really showed on his eight different pieces worn by Lisa, Naomi Osaka, Jordan Roth, Audrey Nuna, Nichapat Suphap, Ananya Birla, Gustav Magnar Witzoe, and Beyoncé’s second look.
As a member of the Met Gala host committee this year, Lisa took this position seriously. She worked with Wun to pay homage to her home country, Thailand, by having her arms 3D-scanned as a part of her dress and creates a shape inspired by traditional Thai dance position decked by BVLGARI accessories, holding up a veiled arrangement.
LISA in Robert Wun
While putting all of his attention to Lisa’s piece, Wun also was focusing on seven other pieces, including Naomi Osaka’s two-piece custom look that took everyone’s breath away. She arrived on the carpet wearing a wide hat and dramatic ivory coat with open seams all over sprouting red striped feathers, which tease the second act on the carpet. As she walked up the Met steps, the reveal ensued. A crystallized red gown that creates an artistic interpretation of the human anatomy using thousands of Swarovski crystals in four shades of red. This incredible gown features over 659,000 stitches of intricate embroidery, adding up to over 3,280 hours of hand-sewn needlework.
Naomi Osaka in Robert Wun
In a year where the directive was “Fashion is Art,” the Met Gala moved beyond spectacle and into something more considered. What unfolded on the steps was not simply red carpet dressing, but a curated exhibition of movement, form, and intent. The most resonant looks were not just visually striking, they were conceptually grounded, treating the body as both subject and canvas. Designers did not just reference art, they worked within it, using fabric, structure, and technology to shape meaning in real time.
In doing so, the night blurred the line between observer and participant. Because at its core, this year’s Met Gala was not only about what we wear, but how we are seen, and how we choose to express that through form, presence, and transformation. There was a noticeable shift away from dressing for approval and toward dressing with purpose. Narrative took precedence over novelty, and intention carried more weight than spectacle alone.
What lingered beyond the carpet was not just a series of memorable looks, but a recalibration of what the event can represent. The Met Gala has always reflected fashion at its most ambitious, but this year it sharpened its focus, positioning fashion as a critical and expressive discipline in its own right. Not separate from art, not adjacent to it, but fully embedded within it.
Audrey Nuna in Robert Wun
