2026 Met Gala Celebrates Costume Art
This week, the fashion world celebrated the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new Costume Institute exhibition, Costume Art, inviting guests attending the 2026 Met Gala to treat clothing as a living canvas and translate haute couture into wearable art. Co-chaired by Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and Anna Wintour, the event saw celebrities including Rihanna, Sabrina Carpenter, and Zoë Kravitz walk the red carpet in their interpretation of this year’s theme: Fashion is Art.
Curated by Andrew Bolton, and inaugurating the Met’s new 12,000-square-foot Condé M. Nast Galleries, Costume Art pairs historical and contemporary garments with paintings, sculptures, and objects from across the Met’s vast collection, spanning roughly 5,000 years of visual culture. More than 400 objects are included, ranging from archival fashion to artworks across multiple departments. The exhibition is organized into thematic sections exploring different ways the human body has been represented, including categories like the Naked Body, the Classical Body, and more unexpected lenses such as aging, disability, and pregnancy.
The exhibition is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute from May 10, 2026 to January 10, 2027.
