"Hearst Magazines and AOL may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."
Awards season may have wrapped up in March with the Oscars, but for red carpet fashion fans, the year’s biggest moment has only just arrived.The 2026 Met Galais upon us, and with it, a slew of A-list celebrity sightings and, of course, the sartorial statements that come with them.
As ever, the annual gala, which serves as a benefit for The Costume Institute, is centered around the institute’s yearly exhibition, and this year is a particularly special one, as it will mark the very first exhibition to be housed in the Costume Institute’s new 12,000-square-foot permanent galleries at The Met. Titled “Costume Art,” the exhibit will “focus on the centrality of the dressed body within the Museum, connecting artistic representations of the body with fashion as an embodied art form,” Andrew Bolton, Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute explained when the concept was announced. He added that he wanted the exhibit to emphasize, “the indivisible connection between our bodies and the clothes we wear.”
Advertisement
So what does that mean for this year’s Met Gala dress code? The exhibition theme traditionally dictates the concept around which the star-studded guest list crafts their ensembles, and while “Costume Art,” will focus heavily on the physical form (the exhibit will reportedly be organized around concepts like the “Naked Body,” the “Classical Body,” and the “Pregnant Body”) the dress code itself offers a broader thesis: “Fashion is Art.”
PerThe Met, the dress code will invite guests to “express their own relationship to fashion as an embodied art form.” How exactly that will be interpreted by the evening’s stars, including co-chairsBeyoncé, Nicole Kidman, andVenus Williamsis anyone’s guess, but we could expect to see anything from a return to last year’s form-focused “naked dress” trend to gowns that take a direct cue from art history. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see.
You Might Also Like