The 2026 Met Gala Announces Its Theme: “Costume Art”
Snow still falls over New York, yet the fashion world has already turned its gaze towards spring and the first Monday in May. The 2026 Met Gala is on the horizon, and this year’s theme has been revealed: “Costume Art.” It is an idea that feels both timeless and newly urgent, examining fashion as a pure art form and its profound relationship with the human body.
The accompanying exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute will explore how garments shape, conceal and glorify the body across cultures and centuries. The show, curated by Andrew Bolton, will open in the museum’s new Condé M. Nast Galleries and is expected to be the Costume Institute’s largest undertaking to date, with nearly four hundred works on display. Garments will be placed alongside paintings, sculptures and artefacts spanning five millennia, tracing how art and fashion have continually mirrored one another. You can find our coverage from The Met Gala 2025 here.
Bolton describes fashion as the thread that runs through the entire museum. “What connects every gallery in the Met is the dressed body,” he explained in Vogue. “That was the original idea behind the exhibition - to show how clothing and adornment are at the heart of how we express humanity.” His remarks suggest that “Costume Art” will not simply reaffirm fashion’s status within art history, but rather turn the question inside out, inviting visitors to see art itself through the lens of fashion.
The Gala, of course, is where this conversation begins. On Monday, 4 May 2026, the steps of the Met will once again transform into fashion’s most photographed runway. This year’s co-chairs - Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams and Anna Wintour will lead a guest list that reads like a cross-section of modern celebrity: artists, athletes, designers and cultural icons, each interpreting “Fashion is Art” through their own lens. On the Host Committee, Anthony Vaccarello and Zoë Kravitz will be joined by stars including Doja Cat, Sabrina Carpenter, Lisa, Teyana Taylor and Lena Dunham. You can find our article covering the best Met Gala looks of all time here.
The theme is expected to yield a red carpet of sculptural silhouettes and painterly couture, where designers will be asked to consider the body not as mannequin but as medium. It is an invitation for creativity at its most conceptual, recalling the theatrical ingenuity of past Galas while encouraging a more personal, introspective form of expression. “Fashion is Art” could manifest as a literal homage to the masters, Van Gogh as gown, perhaps, or Bernini as bodice, but it might also inspire something more intimate: clothing that explores the art of being human itself.
The Met Gala is, as ever, a fundraiser for the Costume Institute, the museum’s only self-funded department, and the proceeds will support its exhibitions and acquisitions. This year’s donors, Lauren and Jeff Bezos, will underwrite the evening, ensuring that fashion’s most scrutinised red carpet continues to serve its philanthropic purpose. Behind the glamour, the night remains a celebration of creativity, funding the preservation of garments that tell the story of civilisation itself.
If 2025’s “Tailored for You” explored the politics of personal style, then 2026 feels poised to widen the frame, positioning fashion not as decoration but as cultural record. The concept of “Costume Art” calls to mind the sketches of designers like Charles James and Cristóbal Balenciaga, the sculptural gowns of Alexander McQueen, and the modern storytelling of Iris van Herpen, each a reminder that the line between atelier and artist’s studio has always been faint.
When the first guests arrive at the Met’s grand staircase this May, their looks will serve as the opening arguments in a visual dialogue that has stretched across history. For a few dazzling hours, the museum will become a living gallery, its exhibits moving, breathing and glittering beneath the New York skyline.