The Met Gala 2026 theme centers around "Costume Art" and the relationship between fashion and the dressed body. The theme of the gala informs how people should dress. The dress code this year is "Fashion Is Art" and encourages wearers to celebrate the connection between the two with designs that reference anything from paintings to sculptures to photographs.
Celebrities worked with designers to capture the theme through their red-carpet looks: some standouts included Emma Chamberlain's Mugler surrealist dress, Beyoncé's custom Olivier Rousteing skeleton gown and elaborate headpiece, Kendall Jenner's GapStudio look inspired by a white T-shirt and Janelle Monae's Christian Siriano gown which featured 230 electrical wires, six real succulents, four moving butterflies, one dragonfly, and 5,000 black crystals.
Stars also embodied the theme with their beauty looks, like Tyla who sported peacock-inspired nails and Bad Bunny who used prosthetics to look decades older. Interestingly, some celebrities created these beauty looks with affordable, drugstore products like Kendall Jenner's $12 highlighter and Zoë Kravitz's $8 lipstick.
Other celebs took the opportunity to highlight Black art, taking representation into their own hands after 2025's "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style" theme.
