Met Gala Fashion Recap 2026: Best Dressed, Theme, Photos

If you're a fashion and pop culture enthusiast, then the first Monday in May is practically a sacred holiday: It's when the Met Gala, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute's annual fundraiser, is held. The star-studded event is famously invite-only, and while none of us humble spectators quite know what goes on inside the gala, we raptly tune in annually to see the jaw-dropping looks grace the museum's iconic steps.

This year's dress code is "Fashion Is Art," complementing the exhibit's theme, which is "Costume Art." Now, you might be wondering: Isn't every year's red carpet meant to be a mixture of art and fashion? And you would be correct — Met Gala looks are known for being over-the-top, with dramatic silhouettes and unconventional materials, not something you'd see hanging on a rack. This year, that seems to be more explicit: The Met says the dress code encourages attendees to "express their own relationship to fashion as an embodied art form and celebrate the countless depictions of the dressed body throughout art history."

Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and Anna Wintour are co-chairing the gala — Wintour's first since leaving her longtime post as Vogue's editor-in-chief. Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos are the event's honorary co-chairs, which has prompted some activists to call for a boycott. While it remains to be seen if any celebrities are taking them up on it, two prominent New Yorkers have already made a point to announce they won't be there: NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his wife, Rama Duwaji. Mamdani told Hell Gate that while he thinks The Met is “an incredible museum" and "a critical part of the city," his "focus is also on affordability and making the most expensive city in the United States affordable...And that's what I'm looking to spend a lot of my time focused on.”

Now that you know the essential info, we're ready to share our favorite Met Gala looks: