The 2026 Met Gala Dress Code Has Been Revealed: Here's How It Connects to the Museum's Costume Exhibit
The 2026 Met Gala Dress Code Has Been Revealed: Here's How It Connects to the Museum's Costume Exhibit
Catherine SantinoMon, February 23, 2026 at 4:02 PM UTC
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Elle Fanning at the 2024 Met Gala
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty
The 2026 Met Gala dress code has been revealed as "Fashion is Art"In November, the Met announced that the Costume Institute's spring 2026 exhibition is titled “Costume Art"
Curator in charge Andrew Bolton previously explained that the exhibition addresses “the centrality of the dressed body in the museum’s vast collection"
The 2026 Met Gala dress code is here!On Monday, Feb. 23, Vogue announced the theme of the Monday, May 4 gala as "Fashion is Art," which reflects the Metropolitan Museum of Art's spring 2026 exhibition titled "Costume Art."
Revealed in November, the 2026 exhibition marks the inauguration of the Institute's first permanent galleries at the museum. The nearly 12,000-square-foot Condé M. Nast Galleries will sit adjacent to The Met’s Great Hall, and its opening indicates “a huge moment for the Costume Institute,” curator in charge Andrew Bolton shared at the time.
“It will be transformative for our department, but I also think it’s going to be transformative to fashion more generally — the fact that an art museum like The Met is actually giving a central location to fashion," he continued.
Bolton's exhibition addresses “the centrality of the dressed body in the museum’s vast collection,” by pairing paintings, sculptures and other objects spanning the 5,000 years of art represented in The Met, alongside historical and contemporary garments from the Costume Institute.
Elle Fanning at the 2024 Met Gala.
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty
He further explained: “What connects every curatorial department and what connects every single gallery in the museum is fashion, or the dressed body. It’s the common thread throughout the whole museum, which is really what the initial idea for the exhibition was, this epiphany: I know that we’ve often been seen as the stepchild, but, in fact, the dressed body is front and center in every gallery you come across. Even the nude is never naked. It’s always inscribed with cultural values and ideas.”
The “Costume Art” exhibit will run from May 10, 2026 to Jan. 10, 2027, following the Met Gala on May 4, 2026. The Costume Exhibit and the Met Gala work in tandem with fashion's biggest event carrying the same theme.
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Bolton has organized the exhibition around three thematic body types: those commonly represented in art, those that are often overlooked (like aging and pregnant bodies) and universal bodies (like the anatomical body).
Colman Domingo at the 2025 Met Gala.
Jamie McCarthy/Getty
On Dec. 10, Vogue confirmed that Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams and Anna Wintour will serve as the co-chairs for the 2026 gala.
The event will mark Beyoncé’s first Met Gala appearance in a decade since last walking the sartorial steps in 2016 when she attended the Manus x Machina gala in Givenchy Haute Couture. She's attended seven times since making her debut in 2008.
Beyoncé at the 2015 Met Gala.
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
Kidman and Williams, meanwhile, are Met Gala mainstays having attended several times over the years. The Oscar-winning actress and the seven-time Grand Slam champion both made appearances at the event's "Superfine" gala this past May.
— sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.The Metropolitan Museum of Art hosted annual events celebrating its Costume Institute during the 1950s and 1960s, but the gala as we know it didn't take form until former Vogue editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland joined the committee. Vreeland introduced the concept of themes for each gala, starting with a celebration of Cristóbal Balenciaga's fashion in 1973 just one year after his death. In the decades since, the Institute has honored a diverse range of eras, influences and icons in fashion. The 2025 event celebrated the Institute's exhibit "Superfine: Tailoring Black Styles," which drew inspiration from Monica L. Miller’s 2009 book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity." The official dress code was "Tailored for You."
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