With the 2026 Met Gala just two months away, it’s time to start imagining what the A-list crowd will wear to the annual ball.
Today, Vogue gave fans a hint and announced their dress code: “Fashion is art.”
The exhibition’s theme, “Costume Art,” was announced in December and examines “the centrality of the dressed body” and will further examine how the human form and the art of fashion have mutually informed and influenced each other over the generations.
The purpose of a dress code is to give more context and elicit a broader interpretation of the theme.
Vogue magazine explains, “The dress code encourages participants to consider the different ways in which designers use the body as a blank canvas.”
This may be the most free and abstract dress code ever. Curator Andrew Bolton vaguely states, “What unites all the museum’s curatorial departments, and what unites all the museum’s galleries, is fashion: the dressed body.”
With such vague instructions, fashion admirers will definitely have something to look forward to when watching the red carpet.
This year, Beyoncé will return to the event for the first time in 10 years and will serve as one of the gala’s three co-chairs, along with Nicole Kidman and Venus Williams.
Although Anna Wintour is no longer the editor-in-chief of American Vogue, she will co-chair the event, as she has for decades.
In addition to Anthony Vaccarello and Zoe Kravitz, co-chairs of the charity host committee, the host committee itself will include 20 people, including Teyana Taylor, Sabrina Carpenter, Misty Copeland, and Lena Dunham.
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez Bezos will also serve as honorary chairs as they are the lead sponsors of the event.
The exhibition’s open-ended theme and overall dress code is due, in part, to the brand new Condé M. Nast Gallery, which opens for the first time with the Costume Institute exhibit on the first Monday in May.
The exhibition will consist of approximately 400 sculptures and paintings placed around the newly opened gallery.
The Met Gala will be held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 4th.
