Met Gala 2026: Art, Drama, and a Few ‘What Was That?’ Moments

The Met Gala is not just about looking nice. It is about making people stop, stare, and sometimes ask, “Wait…what is that?” This year, celebrities treated the red carpet like an art project, showing up in looks that felt more like museum pieces than outfits.

Every year at the 2026 Met Gala, some of the biggest names in film, fashion and music attended the exclusive Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala, and interpreted the dress code in unique and unforgettable ways. This year, the Met's exhibit "Costume Art" (and the evening's dress code, "Fashion as Art") was the jumping-off point for celebrity ensembles that were artistic, interesting, carefully considered and (in some cases) more than a little creepy.

Beyoncé made sure she had her favorite people on hand as she graced the Met Gala for the first time in a decade on Monday.

The singer looked oh-so regal donning a diamond embellished skeleton design by Balmain along with a sunburst headpiece as she walked the red carpet with her eldest daughter, Blue Ivy Carter.

Carter, 14, was pure poise wearing a white gown with diamonds, a cropped jacket and cat-eyed sunglasses. Her father Jay-Z also tagged along for the celebration, looking sharp in a black tuxedo.

Beyoncé told Vogue’s La La Anthony it was “surreal” to attend the event besides her girl and an honor to be able to experience the event through her eyes.

Not only a guest, the pop star attended the event as part of its VIP cohort of co-chairs, which also included actor Nicole Kidman, Olympian Venus Williams and Vogue visionary Anna Wintour.

You couldn't pay us enough to don some eye-blocking accessories just before ascending a notoriously steep set of stairs in front of hundreds of cameras, but that's what separates us from the people (like Katy Perry, Sarah Paulson, Luke Evans and Rachel Zegler) who got a ticket to the event this year.

Technically, people under 18 aren't invited to the Costume Institute Gala. But for co-chair Nicole Kidman (and co-chair Beyoncé!), when your daughter is a fashionista in her own right, rules were made to be broken. Nicole Kidman hit the 2026 Met Gala red carpet in New York City on Monday with her 17-year-old daughter Sunday Rose Kidman Urban. The mother-daughter duo ascended the Met Gala steps together and were among the first to arrive.

Of course, with an exhibit that is all about how the human body is a vessel for fashion, we expected to see quite a few naked interpretations of the theme. Some of the stadouts? Chase Infiniti's Thom Browne, Doja Cat's Saint Laurent and Hailey Bieber's Saint Laurent. Can’t forget about Kendall and Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian, too.

Stevie Nicks just made her Met Gala debut.

The Fleetwood Mac singer brought her witchy, one-of-a-kind style to the affair.

Many stars were inspired by the sculptures and paintings inside the walls of the Met, but Sabrina Carpenter didn't forget that cinema is an art form too and paid tribute by donning a Dior gown by Jonathan Anderson created of the film strips for the 1954 Audrey Hepburn classic Sabrina.

Ciara's tribute to Nefertiti included a painstakingly gilded spiked coif, which she admitted took quite some time to achieve.

Rihanna and A$AP Rocky (as well as these other celebrity duos) prove that all you need to keep the spark alive is to be extremely hot, get invited to very exclusive events and then dress better than anyone else there.

Jordan Roth, Heidi Klum, LISA of Blackpink, and Gwendoline Christie delivered very imaginative and labor-intensive takes on the theme, which we both appreciated for the work that went into them and will probably be haunted by for some time to come.

Bad Bunny aged himself up with extremely realistic prosthetics to, as Vogue suggests, reflect the idea of the aging body and its relationship to art.

Catch the complete looks of the 2026 Met Gala below.