Fashion

As the glamorous, star-studded, invitation-only Met Gala returns for its 78th year, a crowd of exquisitely dressed celebrities once again ascends the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City—but the 2026 celebration, held on the first Monday in May, elevates fashion into something far more visceral. This year’s theme, “Costume Art,” inspired by the Costume Institute’s latest exhibition on the relationship between fashion, the body, and artistic expression, puts the dressed body at center stage, pairing garments with artworks to underline fashion as an embodied art form.

With a dress code of “Fashion Is Art” that encourages bold, interpretive looks treating the body as a canvas, the carpet becomes a striking display of sculptural silhouettes and conceptual design. And while that invitation invited plenty of experimental dressing, the real winners were the women who made the theme feel alive rather than literal—from Venus Williams to Anne Hathaway, here are the stars interpreted fashion in their own terms.

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Images: Instagram @metgalaofficial