The Met Gala has lengthy been considered style’s most influential night time. It’s the occasion the place movie star, tradition and couture converge below the roof of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Artwork. Yearly, the Costume Institute’s annual fundraiser reframes the dialog round clothes and its place within the wider cultural panorama. In 2026, that exploration will flip inward with a theme that pulls instantly from the Met’s personal huge inventive legacy.

Subsequent 12 months’s theme, Costume Artwork, is usually concerning the museum’s assortment. It is going to span centuries, mediums and interpretations of the human format. Apparently, curator Andrew Bolton is ready to unveil an exhibition that pairs roughly 200 clothes with 200 artworks. That is to point out how the dressed physique has been depicted, idealised and abstracted all through artwork historical past.

These pairings will embody connections reminiscent of Rei Kawakubo’s avant-garde silhouettes proven alongside Hans Bellmer’s surreal, contorted varieties or classical sculptures displayed beside Mariano Fortuny’s pleated robes.

The exhibition will unfold throughout three thematic sections. The primary, Our bodies Omnipresent In Artwork, will study acquainted portrayals of the human determine. It is going to additionally study the nude kind. The second, Our bodies Missed, will spotlight these representations which have historically been underexamined, reminiscent of ageing, pregnant or in any other case marginalised our bodies.

The ultimate part, Common our bodies, will think about anatomical and scientific interpretations that transcend cultural boundaries. Whereas the theme is extra of an inventive selection, the present will in the end maintain style at its core.

Attention-grabbing line of sponsors together with Saint Laurent is predicted to subtly affect the crimson carpet seems to be. Whereas the style facet of issues is at present being saved below the wraps, we might even see a surge of creative textiles and cultural varieties. The theme offers solution to concentrate on construction, anatomy and inventive expression anyway.

When is the 2026 MET Gala going down?

The 2026 Met Gala will happen on Monday, Could 4, sustaining its signature slot on the primary Monday in Could. The accompanying Costume Artwork exhibition will open to the general public on Could 10, 2026, and can stay on view till January 10, 2027.

ALSO READ: Rihanna To Cardi B: Celebrities Who Flaunted Their Baby Bump At MET Gala