The 2026 Met Gala theme was “Costume Art,” the dress code was “Fashion Is Art,” and for once the celebrities actually read the brief. We got hand-painted bodies, statues that walked, a tennis champion doing a literal costume change on the carpet, and Beyoncé returning to the Met steps like a homecoming queen who left for a decade and came back as a deity. Some people treated the body as a canvas. Some treated it as a science experiment. One person aged himself decades for the bit. This is my completely biased ranking of the 10 looks that turned the Met steps into an art history final – and passed.
1. Naomi Osaka in Robert Wun
Naomi Osaka and Robert Wun are officially a dream team, and this was their masterpiece. The dramatic white two-piece set read like a complete sculpture – layered textures, intricate construction, cinematic from every angle.
Embed from Getty ImagesAnd then came the reveal: a 2-in-1 transformation into a red sequined muscled body underneath. Conceptual, an ode to the body, AND performance art, all in one look that physically changed in front of you on the steps. She tackled the theme on every level the theme had. That’s not dressing for the Met Gala. That’s winning it.
2. Emma Chamberlain in custom Mugler
Okay, we need to talk about this one. Emma – yes, the red carpet correspondent who interviewed half the people on this list – showed up in a custom Mugler hand-painted by artist Anna Deller-Yee, treating her own body as the canvas.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe trompe-l’œil effect, the sculptural lines, the way it nodded to the iconic archival Mugler butterfly and bug collections – this was a living, breathing work of art that happened to also be doing carpet interviews. The girl works the door AND wins the party. Range.
3. Rihanna in Maison Margiela
Fashionably late, because of course she was – the Met Gala queen does not do “on time.” Rihanna closed out the night in metallic gold-and-silver Margiela couture with a sweeping train, sculptural volume, and tonal glam so precise it looked airbrushed onto her.
Embed from Getty ImagesLess an outfit, more a closing statement. Add it to the ever-expanding Hall of Fame of Rih Met looks. The woman could arrive three hours late wrapped in tin foil and still win the carpet, and frankly she basically did.
4. Beyoncé in custom Olivier Rousteing
She returned to the Met steps after a decade. A decade. And she brought Blue Ivy and Jay-Z and her OG creative crew like she was assembling the Avengers.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe custom Olivier Rousteing look landed somewhere between deity, showgirl, and skeleton queen – regal, theatrical, impossible to look away from. When Beyoncé decides to do something after ten years of not doing it, the bar is the ceiling. Tina Knowles cried. Honestly, same.
5. Lisa in Robert Wun
The extra arms held up her veil – that’s the part that gets me. Lisa wore custom Robert Wun, an all-white crystal-covered gown with a second pair of arms 3-D scanned from her own body, sculpted to lift her veil for her.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe concept was “the bride lifting her own veil,” and the second it hit the carpet the internet lost it. Surreal, a little unsettling in the best way, and exactly where “Fashion Is Art” was begging someone to go – not a pretty gown, but a concept you can’t stop staring at.
6. Janelle Monáe in Christian Siriano
Janelle does not know how to lose a Met Gala and I’ve stopped expecting her to. This year she built a literal motherboard onto her body – circuit boards and electrical cables tangled up with green moss and butterflies, nature versus technology fighting it out on a gown.
Embed from Getty ImagesIt read futuristic, almost AI-driven, and deeply on theme. Some people interpreted “Fashion Is Art.” Janelle interpreted “Fashion Is A Whole Installation.”
7. Bad Bunny in Zara
I did a triple take. Continuing his Zara partnership, Benito showed up under full aging prosthetics and makeup as a silver fox version of himself, decades older and almost unrecognizable. It’s not an outfit, it’s a thesis on time and identity wrapped in tailoring.
Embed from Getty ImagesHalf the carpet wore art. He performed it – turning the look into a statement on aging and how we read a body. The audacity to be one of the most famous men alive and decide the move is to walk in as your own future self is exactly the kind of swing this theme deserved.
8. Eileen Gu in Iris Van Herpen
Here’s the stat that broke my brain: 15,000 glass bubbles, roughly 2,500 hours of work. The Olympic skier wore actual science and somehow made it look like joy.
Embed from Getty ImagesIris Van Herpen is a technical genius who treats fabric like a physics problem, and Eileen wearing it felt like the rare Met look that remembered fashion is allowed to be fun. Whimsy is so underrated. Put a chandelier on a person and let them sparkle.
9. Zoë Kravitz in Saint Laurent
Black lace gets written off as the safe choice, and then Zoë wore it like a dare. The Saint Laurent dress was sheer and unlined, with hips exaggerated just enough to take a classic silhouette and bend it into something sharper than anything else working the basic-black angle that night.
Embed from Getty ImagesIt read modern where it could’ve read vintage, and architectural where a sheer look usually reads as a naked-dress stunt. Cool, precise, and completely self-possessed.
10. Anok Yai in Balenciaga
The reigning Model of the Year showed up and turned herself into an exhibit. Bronzed, sculpted, lacquered head to toe in conceptual gold makeup,
Embed from Getty ImagesAnok didn’t dress like a statue – she became one of the marbles you’d walk past inside the museum and think about for three days afterward. The beauty was the whole argument here. When the glam team is doing this much heavy lifting and winning, you respect it.
Honorable mentions because the carpet was stacked
Venus Williams co-chaired and showed up dressed as her own Robert Pruitt portrait, crystal gown and Wimbledon-trophy necklace included – the self-possession of it all. Hailey Bieber wore a gold Saint Laurent bodice cast straight from Yves’s Claude Lalanne sculptures, about as literal as “fashion is art” gets.
Embed from Getty ImagesAnd Blake Lively went courthouse-to-carpet hours after settling her Baldoni case, in an archival Atelier Versace gown inspired by Venetian Rococo paintings – complete with a reversible train she flipped midway up the steps to reveal an aqua lining.
Embed from Getty ImagesJisoo made her Met debut in custom Dior, a gazar column gown embroidered like a blooming garden with a fabric-flower headpiece and a 1905 Cartier necklace – the Impressionist reference landing without a single shout.
Embed from Getty ImagesAnd the rest of the field held: Chase Infiniti as an abstract bust in Thom Browne, Colman Domingo in graphic Valentino, Adut Akech in possibly the chicest maternity look ever carpeted (Thom Browne, flowers circling the bump), and Gracie Abrams glowing in Klimt-inspired Chanel.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe verdict
This was the rare Met Gala where the theme actually pushed people to make something instead of just showing up pretty. Walking statues, painted bodies, extra limbs, and a tennis champion doing a costume reveal on the steps. Art history class has never been this unserious or this good. See you on the steps next year.
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