NEW YORK — The 2026 Met Gala unfolded Monday evening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as hundreds of celebrities, designers, and their various entourages descended upon Fifth Avenue dressed according to the theme “Fashion Is Art” — a directive that produced results ranging from breathtaking to genuinely concerning, with very little in between.
The event, co-chaired by Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and Anna Wintour, raised an estimated $25 million for the museum’s Costume Institute while simultaneously raising a number of unanswerable philosophical questions, including: What is art? What is fashion? And at what point does a garment become a structural engineering problem?
“I wanted to explore the tension between the body as canvas and the garment as gesture,” said one attendee, who arrived in what appeared to be an architectural rendering of a swan having an argument. “I think I achieved that. My driver was less sure.”
Notable absences included Zendaya, who confirmed earlier this week that she would not be attending. Her absence was mourned loudly on social media, where fans suggested that without her, the gala was “just a very expensive costume party” — which, to be fair, is also an accurate description of the gala when she does attend.
Kylie Jenner and Timothée Chalamet attended together, having been spotted the previous night at a Broadway show — a detail that the internet immediately treated as a form of high culture diplomacy, as if the theatrical outing had sanctioned their eventual gala appearance. They looked good. The internet was not satisfied.
“Fashion is art,” said one guest who declined to be named because her headpiece made it impossible to tell which direction she was facing. “And like all art, it is best experienced without asking too many questions. Please do not ask me about the cape. It has to stay inflated.”
BLACKPINK member Jennie made a striking entrance in a full Chanel look, demonstrating once again that there is a category of celebrity who makes the entire exercise look effortless. Fashion critics spent thirty minutes analyzing her look before agreeing it was “correct,” which is not technically an adjective they normally use, but somehow worked.
The evening’s most discussed moment came when one attendee’s outfit — described variously as “a greenhouse,” “a statement,” and “structurally load-bearing” — required two assistants and a preliminary architectural assessment to navigate the staircase. The look received twelve million impressions before midnight and was described by its designer as “a meditation on the fragility of form.” The assistants said it was “just a really big dress.”
Anna Wintour, attending her 37th consecutive Met Gala, was seen in a floor-length gown that one commentator described as “timeless,” another as “perfection,” and a third as “a woman who may have invented time and also possibly fashion.”
Next year’s theme has not yet been announced, though sources at the Costume Institute say early proposals include “Fashion Is a Concept,” “What Even Is a Dress,” and the working title “Please Just Wear Something Interesting.”
Globe News Daily editorial note: Globe News Daily does not claim to know what fashion is. We are dressed respectably, in what we believe to be clothes, and we are doing our best.
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