The countdown to fashion’s biggest night has officially begun.
In fact, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Costume Institute announced the theme for the 2026 Met Gala—and also the name of its annual exhibit—is “Costume Art,” marking a historic partnership between the two branches of the museum.
The 2026 exhibit will mark the inauguration of the almost 12,000 square-foot new wing of the Met Museum, the Condé M. Nast Galleries. There, some of the museum’s most important art pieces across the centuries will be paired alongside historical and modern garments from the Costume Institute.
“It’s a huge moment for the Costume Institute,” curator Andrew Bolton said in Vogue’s Nov. 17 announcement. “It will be transformative for our department, but I also think it’s going to be transformative to fashion more generally—the fact that an art museum like The Met is actually giving a central location to fashion.”
The emphasis, Bolton explained, will be on the dressed body. After all, “what connects every curatorial department and what connects every single gallery in the museum is fashion.”
“It’s the common thread throughout the whole museum,” he added, “which is really what the initial idea for the exhibition was, this epiphany: the dressed body is front and center in every gallery you come across. Even the nude is never naked. It’s always inscribed with cultural values and ideas.”
As for how the theme might influence the Gala’s 2026 dress code?
The “Costume Art” exhibit will, per Bolton, focus on the “indivisible connection between our bodies and the clothes we wear. The idea was to put the body back into discussions about art and fashion, and to embrace the body, not to take it away as a way of elevating fashion to an art form.”
Part of the way the exhibit itself will hope to achieve this goal is by placing mirrored heads for the show’s mannequins, placing the viewer into the art.
“Where the face is a mirror, you’re looking at yourself,” Bolton explained of the creative decision. “Part of that is to reflect on the lived experience of the bodies you’re looking at, and also to reflect your own lived experience—to facilitate empathy and compassion.”
He continued, “As you go through, [the exhibition] will challenge normative conventions and, in turn, offer more diverse displays of beauty.”
And while the dress code for the event—held on the first Monday in May—is still under wraps, it’s likely that the 2026 theme will offer up a distinct departure from that of 2025’s “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” and its accompanying dress code of “Tailored for You.”
For a look back at how the celebrity attendees interpreted the 2025 theme and dress code, read on.
Rihanna
In custom Marc Jacobs.
A$AP Rocky
In custom Awge, Bvlgari jewelry and Briony Raymond umbrella.
Zendaya
In custom Louis Vuitton.
Serena Williams
In custom Moncler x EE72 by Edward Enninful and Fred Leighton jewelry.
Kim Kardashian
In custom Chrome Hearts.
Halle Berry
In LaQuan Smith.
Sabrina Carpenter
In custom Louis Vuitton.
Colman Domingo
In Valentino with Boucheron jewelry.
Kylie Jenner
In custom Ferragamo.
Cardi B
In Burberry.
Hailey Bieber
In custom Saint Laurent and Tiffany & Co. jewelry.
Cynthia Erivo
In custom Givenchy.
Kendall Jenner
In Torishéju.
Gigi Hadid
In custom Miu Miu.
Sydney Sweeney
In custom Miu Miu.
Zoe Saldaña
In Thom Browne.
Callum Turner & Dua Lipa
In custom Chanel.
Miley Cyrus
In Alaïa.
Shakira
In custom Prabal Gurung.
Nicole Kidman
In custom Balenciaga Couture and Wolford tights.
Chappell Roan
In a custom look sourced by Paul Tazewell.
Megan Thee Stallion
In custom Michael Kors Collection and Stuart Weitzman shoes.
Pamela Anderson
In Tory Burch.
Halle Bailey
In Coach.
Charli XCX
In custom Ann Demeulemeester.
Doja Cat
In custom Marc Jacobs and Wolford tights.
Anne Hathaway
In Carolina Herrera.
Diana Ross
In Ugo Mozie.
Lorde
In Thom Browne.
Demi Moore
In custom Thom Browne.