It's May and you know what that means — yup, the 2026 Met Gala is here. In just a few hours, we’ll finally get to see how famous people interpret a Fashion Is Art dress code to varying degrees of success.
More than any other red-carpet event, this is a night that encourages creative risk-taking and stepping outside a fashion comfort zone. Those who play it safe rarely end up on the best-dressed lists, but those who step too far out of the box can end up slated, too — which is exactly what makes the evening so fun for us spectators watching at home.
So, what is this year’s 2026 Met Gala theme? And how can you watch? Who is going to be there? Keep reading below for all the juicy ins-and-outs.
Some celebs have been blacklisted from the annual New York event.
When is the 2026 Met Gala?
Known as the Oscars of fashion, the Met Gala is the annual fundraising event for The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. Every year, the evening takes place on the first Monday in May, which means this year’s Met Gala will happen tonight – on Monday, May 4.
The gala is a fundraiser dedicated to New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute – formally named The Anna Wintour Costume Center, in homage to the American Vogue's former editor-in-chief, who has been a chair member of the museum's gala since 1995.
What is the Met Gala 2026 theme?
This year’s Met Gala 2026 theme is “Costume Art,” which is inspired by “the centrality of the dressed body.” Quite an abstract idea, which has led to lots of curiosity about how entertainment's biggest stars will interpret the theme.
“What connects every curatorial department and what connects every single gallery in the museum is fashion, or the dressed body,” curator Andrew Bolton told Vogue. “It’s the common thread throughout the whole museum, which is really what the initial idea for the exhibition was, this epiphany: I know that we’ve often been seen as the stepchild, but, in fact, the dressed body is front and centre in every gallery you come across. Even the nude is never naked. It’s always inscribed with cultural values and ideas.”
As always, the red carpet looks will be accompanied with the main event; the exhibition itself inside the venue. This year, it will feature nearly 400 objects — basically a 50/50 split of art pieces and fashion garments — spanning a 5,000-year history. That gives Met Gala attendees a pretty broad remit to explore with their red carpet looks. “The dress code encourages attendees to consider the many ways that designers use the body as their blank canvas,” shares Vogue.
For every Met Gala theme, there is a dress code that attendees are expected to adhere to. This year, the “Costume Art” exhibit’s dress code is Fashion Is Art. Vogue shared a round-up of 56 runway looks sorted by artistic movement that offers a clue into how this dress code might work with the theme.
How to watch the 2026 Met Gala live in the UK
The 2026 Met Gala livestream will be hosted by Vogue and available live across the magazine’s digital platforms as well as on YouTube and TikTok. You can also bookmark the official Vogue livestream page to watch there. The red-carpet livestream will start at 6p.m. ET on Monday, May 4, 2026 – which is 11p.m. here in the UK.
Ashley Graham, La La Anthony, and Cara Delevingne will be hosting the livestream, with Emma Chamberlain acting as Red Carpet Correspondent.
Also of note: Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, and Venus Williams are co-chairing this year’s Met Gala. So you definitely won’t want to miss their red-carpet looks.
A version of this article originally appeared on Glamour.com.
