It's back, y'all! The 2026 Met Gala is upon us at last and promises to be a night filled with fashion and celebrity bathroom selfies (they're just like us).
Widely referred to as fashion's biggest night, the Met Gala is an annual fundraiser event for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. Every year, fashion enthusiasts from around the world tune in to see celebrities, artists, and fashion insiders arrive at the prestigious dinner, gracing the iconic stairs of the Met Museum, donning some of the most coveted sartorial creations, each year inspired by and honouring the exhibition's theme.
The countdown is on for the most major red carpet of the year…
On November 17, 2025, Vogue and the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced the theme of the 2026 exhibition, which will serve as the guiding thread for the Met Gala, marking the beginning of the countdown to May.
On February 23, 2026, they announced the dress code and even more juicy details.
Below, find out everything you need to know about the Met Gala 2026. Continue reading for the full details, or skip to your preferred section using the menu below.
What is the Met Gala 2026 theme?
Last year, Vogue announced the Met Gala 2026 theme is “Costume Art.” According to curator Andrew Bolton, the 2026 Met Gala theme is inspired by “the centrality of the dressed body in the museum’s vast collection."
The 2026 exhibition will mark the inauguration of nearly 12,000 square feet of the Condé M. Nast Galleries, a fashion-first permanent space located adjacent to The Met's Great Hall. The collection will feature "paintings, sculptures, and other objects spanning the 5,000 years of art represented in The Met, alongside historical and contemporary garments from the Costume Institute.”
“What connects every curatorial department and what connects every single gallery in the museum is fashion, or the dressed body,” 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.”
What's new about the 2026 Met Gala theme? Well, it's Bolton's first theme ever without a subtitle. Although the theme originally had a secondary part to complement the main title, Bolton and his team ultimately decided to remove it. Will removing the extra added context result in more original and outlandish looks? That remains to be seen.
For Bolton, it was about simplifying the message: "We took it out and it was like taking off a corset,” he said. “I thought, this is exactly what it should be. It’s bold, it’s strong, it’s a statement of intent. [The goal] is not to create a new hierarchy. It’s just to disband that hierarchy and to focus on equivalency — equivalency of artworks and equivalency of bodies.”
What is the Met Gala 2026 dress code?
While the theme is “Costume Art,” there is always a separate dress code to guide the incredible fashion we can expect to witness at the Met Gala. This year’s Met Gala dress code is “Fashion Is Art.”
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For reference, the 2025 Met Gala theme was “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” while the dress code was “Tailored for You.”
What does the Met Gala theme and dress code mean?
The dress code is intentionally open-ended, encouraging guests to treat clothing as a form of artistic expression and use the body as a canvas. Tied to the exhibition’s focus on the “dressed body,” the theme invites designers and celebrities to explore how fashion interacts with form, rather than simply recreating famous artworks.
Judging from the first red carpet looks, many are leaning into the art side of things by replicating famous paintings. We’re seeing several Madame X references and Lena Dunham in Artemisia Gentileschi’s Judith Slaying Holofernes. We’re also seeing a strong machinery theme, with Nichapat Suphap’s animatronics-inspired look.
Who are the co-chairs of the Met Gala 2026?
The co-chairs for the 2026 Met Gala are Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams and Anna Wintour.
Last year, Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, A$AP Rocky, Pharrell Williams and Anna Wintour served as co-chairs of the 2025 Met Gala, alongside honorary chair LeBron James.
As this year’s lead sponsors of both the gala and the exhibition, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos will also serve as honorary chairs.
Who isn't attending the Met Gala 2026?
The Met Gala guest list is always top secret until the night of, so we're only discovering the non-attendees now. Here's everyone who didn't attend the Met Gala 2026.
Some celebs have been blacklisted from the annual New York event.
Who is hosting the Met Gala 2026 red carpet?
This year, there's an eclectic mix of hosting talent, which includes Ashley Graham, La La Anthony and Cara Delevingne. The trio is introducing viewers to the stars as they take the red carpet, with red carpet correspondent Emma Chamberlain asking the celebrities about their looks.
A version of this article was first published on Teen Vogue.
