Each year, The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds its annual spring Costume Institute exhibition, a blockbuster fashion display which draws on the 33,000 items of clothing, accessories and ephemera in its collection, alongside external loans depending on its theme. Recent iterations have included Superfine: Tailoring Black Style (2025), Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion (2024) and Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty (2023), with memorable past exhibitions including Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination (held in 2018, over 1.6 million people visited), Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology (2016) and Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (2011).
Though the annual exhibition remains best-known for its opening act: the Met Gala, the Costume Institute’s fundraising dinner, which takes place in the week prior to its opening. And, while cameras are not allowed inside, the star-studded red carpet is one of the most-watched (and scrutinised) of the year – so much so, it is often deemed ‘the Oscars of fashion’. In anticipation of the 2026 edition – which takes place next month – here’s everything Wallpaper* knows so far about this year’s event, from dress code to co-chairs, and the accompanying exhibition, ‘Costume Art’.
The date: Monday 4 May, 2026
Traditionally, the Met Gala takes place on the first Monday of May, which this year falls Monday 4 May, 2026. It precedes the accompanying exhibition, ‘Costume Art’, which opens on May 10, 2026, with the Met Gala guest list getting a preview (the spring exhibition is also unveiled to the press the morning prior to the event). It is currently slated to run until 10 January 2027, though some previous exhibitions have been extended due to demand – like Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology, which attracted over 750,000 visitors over its run.
The exhibition: ‘Costume Art’
In November of last year, The Met revealed the theme of this year’s Costume Institute spring show, ‘Costume Art’, a century-spanning exploration of the interplay between the body and clothing which will comprise not only contemporary and historical fashion, but art, sculpture and antiquity from The Met’s expansive permanent collection (there are around 1.5 million objects spread across 17 departments). Andrew Bolton, curator of the Met’s Costume Institute, said that one thing that unites many of these objects, which date back 5,000 years, is the idea of the ‘dressed body’ – whether objects for adornment or protection, or depictions of fabric and clothing in portraiture.
‘“Costume Art” is a celebration of the body in all of its strengths and weaknesses; its resiliencies and continuities,’ he said at the time. ‘Its perfections, its imperfections, its idiosyncrasies and commonalities; and, above all, its sublime beauty, its wondrous complexity and its glorious and miraculous diversity.’ Bolton also revealed the show’s structure: ‘chapters’ will include ‘The Naked Body’, ‘The Abstract Body’, ‘The Ageing Body’ and ‘The Pregnant Body, among others, with Bolton hoping that the era-traversing displays will spark new conversations and revelations. Some of the fashion so far slated to be on display includes garments by Rei Kawakubo, Riccardo Tisci, Walter Van Beirendonck, Mariano Fortuny and Charles James.
‘Costume Art’ will also herald the opening of the Costume Institute’s new home, an expansive space adjacent to The Met’s Great Hall (as such, it is in a much more prominent position in the museum). The 12,000 sq ft gallery is designed by Brooklyn-based architecture firm Paterson Rich Office and will be named after Condé Montrose Nast, the founder of the American publishing house, which will also serve as the renovation’s lead sponsor. ‘We are expanding our long-standing commitment to collecting and presenting fashion within the context of our vast global collection,’ said Max Hollein, The Met’s director and CEO.
READ: The Met reveals its 2026 Costume Institute show along with another major milestone
The exhibition’s poster
The dress code: ‘Fashion is Art’
The dress code of the Met Gala is dictated by the exhibition on show in a given year; this year, organisers have chosen ‘Fashion is Art’, which relates to the thematic thread which runs through ‘Costume Art’. As such, guests are encouraged to wear garments that could be considered ‘art’, feature depictions of art or were made in collaboration between a fashion designer and an artist (expect other more esoteric plays on the theme, too). We’re expecting plenty of archival pieces on the runway, from Moschino’s bold, Picasso-inspired S/S 2020 collection, to Phoebe Philo’s body-imprinted dress for Celine, a reference to Yves Klein’s ‘human brush’ Anthropométries series (1960 onwards).
The co-chairs: Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams and Anna Wintour
Each year, Anna Wintour, the global editorial director of Vogue and the chief content officer of Condé Nast, selects a handful of co-chairs to lead the gala (proceeds go towards the Costume Institute and its activities). This year it is a particularly A-list affair, with Wintour drafting Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams and Beyoncé to co-chair the event, with the latter attending the event for the first time in a decade (she last walked the carpet in 2016 wearing a nude latex haute couture gown by Riccardo Tisci, who was then creative director of Givenchy).
They are joined by the 2026 Met Gala Host Committee, led by Anthony Vaccarello and Zoë Kravitz (Saint Laurent is the main fashion sponsor of the event; Vaccarello is creative director and Kravitz one of his muses), comprises Sabrina Carpenter, Doja Cat, Gwendoline Christie, Teyana Taylor, Alex Consani, Misty Copeland, Elizabeth Debicki, Paloma Elsesser, Lena Dunham and Yseult, among others. A little more controversial is the involvement of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos, who are the Met Gala’s main sponsor, a decision which has faced some criticism in the run up to the event.
Where can I watch the Met Gala?
The Met Gala itself is held behind closed doors – even phones are not allowed at the event, something flouted only for the infamous bathroom selfies. That said, the red carpet is officially livestreamed on Vogue’s website and on the magazine’s YouTube channel.