Key Highlights

• Event Overview: The 2026 Met Gala showcased the theme “Costume Art.”
• Celebrity Participation: Stars like Sabrina Carpenter and Rihanna embraced the “Fashion Is Art” dress code.
• Curatorial Insight: Curator Andrew Bolton emphasized the significance of the dressed body in art and fashion.
• Cultural Reflection: The exhibit aims to integrate discussions of the body within the realms of art and fashion.

Fashion’s biggest night came and went in style.

The 2026 Met Gala, which had a theme of “Costume Art,” celebrated the historic partnership between the two branches of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Costume Institute on May 4. (Click here to see all the celebrity fashion.)

And Sabrina Carpenter and Rihanna were among the stars who understood the assignment with their interpretations of the “Fashion Is Art” dress code. As they stepped out at the New York City landmark, they were sure to don ensembles that paid homage to this year’s annual exhibit of the same name, which curator Andrew Bolton described as a tribute to “the dressed body.”

“The dressed body is front and center in every gallery you come across. Even the nude is never naked,” he told Vogue in November. “It’s always inscribed with cultural values and ideas.”

Bolton continued, “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.”