Key Insights
- Event Highlight: The 2026 Met Gala showcased the intersection of fashion and art.
- Dress Code: The theme “Fashion is Art” encouraged creative interpretations from attendees.
- Notable Fashion: Emma Chamberlain wore a custom Mugler dress inspired by Vincent van Gogh.
- Transformation: Heidi Klum embodied Raffaelle Monti’s “Veiled Vestal” sculpture with makeup artistry.
The art of fashion was on full display at the 2026 Met Gala.
Ahead of Anna Wintour’s annual benefit for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, the museum announced the “Costume Art” exhibit would feature a “Fashion is Art” dress code where celebrities and their stylists could view the body as a blank canvas.
And while some stars opted for more classic formal wear, others really understood the assignment.
Take, for example, Emma Chamberlain’s custom Mugler dress. The colorful look, inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s painting “Garden at Arles” and featuring long fringe sleeves, took artist Anna Deller Yee 40 hours to hand paint and took four days to dry.
“There is sort of this watercolor feel, and I love watercolor painting,” Emma told Vogue in an interview published May 5. “But then also there’s a creepy, sort of ominous undertone to the gown, like the way that it moves. And that is very much my taste in art.”
For her part, Heidi Klum stole the show after tapping makeup artist Mike Marino—her longtime collaborator for many of her viral Halloween costumes—to transform her into a real-life version of Raffaelle Monti’s “Veiled Vestal” sculpture.
