Met Gala 2026: A Night of Living Masterpieces
The 2026 Met Gala Was Fashion's Most Ambitious Art Show Yet
The Met Gala has always been the "Super Bowl” of fashion, but this year, it felt more like a tour of the world's most coveted art gallery. The 2026 theme, Costume Art, challenged designers to treat the human body as a canvas or a pedestal. We saw everything from 3D-scanned sculptures to hyper-realistic prosthetics, proving that fashion's impact isn't just about what we wear, it's about how we provoke thought and emotion.
Let's discuss my top 10 favorite looks from the night and what artworks they were inspired by:
1. Emma Chamberlain in Mugler
This was my favorite look of the entire evening! A custom masterpiece inspired by Impressionist paintings, resulting in a "living painting" effect. Emma told Vogue that the inspiration came from her father: "My dad is an oil painter and a watercolor painter, and I grew up in a very creative household with art all over my house."
Mugler's creative director Miguel Castro Freitas collaborated with Chicago-based artist Anna Deller-Yee, who hand-painted the design. They paid homage to the expressive works of Vincent van Gogh and Edvard Munch. The dress took artist Deller-Yee 40 hours to paint, using 30 base colors, and four days to dry. The result was a painting draped over the human body and a stunning work of art.
Photo credit: Vogue.com and artstedcom
2. Anok Yai in Balenciaga
I need this look - both the makeup and the gown - to be recorded in the history books. Anok was wearing a custom look by Pierpaolo Piccioli for Balenciaga. Her entire body was painted in bronze makeup and she had handcrafted 3D tears on her face. She looked absolutely stunning.
Her look was inspired by the Mater Dolorosa (Our Lady of Sorrows) - a branch of Marian art portraying the Virgin Mary as vulnerable and in mourning. Anok wore a ruched black silk taffeta Balenciaga gown featuring an architectural hooded collar and matching opera-length gloves.
Her bronze skin was done by makeup artist Sheika Daley to achieve a metal finish, with wax-like tear tracks down her face referencing the weeping iconography of the Mater Dolorosa. Her hair was a hand-sculpted prosthetic wig by Sasha Glasser, shaped to resemble carved bronze waves, inspired by the sculpture Leda and the Swan by Michel Anguier. Anok herself described the concept perfectly, "When I first learned about the Met Gala theme this year, I knew I wanted to blur the line between being human and being art - a bronze statue caught in movement."
Photo credit: Vogue.com
3. Paloma Elsesser in Francesco Risso
I had the chance to watch Paloma’s interview with Ashley and Cara live - and I caught that she mentioned that her gown was pieced together from more than 30 vintage dresses - all sourced from eBay. Paloma Elsesser worked with designer Francesco Risso. Risso hand-painted and embellished the dress himself, designed as a collage of fashion history.
And her ear fully covered in crystals was the beauty moment that sent the internet into a frenzy, and makeup artist Michaela Bosch described the overall vision simply: "Subversive. Sexy. Skin!" This dress was by far one of my favorites and I love the mixture of the different textiles and histories belonging to each one of them combined with different buttons, metal, and crystals. What a beautiful interpretation of the theme!
Photo credit: Taschi Belt and Hedi Stanton
4. La La Anthony in Wiederhoeft
La La Anthony’s look was primarily inspired by the concept of "fashion as fine art”. She wore a Wiederhoeft gown specifically designed to look like a museum-quality piece that could be hung on a wall. And I couldn’t look away. The amount of detail is truly immaculate.
The theatrical construction, dramatic silhouette, and ornate detailing all pointed to the same idea: what if a couture gown wasn't just worn, but displayed? La La wore the concept with the ease of someone who has always known she belongs in the Met - not just on its steps, but inside its galleries.
Photo credit: Vogue.com
5. Ashley Graham in Di Petsa
Ashley Graham wore a custom "wet-look" gown by Greek designer Di Petsa that was inspired by serpent skin and the myth of Medusa. In a remarkable feat of construction, the entire dress was sewn directly onto Ashley Graham's body before she walked the red carpet. This genre of gown is one of my favorites - ethereal, effortless yet detailed, and accentuates the feminine figure.
The look was a take on a design from the Di Petsa Fall/Winter 2026 show, and Graham paired it with Gianvito Rossi pumps, a stack of diamond earrings, and a chrome manicure with silver-dipped fingertips. The Medusa myth runs through Di Petsa's design ethos. The idea of a woman's gaze as power, her body as something both dangerous and beautiful. One of my favorite philosophies in design.
Photo credit: Vogue.com
6. Hoyeon in Louis Vuitton
Hoyeon delivered one of the strongest interpretations of the "Costume Art" theme in a custom black leather look for Louis Vuitton. The cage-structured overskirt, detailed with leather flowers, leaned into the theme by turning construction itself into decoration. The architecture of the garment was the art.
This is exactly the kind of look Nicolas Ghesquière does better than almost anyone else - that signature tension between rigidity and softness, between fashion as wearable object and fashion as sculptural statement. The leather flowers on the skirt are the kind of detail that rewards a second look: something that sounds almost contradictory on paper (flowers, in leather, on a cage) but reads as completely intentional and singular in person. On Hoyeon, a Louis Vuitton ambassador, the look felt less like a costume and more like an extension of her presence.
Photo credit: Vogue.com
7. Bad Bunny in Zara x Mike Marino Prosthetics
Bad Bunny? Where? He appeared on the red carpet in a viral transformation where he appeared as an aged version of himself to represent "The Aging Body." Mike Marino was the makeup artist and mastermind behind the hyper-realistic prosthetics. Bad Bunny also wore a custom-made all-black tuxedo suit that he designed himself, executed in collaboration with Zara.
He accessorized with an oversized bow referencing Charles James's 1947 "Bustle," a piece held in the Costume Institute's collection, as well as a 1995 Cartier watch. His aged appearance was meant to evoke "The Aging Body" section of the Met's current exhibition - described by Zara as "a genuine, considered reflection on what aging looks like and what it means."
Photo credit: Vogue.com
8. Beyoncé in Olivier Rousteing
As a co-chair, she wore a dramatic Balmain (Rousteing) creation featuring a massive, heavy train that dominated the red carpet. She was gone for a decade, and she came back like a force of nature. The "Skeletal Gown" featured a sheer, flesh-toned base layered with crystal embellishments arranged to form a skeletal structure, creating the illusion of bones mapped across her body, aligning with the "Epidermal Body" concept in the exhibition. She completed the look with a spiked diamond crown.
She was accompanied by her eldest daughter Blue Ivy, whose first Met appearance at 14 broke the event's strict age limit. The whole thing was a masterclass in how to make a moment - the look, the family, the timing. I think we can all agree we are thankful for Beyoncé gracing us with a grand and elegant moment at the Met Gala.
Photo credit: Vogue.com and People.com
9. Kendall Jenner in GapStudio by Zac Posen
Kendall’s look was a direct homage to the Winged Victory of Samothrace, a 2nd-century BC Greek sculpture housed in the Louvre. In contrast - The "Gap Tee" Origin: Zac Posen began the creative process by experimenting with a simple white Gap T-shirt, which he manipulated and draped to form the base of the gown.
The Winged Victory of Samothrace is one of the greatest sculptures in human history — a headless, armless goddess of victory whose draped marble robes somehow still communicate motion and power, more than 2,000 years later. This was translated into a floor-length, draped cream gown constructed through asymmetric gathering and ruching that wrapped around the body from a single shoulder strap. The fabric was pulled and knotted at the hip, creating movement and tension through the silhouette, with the skirt drifting into a modest train.The "democratization of fashion" embedded in that origin story made the final result even more interesting.
Photo credit: Vogue.com and www.louvre.fr
10. SZA in Bode
One of the most eco-conscious looks of the evening, and one of the most conceptually fascinating. SZA wore a dramatic look composed of more than 100 yards of vintage fabric sourced from eBay, designed in collaboration with Emily Adams Bode Aujla. Adorned with real crystals, citrine, rose quartz, and natural flowers, the ensemble was inspired by the Wiener Werkstätte - a 20th-century Viennese design collective that sought to bridge the gap between fine art and everyday life by elevating everyday utilitarian objects into high art.
The look included a structured golden corset and a tiered skirt made from layered vintage fabrics, and a butterfly-inspired cape attached at the arms expanded outward when she moved, integrating motion into the design. And the yellow floral headpiece referenced Oxum, the Yoruba goddess of beauty, love, and freshwater. A design inspired by the past but pointing toward the future - proof that the most powerful fashion statements don't always require something new.
Photo credit: Vogue.com and ferrebeekeeper
My Met Gala Takeaways:
Sometimes the Met Gala themes can feel a bit unserious and out of touch. But I genuinely enjoyed the theme and the execution of the designs this year. At its best, fashion has always been a form of devotion: to beauty, to craft, to the idea that what we put on our bodies can carry meaning beyond fabric and thread. The 2026 carpet proved that when designers and their muses are given a theme with real philosophical weight, the results can be genuinely moving. A model becoming a weeping Madonna. A gown that took 40 hours to paint. A superstar aging himself in real time to make a point about mortality. These weren't just outfits, they were arguments.
That's what Darling Devotion has always believed: that beauty with intention is the most powerful kind. This year's "Costume Art" theme is exactly the energy I hope future Met Galas carry forward. When the carpet functions as a gallery, fashion stops being something we consume and starts being something we feel. And if the best art makes you stop, think, and feel something you didn't expect - then this year's red carpet was full of it.
Here's hoping the fashion world takes notes.