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With the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute’s exhibit theme of “Costume Art” and a dress code for the night of “Fashion is Art,” the 2026 red carpet invited celebrities to reflect the exhibition’s exploration of the relationship between garments and art across 5,000 years.
Despite the controversy surrounding the event’s billionaire backing, the red carpet still delivered a night of fashion theatre. From classical sculpture — particularly Hellenistic and Roman ideals of the body — to direct references of iconic artworks, attendees treated the carpet like a gallery, pulling from centuries of visual culture.
To see Emma Chamberlain evoking both Vincent van Gogh and Edvard Munch, Sabrina Carpenter in a dress sculpted in part from film strips from the 1954 Audrey Hepburn movie Sabrina, Blackpink’s Lisa in a surreal look inspired by traditional Thai dance and more must-see fashion looks from the red carpet, as chosen by our fashion contributor Truc Nguyen, click here.
These are some of the people and designs that really embodied the artistic themes of the night.
Heidi Klum as the Veiled Vestal
Heidi Klum in a full-body illusion look inspired by The Veiled Vestal by Raffaelle Monti, created by prosthetic makeup designer Mike Marino.
Beyoncé’s anatomical study
Beyoncé in a crystalline skeleton gown and a feathered opera coat with a sweeping train, by Olivier Rousteing.
Madonna as The Temptation of St. Anthony
Madonna in a custom Saint Laurent look inspired by The Temptation of St. Anthony, Fragment II by surrealist painter Leonora Carrington, accompanied by six ladies in waiting.
Kendall Jenner as Winged Victory
Kendall Jenner in Zac Posen, inspired by the second-century Greek statue Winged Victory of Samothrace, which sits atop the Daru staircase at the Louvre museum.
Hailey Bieber in an homage to 1969 YSL
Hailey Bieber in custom Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello, inspired by a 1969 collaboration between Yves Saint Laurent and sculptor Claude Lalanne.
Bad Bunny as the aging body
Bad Bunny in a transformative prosthetic look inspired by “The Aging Body,” one of the forms explored in the Costume Institute exhibition, with effects by Mike Marino.
Chase Infiniti as the Venus de Milo
Chase Infiniti in a beaded trompe l’oeil dress by Thom Browne inspired by the Venus de Milo.
Luke Evans as a Tom of Finland figure
Luke Evans in Palomo Spain, inspired by the sensual, graphic masculine figures in the work of illustrator Tom of Finland.
Audrey Nuna in abstract expressionism
Audrey Nuna in Robert Wun, inspired by Jackson Pollock’s 1948 abstract expressionist work Number 26A, Black and White, executed in jet-black Swarovski crystal beads.
Angela Bassett as the Girl in a Pink Dress
Angela Bassett in Prabal Gurung, inspired by the 1927 painting Girl in a Pink Dress by Laura Wheeler Waring, currently on display at the Met.
Rachel Zegler as Lady Jane Grey
Rachel Zegler also in Prabal Gurung, inspired by the 1833 painting The Execution of Lady Jane Grey by Paul Delaroche, complete with a sheer blindfold.
Cardi B as The Doll
Cardi B in Marc Jacobs, inspired by the surrealist doll works of Polish artist Hans Bellmer, created between 1933 and 1936 — which also inspired Jacobs’ fall 2025 collection.
Hunter Schafer as Gustav Klimt’s Mäda Primavesi
Hunter Schafer in Prada, inspired by Gustav Klimt’s Mäda Primavesi, painted in 1912–13 and part of the Met’s permanent collection.
Anok Yai as the Black Madonna
Anok Yai in Balenciaga by Pierpaolo Piccioli, inspired by the Black Madonna, a religious icon found in Catholic churches across Europe.
