The Met Gala has long been fashion’s biggest night, where celebrities, designers, and artists come together on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for an evening that celebrates costume, culture, and creativity. Organized annually in support of the Costume Institute, the event is known for one of the world’s most-watched red carpets.
This year’s exhibition, Costume Art, explored the relationship between fashion and the body through art history, while the dress code “Fashion Is Art” encouraged attendees to move beyond traditional couture into the realm of sculptural and architectural design. Celebrities arrived looking like living structures, surreal installations, and wearable monuments.
The references ranged from classical marble sculptures and anatomical forms to architectural corsetry, exaggerated structural silhouettes, molded metallic surfaces, dramatic drapery, and futuristic materials that transformed the red carpet into a gallery of moving
1. Rihanna in Maison Margiela
Rihanna closed the Met Gala carpet in a metallic Maison Margiela Artisanal look by Glenn Martens. Adapted from Look 9 of the house’s Artisanal 2025 collection, the gown drew inspiration from the Gothic architectural silhouettes of Flanders and the Netherlands, particularly the statuesque figures carved into church facades.
The look embraced distressed textures, sculptural drapery, and aged metallic finishes, making the garment feel like a historical artifact. Glenn Martens focused on material transformation and repurposed craftsmanship, turning weathered surfaces into part of the design language itself. Rihanna paired the look with gold Jennifer Behr metal pin curls and statement jewelry from multiple designers, adding further layers of ornamentation to the ensemble’s sculptural presence.
2. Heidi Klum in Veiled Vestal-Inspired Couture
Heidi Klum embraced the sculptural spirit of the 2026 Met Gala with a dramatic look inspired by Veiled Vestal, the iconic 1847 marble sculpture by Italian sculptor Raffaelle Monti. Klum’s ensemble directly translated classical sculpture into wearable form.
The gray body-contouring piece was molded closely to her silhouette and designed to resemble translucent fabric draped across marble. Illusion detailing across the garment created the effect of movement and softness despite the look’s sculptural rigidity. Gray contact lenses, painted hands, facial detailing, and even painted teeth gave Klum the appearance of a living statue. A floral headpiece completed the look, reinforcing the theatrical and mythological quality of the ensemble. Much like Monti’s original sculpture, which became famous for its illusionistic treatment of veiled marble, the Met Gala interpretation explored how material has the power to deceive the eye.
3. Kim Kardashian in Allen Jones and Whitaker Malem
Kim Kardashian approached the 2026 Met Gala wearing a tangerine fiberglass breastplate created in collaboration with British pop artist Allen Jones. Designed for the evening’s “Fashion Is Art” dress code, the piece transformed Kardashian’s body into a sculptural object. Jones actually repurposed a body cast from the late 1960s, bringing one of his archival forms into a contemporary context.
Originally envisioned as a full-length cast, the piece was later shortened into a bodysuit silhouette to allow greater movement on the carpet. The fiberglass breastplate took nearly three weeks to complete and was reportedly painted at an auto body shop, adding an industrial layer to the garment’s making process. To balance the rigid sculptural upper half, Kardashian collaborated with artisans Patrick Whitaker and Keir Malem of Whitaker Malem on a hand-crafted leather skirt finished with vibrant orange brushstrokes painted directly by Jones.
4. Kendall Jenner in Zac Posen
Kendall Jenner brought classical sculpture to the Met Gala carpet in a custom GapStudio look designed by Zac Posen. At first glance, the draped ivory gown appeared minimal and fluid, but once inside the museum, Jenner revealed the look’s defining feature: monumental angel wings printed with the image of the Winged Victory of Samothrace.
The gown itself referenced the “wet drapery” effect associated with the iconic Greek sculpture, using tea-dyed fabric and sculptural draping to create the illusion of fabric clinging to the body in motion. According to Posen, the design began with a simple white T-shirt before evolving through manipulation and draping into a more architectural silhouette inspired by wind, movement, and the sea-worn energy of the original statue. Beneath the flowing outer layer sat a flesh-toned corset based directly on Jenner’s body. The piece was created using a 3D-printed cast of her torso.
5. Beyoncé in Olivier Rousteing
As one of the evening’s co-chairs, Beyoncé made a dramatic return to the Met Gala after nearly a decade away, arriving in sculptural couture that embraced the night’s “Fashion Is Art” theme. She delivered one of the evening’s most conceptually charged appearances, with a look inspired by Visitor by Caroline Durieux.
For the red carpet, Beyoncé wore a body-conscious design by Olivier Rousteing featuring a nude mesh base embellished with a crystal skeletal structure that extended across the body and down to the fingers. The anatomical detailing transformed the gown into something almost X-ray-like, echoing the haunting presence associated with Durieux’s Visitor. Over the dress, she wore an enormous feathered opera coat with an extended train that reportedly required five people to carry. Hairstylist Neal Farinah created flowing textured waves designed to move alongside the dramatic feathered silhouette, adding softness against the rigid crystal framework of the gown.
6. Jordan Roth in Robert Wun
Jordan Roth transformed himself into a living sculpture at the 2026 Met Gala in a custom creation by London-based couturier Robert Wun. The slate gray velvet gown featured a dramatic sculptural figure attached to Roth’s back, turning the look into a moving multi-figure installation inspired by classical sculpture. The look drew direct inspiration from Pygmalion and Galatea (1890) by French artist Jean-Léon Gérôme, a painting that captures the mythological moment a sculpture comes to life. Echoing this transformation, the attached “shadow” figure was designed to appear as though it were emerging from Roth’s own body, creating shifting visuals depending on the angle from which the garment was viewed.
Crafted from flowing stretch velvet with an iridescent sheen, the gown mimicked the soft drapery often seen in carved marble sculptures. The sculptural attachment itself was 3D-printed and connected through a harness structure hidden beneath the garment. After an initial version proved too heavy, the team reconstructed the piece using lighter materials while preserving its monumental effect.
7. Janelle Monáe in Christian Siriano
At the 2026 Met Gala, musician and actor Janelle Monáe arrived in custom couture by Christian Siriano that incorporated technology, performance, and sculptural design into a futuristic wearable installation. The floor-length gown reimagined the haunting beauty of Ophelia by John Everett Millais through a post-apocalyptic lens, transforming Monáe into a living vision of decay, rebirth, and machine-age glamour.
The garment combined live moss, succulents, motherboard fragments, Ethernet cables, and more than 230 electrical wires woven directly into the structure of the dress. Mechanical butterflies and dragonflies animated the look, while over 5,000 black crystals added texture and movement across the surface. Styled by Alexandra Mandelkorn, the ensemble balanced organic growth with industrial circuitry. Monáe also referenced her futuristic alter ego Cindi Mayweather, a recurring figure in her music since 2007’s Metropolis: The Chase Suite. That narrative looked like an additional layer of storytelling; the ensemble functioned as wearable tech art.
8. Kylie Jenner in Schiaparelli
Kylie Jenner arrived at the 2026 Met Gala in a nude sculptural gown by Schiaparelli inspired by the iconic Venus de Milo. Designed around fluid draping and anatomical detailing, the look created the impression that the garment was slipping away from the body in motion, balancing precision with vulnerability.
Celebrity hairstylist Iggy Rosales and makeup artist Ariel Tejada approached hair and makeup as an extension of the garment, studying how the dress moved to shape Jenner’s final appearance. Bleached brows added to the surrealist effect, while sculpted curls and softly brushed-out ends created tension between structure and unraveling. Rosales described the look as “a living sculpture” and said that the dress, hair, and makeup worked together to create a complete character study.
The Met Gala 2026 transformed fashion into living architecture, with sculptural silhouettes, dramatic textures, and artistic forms turning the red carpet into a gallery of moving artworks. More than couture, the looks felt immersive, theatrical, and deeply expressive.
Explore Courses
.jpg "Ondrej Chybik - Rethinking Architecture")
