Beyonce made her return to the Met Gala red carpet in extravagant fashion.
It was a family affair for the American singer, who marked her first appearance to the lavish event in a decade, walking the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art with her husband, rapper Jay-Z, and their eldest daughter, Blue Ivy.
Beyonce was serving as co-chair for what is often dubbed “the biggest night in fashion”, which takes place on the first Monday in May and serves as the opening of the Costume Institute’s spring exhibition. This year, the theme was Fashion Is Art, with the dress code inviting guests to express “their own relationship to fashion as an embodied art form” and to “celebrate the countless depictions of the dressed body throughout art history”.
Beyonce chose longtime collaborator, designer Olivier Rousteing, for her outfit, which featured a sheer gown with crystal embellishments, giving the illusion of a skeleton – along with a dramatic feathered train and crystal headpiece.
Meanwhile, Blue Ivy wore a white midi dress with a balloon hemline and matching jacket, and Jay-Z donned a black suit with a double-breasted waistcoat and a jacket with a long tail.
Beyonce’s co-chairs at the Met Gala this year included Vogue editor Dame Anna Wintour, Hollywood star Nicole Kidman and tennis champion Venus Williams, with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sanchez Bezos serving as co-chairs and sponsors of the event.
The museum’s spring exhibition, Costume Art, will be on view from May 10.
Here are 11 other eye-catching looks from the night…
1. Rihanna and A$AP Rocky
Barbadian singer Rihanna and her partner, rapper A$AP Rocky, continued their tradition of arriving late to the Met Gala – and they did so in style.
Rihanna wore an intricate silver look from Maison Margiela by Glenn Martens, featuring a heavily embellished corseted bodice, with a skirt made from duchess woven silk. According to Vogue, the handmade gown was woven from recycled metal threads normally used for computer wiring, and the bodice was made from over 115,000 crystal beads, antique jewels and chains.
A$AP Rocky, a Chanel ambassador, wore a custom pink robe from the French fashion house, paired with black trousers and a white cotton shirt.
2. Madonna
The steps leading into the Met Gala are traditionally a place for theatre, and that is exactly what pop star Madonna channelled in her look.
She took inspiration from the work of Surrealist painter Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) and wore a witchy black gown with a dramatic translucent grey train, with six people helping carry it.
Madonna, whose new album, Confessions II, is coming out on July 3, topped off her Saint Laurent ensemble with long black hair and a horn – a direct reference to one of Carrington’s paintings.
3. Kim Kardashian
For her 13th Met Gala, reality star and entrepreneur Kim Kardashian wore a fibreglass breastplate by British pop artist and sculptor Allen Jones, telling Vogue she had always been “big admirer of his work”.
The breastplate was repurposed from a cast Jones originally made in the 1960s and shortened into a bodysuit. Kardashian finished the look with a leather skirt by London-based studio Whitaker Malem, worn with loose blonde hair and nude heels.
4. Nicole Kidman
Co-chair Nicole Kidman was dressed in Chanel for the night, wearing a long-sleeved red sequinned gown from the French fashion house, with feathered accents on the hips and cuffs. Kidman was joined by her daughter, 17-year-old model Sunday Rose Urban, who wore a pink gown with floral embellishments.
5. Sabrina Carpenter
For the Met Gala, Dame Anna Wintour handpicks a group of celebrities for the Met Gala Host Committee – and this year, Espresso singer Sabrina Carpenter was part of that committee.
Carpenter was inspired by film for her outfit, designed by Dior creative director Jonathan Anderson. She channelled Old Hollywood glamour in a halterneck dress with an extreme leg slit, created with filmstrips of Audrey Hepburn’s 1954 movie Sabrina.
She topped off the look with barrel curls and a diamond headpiece, which also featured the title card for the film.
6. Teyana Taylor
After making a name for herself as a fashion powerhouse during awards season, One Battle After Another star Teyana Taylor brought a bit of movement to the Met Gala steps.
Taylor – who was also on the host committee – wore a head-to-toe silver fringed Tom Ford gown, complete with a matching fringed headpiece.
7. Cardi B
Rapper Cardi B is no stranger to making an impact at the Met Gala – back in 2019, she made waves in a red Thom Browne gown with one of the most dramatic trains the event had ever seen.
This year, she wore an unusual Marc Jacobs gown with surrealist proportions. The sheer black lace gown featured coloured pieces of fabric underneath, as well as bulging shoulders and a puffed-up train. The look was reportedly inspired by The Doll by Hans Bellmer, a series of surrealist photographs that feature a distorted female body.
8. Heidi Klum
Heidi Klum is known for her extravagant Halloween costumes, and she brought some of that energy to the Met Gala this year.
The German model transformed herself into a living sculpture, with latex and spandex all over her body giving the illusion of carved stone.
According to WWD, Klum’s look was inspired by Raffaelle Monti’s 1847 sculpture, the Veiled Vestal, which is currently at the Derbyshire stately home, Chatsworth House.
9. Naomi Osaka
Tennis player Naomi Osaka teamed up with Robert Wun for her ensemble – the London-based designer who also created her custom kit for the 2026 Australian Open.
The two-part outfit was revealed as part of a mini performance. Osaka first arrived in an ivory coat with a matching hat and red feathered detailing, which was then taken off to showcase the main look: a red embellished gown studded in Swarovski crystals.
Wun told Vogue: “It totals over 3,280 hours of handiwork and thousands of faceted Swarovski crystals in four shades of red that illustrate the human anatomy, needle by needle, crystal by crystal.”
10. Kylie Jenner
Reality star Kylie Jenner wore a surreal Schiaparelli creation for the Met Gala. The outfit gave the appearance of an undone gown – a nude bodysuit with visible nipples was revealed underneath a cream embellished gown that looked like it was peeling away from Jenner’s body.
She paired the look with statement silver jewellery and freshly bleached brows.
11. Sam Smith
Singer Sam Smith proved black does not have to be boring in an extravagant embellished outfit from American designer Christian Cowan.
Inspired by Russian-born French artist and designer Erte, who is often considered the father of Art Deco, Smith wore a luxurious coat with a fur trim, paired with a Stephen Jones-designed feathered headpiece.
