When the Met Gala announced its dress code for 2026, fashion experts collectively furrowed their brows. “Fashion is Art” might be the Costume Institute’s most on-the-nose theme yet. Does it mean that Lady Gaga will arrive on the red carpet wearing a giant picture frame? Or will stylists interpret the line in the press release that alludes to the “centrality of the dressed body” and give us dozens of naked dresses?
The dress code for this year’s event – taking place May 4 – is inspired by “Costume Art,” the name of the Costume Institute’s Spring exhibition that explores depictions of the dressed body through a series of thematic body types: “the naked body,” “classic body,” “pregnant body” and “ageing body.” Guests are encouraged to think of their bodies as a blank canvas.
