The 2026 Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Gala has delivered, as per usual, the who’s who of Hollywood, decked out to the nines.
This year’s dress code was “Fashion is Art”, linked to the Met’s new Costume Art exhibition, open to the public from May 10.
The theme invites us to focus on the human silhouette as a kind of canvas – pushing beyond haute couture into the domain of wearable art. Here’s our pick of ten attendees who we think nailed the brief.
Read more: The 2026 Met Gala dress code is ‘Fashion is Art’. But is it?
1. Heidi Klum
Model Heidi Klum wowed spectators as she made her way up the famous Met stairs. Her outfit was inspired by Italian sculptor Raffaele Monti’s (1818–81) iconic Veiled Vestal statue, replicated in latex and foam to give Klum a stony look.
Marble statues with draped fabrics gained popularity in the 1700s, with many giving the illusion of translucence through careful composition.
Klum is well-known for pushing the envelope and embracing complete bodily transformations during themed events.
2. Luke Evans
Actor Luke Evans brought up the temperature up with an iconic head-to-toe leather outfit designed by Palomo Spain and inspired by Finnish drawing artist Touko Valio Laaksonen (1920–91), known by his pseudonym “Tom of Finland”.
Laaksonen developed a series of artworks depicting homoerotic fantasies which have become part of wider queer culture symbolism. He pioneered a recognisable gay aesthetic embraced by the likes of Freddie Mercury, and which pushed the boundaries of queer representation globally.
3. Ben Platt
Singer and actor Ben Platt wore a custom hand-painted and embroidered Tanner Fletcher suit inspired by the work of French post-Impressionist artist Georges Seurat (1859–91).
Specifically, his suit jacket references Seurat’s 1884 painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. This painting was also the inspiration behind Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway musical A Sunday in the Park with George.
Seurat was known for his incredibly small paint strokes, which inspired the term “pointillism”.
4. Dree Hemingway
Wearing a look shown on Alessandro Michele’s Valentino Spring Summer 2026 Couture runway, along with draped lab-grown diamond jewels by Pandora, actor Dree Hemingway embraced an oversized and fluid interpretation of an Elizabethan collar decorated in gold.
5. Miles Chamley-Watson
American fencer Miles Chamley-Watson embraced this year’s theme by turning himself into a Cubist artwork, walking down the Met carpet in an abstract painted suit and fencing kit.
Cubism is an abstract art movement popularised in the early 20th century by artists such as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. It depicts figures, objects and scenes through radical fragmentation.
6. Kendall Jenner
Media personality Kendall Jenner wore a GapStudio by Zac Posen dress reminiscent of the Winged Victory of Samothrace. This 2nd century Greek statue of the goddess of victory sits proudly the top of the Daru staircase in the Louvre.
With a digitally-scanned leather corset and breast plate that hides yet celebrates the nipple, it is yet another example of marble reinterpreted through textile. Discussing the look, Posen explained how he stretched, twisted and reinterpreted a white Gap t-shirt to bridge the gap between accessible fashion and costume.
7. Hunter Schafer
Euphoria actor and transgender rights activist Hunter Schafer’s custom empire-waist Prada look was directly inspired by Gustav Klimt’s (1862–1918) seven-foot painting Mäda Primavesi.
This portrait is part of the Met’s permanent collection. It depicts 9-year-old Mäda, the daughter of Otto and Eugenia Primavesi, two patrons of Austrian art.
8. Gracie Abrams
Another nod to Klimt came from actor and singer Gracie Abrams. Abrams’ gold Chanel dress was inspired by the Austrian painter’s portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907), popularly referred to as the Woman in Gold.
The look was an embodied representation of the painting, which itself has had a tumultuous history. It was once stolen by the Nazis (as recounted in the 2015 movie Woman in Gold).
9. Anne Hathaway
Actor Anne Hathaway’s ball gown by Michael Kors Collection was hand-painted by artist Peter McGough and inspired by John Yeats‘ 1819 poem Ode on a Grecian Urn. A large, instantly recognisable figure reminiscent of a Greek goddess turns Hathaway into an object of art herself.
10. Naomi Watts
Actor Naomi Watts graced the red carpet in a floral, strapless, floor-length Dior gown inspired by the still life paintings of Dutch artist Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750). Most notable here was Watts’ manicure by nail artist Iram Shelton, who spent five hours installing 30 hand-sculpted 3D flowers.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
