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Evening Standard

Entertainment

Ekin Karasin

Met Gala 2026: Everything we know - celebrity guests, theme and strict rules

Met Gala (Organization) Anna Wintour Billie Eilish Lewis Hamilton Venus Williams

The first Monday of May always signals the return of the Met Gala, meaning the most illustrious stars from the worlds of music, fashion, film, and sports will descend on the iconic Met steps in just a few days’ time.

Last year, the biggest date in the fashion calendar saw celebrities mark the new Superfine: Tailoring Black Style exhibit with their best dandy-inspired outfits at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Read on to find out this year’s theme, all the hottest names that will be attending and the strict rules the famous faces must follow.

Madonna at the 2025 Met Gala (PA Archive)

This year’s theme

The Met Gala 2026 theme is “Costume Art” and is inspired by “the centrality of the dressed body in the museum’s vast collection”, according to curator Andrew Bolton.

The upcoming exhibition will mark the inauguration of nearly 12,000 square feet of the Condé M. Nast Galleries, a permanent space located adjacent to The Met's Great Hall.

The collection will feature "paintings, sculptures, and other objects spanning the 5,000 years of art represented in The Met, alongside historical and contemporary garments from the Costume Institute”.

Meanwhile, the dress code is simply “Fashion is art.”

It invites “guests to express their own relationship to fashion as an embodied art form and celebrate the countless depictions of the dressed body throughout art history”.

The rules

The event is invite-only, meaning if you’re not on the guest list you’re simply not getting in.

A list of hundreds of potential guests is reportedly compiled, with Condé Nast’s global chief content officer and artist director Anna Wintour painstakingly whittling the list down to around 400 attendees.

In 2018, Wintour made the event only for people over the age of 18. Organisers confirmed “it’s not an appropriate event for people under 18”.

Guests must pay for a ticket to fashion’s most fabulous party - or someone has to pay for them to attend. Celebrities are often hosted and dressed by brands or designers who have purchased tables.

Last year, one ticket is believed to have cost £55,000, while a table could set you back £250,000.

The event is strictly no phones allowed, although some celebrities have broken that rule in the past to share selfies and videos from inside the reception.

Megan Thee Stallion at the 2025 Met Gala (PA Archive)

Attendees must also adhere to the strict seating chart, no matter if spouses or friends are involved.

“We really try to think very carefully about who’s sitting next to each other,” Eaddy Kiernan, who worked on the seating chart in 2024, told British Vogue.

“Our ideal pairing would maybe be two people who we think will just get on like a house on fire, but who may not even realise that they have a lot in common. So with each person, we really do take time to think, ‘What will they talk about?’”

As for the menu, certain things are off the table - including parsley, onion, garlic, and chives.

Wintour previously explained: “Well, those are three things I’m not particularly fond of.”

The event is also strictly no smoking as the Met is a public building - although certain stars have been pictured lighting up in the bathrooms in the past.

Who’s attending?

Fashion’s most fabulous party usually hosts about 450 guests, although the official guest list is kept a secret.

There are a few confirmed names, however, including this year’s co-chairs Anna Wintour, Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman and Venus Williams.

The Met Gala also has a host committee, all of whom are expected to walk the red carpet.

They comprise Aimee Mullins A’ja Wilson, Chase Sui Wonders, Gwendoline Christie, Doja Cat, Alex Consani, Amy Sherald, Angela Bassett, Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sánchez, Anna Weyant, Teyana Taylor, Anthony Vaccarello. Chloe Malle.

Anna Wintour with last year’s co-chairs Colman Domingo and Lewis Hamilton (Getty)

Completing the line-up is Elizabeth Debicki, Lauren Wasser, Sabrina Carpenter, Zoë Kravitz, Lena Dunham, Misty Copeland, LISA, Paloma Elsesser, Rebecca Hall, Sam Smith, Sinéad Burke, Tschabalala Self and Yseult.

Other guests expected to attend including the red carpet correspondents and livestream hosts, which include Emma Chamberlain, Cara Delevingne, Ashley Graham and La La Anthony.

As for the other celebrities, if we’re banking on online speculation and previous events, it seems likely we will see the following stars on the red carpet: