Stars including Nicole Kidman, Cara Delevingne and Ashley Graham were among the first to arrive at the Met Gala, one of fashion’s biggest nights of the year.
British model and actress Delevingne posed for photographs in a figure-hugging dark-coloured dress with sheer details over her shoulders and back, and a long train that trailed behind her.
Kidman, who is co-chairing this year’s event and was attending with her daughter, Sunday Rose, wore a red sequin gown with a red feather detail around her waist.
Sunday Rose wore a fun, pink textured dress with purple flower details, while American model Graham posed in a beige-coloured flowing gown.
The event on Monday evening is due to be attended by stars from across music, film, TV and fashion, who will interpret its 2026 theme Fashion is Art.
The annual gala raises money for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and celebrates the opening of the Costume Institute’s spring exhibition at the New York museum.
Along with Kidman, the fashion fundraiser is co-chaired by former Vogue editor Dame Anna Wintour, best-selling artist Beyonce, and tennis champion Venus Williams.
It will mark Beyonce’s first appearance at the gala in a decade. She last stepped on to the carpet in 2016 for Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology theme.
Each year, Dame Anna also handpicks a group of celebrities to help launch the museum’s latest exhibition as part of the Met Gala Host Committee, with Yves Saint Laurent creative director Anthony Vaccarello and actress Zoe Kravitz chosen as this year’s co-chairs of the committee.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sanchez Bezos are also co-chairs of the Met Gala and sponsors of the event.
Other members include popstar Sabrina Carpenter, US rapper Doja Cat and One Battle After Another star Teyana Taylor.
A spokesman previously said the dress code invited 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”.
The Met Gala was first held in 1948 and has transformed from a society dinner into one of the biggest cultural events in the world, with some stars showing just how far fashion boundaries can be pushed.
