What’s the 2026 Met Gala theme? NYC's biggest fashion night promises transformative take on fashion and art

The 2026 Met Gala is themed Costume Art. Vogue, convener of the event, made this known on November 17, 2025, via a press release. The 2026 exhibition coincides with the unveiling of the 12,000-square-foot Condé Nast galleries, directly opposite the venue where fashion’s biggest night is to take place.

Andrew Bolton, curator in charge of the Met Gala, described the upcoming exhibition as monumental:

"It’s a huge moment for the Costume Institute. It will be transformative for our department, but I also think it’s going to be transformative to fashion more generally—the fact that an art museum like The Met is actually giving a central location to fashion.”

Bolton revealed that the accompanying exhibition for the event, termed “the centrality of the dressed body in the museum’s vast collection, is a marriage of 5000 years of art in the Met Museum with garments from the Costume Institute."

More details on the Met Gala 2026

The Met Gala curator revealed in a press statement that the exhibition is based on thematic body types, which include bodies omnipresent in art, such as the classical and nude body,  as well as bodies that are often overlooked, including aging and pregnant bodies, and the universal body, encompassing the anatomical and classical nude body.

Bolton emphasized that his exhibition focuses on a broader view of the corporeal, as opposed to the rail-thin models and narrow sizes prevalent in the fashion industry.

 “The idea was to put the body back into discussions about art and fashion, and to embrace the body, not to take it away as a way of elevating fashion to an art form,” he explains.

Samar Hejazi will make mirrored heads for the display mannequins. Bolton says this will bridge the gap between the viewer and the mannequin, providing an opportunity for the viewer to reflect on their lived experiences. 

Miriam Peterson and Nathan Rich of Peterson Rich Office designed the exhibition. The Met Gala 2026 is scheduled to be held on May 4, 2026. The exhibition will be open to the public from May 10, 2026, to January 10, 2027.

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