Met Gala-Goers Pick Classic Looks in 2026’s Fashion Feast

I first wrote about the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual Costume Institute fundraising gala in 2024 after a friend said it was “very liberal of me” to consider fashion — the clothes we wear — as art. I’m neither liberal nor conservative but serenely commonsensical in all things. There’s good and bad art and every gradation in between, but of course fashion is art. It’s human expression, conceptual and designed. At its tippity top, it’s crafted via the medium’s highest standards and meant to be seen. The human body is the canvas, and this canvas moves, not like the air moves a Calder stabile but through human muscle and will. It’s got to be the most immediate art since it responds to the times so fast. Materials are often sublime and edgy, gold or silver thread, rare fabrics, and unorthodox materials. At the 2024 gala, one celebrity wore a sand dress.

This year, the gala theme is wide open. It’s “Fashion as Art,” complementing the Costume Institute’s annual blockbuster exhibition, which this year is called Costume Art, pairing art from the Met with objects from the Costume Institute. On Monday, I was glued to Vogue’s channel as it filmed more than 300 guests walking the red carpet that leads up the Met’s front steps. Women often had to be sewn or molded into their dresses. A trip to the powder room? No tinkle till ten is the rule for most.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

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I first wrote about the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual Costume Institute fundraising gala in 2024 after a friend said it was “very liberal of me” to consider fashion — the clothes we wear — as art. I’m neither liberal nor conservative but serenely commonsensical in all things. There’s good and bad art and every gradation in between, but of course fashion is art. It’s human expression, conceptual and designed. At its tippity top, it’s crafted via the medium’s highest standards and meant to be seen. The human body is the canvas, and this canvas moves, not like the air moves a Calder stabile but through human muscle and will. It’s got to be the most immediate art since it responds to the times so fast. Materials are often sublime and edgy, gold or silver thread, rare fabrics, and unorthodox materials. At the 2024 gala, one celebrity wore a sand dress.

This year, the gala theme is wide open. It’s “Fashion as Art,” complementing the Costume Institute’s annual blockbuster exhibition, which this year is called Costume Art, pairing art from the Met with objects from the Costume Institute. On Monday, I was glued to Vogue’s channel as it filmed more than 300 guests walking the red carpet that leads up the Met’s front steps. Women often had to be sewn or molded into their dresses. A trip to the powder room? No tinkle till ten is the rule for most.