If there’s one place to see fashion’s lasting influence, it’s in art. At the Met Gala 2026, that connection came to life as guests stepped onto the red carpet in looks inspired by iconic pieces of art. Marking the Costume Institute’s exhibition Costume Art, this year’s theme Fashion is Art paid tribute to centuries of painting and sculpture, on and off the canvas.
Bringing together around 400 works from across the Met’s encyclopaedic holdings, Costume Art marks the opening of the museum’s nearly 12,000-square-foot Condé M. Nast Galleries, designed by Peterson Rich Office. Curated by Andrew Bolton, the exhibition centres on the idea that representations of the dressed body form a common thread linking visual art across different eras and geographies. To explore this, the show is arranged around recurring body archetypes found throughout the collection, including the “Classical Body,” the “Naked Body” and the “Ageing Body.”
At the Met Gala 2026, stars turned to art history for inspiration, reinterpreting iconic paintings through fashion. SZA channelled Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss, and Janelle Monáe evoked the dreamlike melancholy of Ophelia by John Everett Millais through sweeping moss and butterfly details. Meanwhile, Isha Ambani wore a couture sari covered in 1,800 carats of diamonds and gemstones, and Hailey Bieber drew on ancient Sparta, bringing classical references into a contemporary red-carpet moment.
