Met Gala draws Beyoncé, Rihanna, Sabrina Carpenter

The Met Gala was back in its most museum-brained mode on Monday, May 4. Not just celebrity pageantry, not just luxury branding — an actual assignment. The 2026 gala opened The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new “Costume Art” era, and the dress code, “Fashion Is Art,” pushed guests to treat clothing less like trend-chasing and more like interpretation. That changed the red carpet in a noticeable way. Big names like Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Sabrina Carpenter still supplied the star power, but the real story was how many people showed up with references, not just outfits. (metmuseum.org) ### What was the actual assignment? The gala was built around “Costume Art,” The Met’s spring 2026 Costume Institute exhibition. The show opens May 10 and pairs roughly 200 garments and accessories with about 200 paintings, sculptures, and decorative-art objects from across the museum, for nearly 400 objects total. It is also the first Costume Institute show installed in the museum’s new nearly 12,000-square(metmuseum.org)ect extension of the exhibition’s thesis that fashion belongs in dialogue with art history. (metmuseum.org) ### Why did this carpet feel different? Because guests leaned into literal references. Met carpets often split between people who follow the theme and people who just wear something expensive. This time, a lot more attendees seemed to understand the prompt. WWD’s roundup of art-history references ended up reading like a mini exhibition checklist — classical sculpture, symbolist painting, portraiture, Klimt, (metmuseum.org)to. (wwd.com) ### Which looks made that clearest? Lauren Sánchez Bezos wore Schiaparelli with a direct nod to John Singer Sargent’s “Madame X.” Hunter Schafer’s custom Prada look pulled from Gustav Klimt’s “Mäda Primavesi.” Kendall Jenner’s Gap by Zac Posen look referenced the Winged Victory of Samothrace, one of the clearest sculpture callbacks of the night. Madonna’s Saint Laurent look drew on Leonora Ca(wwd.com). That is why the carpet felt more legible than usual. (wwd.com) ### Where did Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Sabrina fit in? They were the gravitational center. Beyoncé was not just another attendee — she was one of the 2026 co-chairs, alongside Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and Anna Wintour, which gave her appearance extra weight. Sabrina Carpenter arrived with a custom Dior look tied to old-Hollywood glamour and the film “Sabrina,” then changed outfits during t(wwd.com)osing argument for the whole spectacle. (wwd.com) ### Why was Sabrina Carpenter getting so much attention? Because she hit the brief in a way that was easy to read. Her Dior look was framed around old-school movie-star glamour, which let her connect the “Fashion Is Art” dress code to cinema, costume, and image-making without getting lost in abstraction. That made her one of the clearer examples of how to do this theme without dressing like a literal museum prop. (vogue.com) ### Was this just about the carpet? Not really. The gala is still The Met’s biggest annual fundraiser, but this year the institution side was unusually visible. The museum used the night to launch a new gallery space, a new exhibition, and a stronger argument that fashion can sit beside painting and sculpture without apology. The carpet was basically the public trailer for that idea. (metmuseum.org)away? The 2026 Met Gala worked because the stars did not ignore the museum. They played to it. When the biggest names on the carpet are also helping explain the exhibition’s premise, the event stops feeling like a theme party and starts feeling — at least for one night — like fashion’s loudest form of art criticism. (metmuseum.org)