Is fashion art? That is the question “Costume Art,” the exhibition opening next week at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, seeks to answer. Curated by Andrew Bolton and running through January 2027, the exhibition will inaugurate the museum’s new gallery spaces with about 400 garments and accessories.
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A design by Michaela Stark in the ‘Costume Art’ fashion exhibition
(Photo: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
The exhibition examines the central role of the clothed body over 5,000 years, placing fashion items alongside works of art from the museum’s vast collections. Through those pairings, it aims to highlight not only the inseparable connection between clothing and the body, but also the complex relationship between how the body is represented in art and fashion as living, wearable art. And nowhere puts that tension on display better than the red carpet.
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A Dolce & Gabbana design in the ‘Costume Art’ fashion exhibition
(Photo: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
The dress code for the gala, held Monday night, was “Fashion is Art,” inviting guests to examine their own relationship with fashion as an art form and celebrate representations of the clothed body throughout art history.
Alongside host Anna Wintour, Condé Nast’s global chief content officer and chair of the museum’s Costume Institute, this year’s co-hosts were no less famous: Nicole Kidman, who arrived in Chanel; Beyoncé, who pulled a dress from Olivier Rousteing’s archive; and tennis star Venus Williams, in a bejeweled Swarovski gown.
The event’s chairs were Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sánchez. Bezos himself skipped the red carpet and went straight inside, likely because of the protest that has grown in New York in recent weeks against the couple, from billboards across the city to Mayor Mamdani’s refusal to attend and a demonstration outside the gala entrance.
For the red carpet, Sánchez chose an elegant, deep-blue, off-the-shoulder evening gown designed by Daniel Roseberry for Schiaparelli. The two met during the most recent haute couture week, when Sánchez attended the fashion house’s show with Wintour. But in an era when America wants to be great again, shouldn’t she have worn an American designer?
Heidi Klum and Bad Bunny nearly unrecognizable
How does one wear “art”? That tricky question, unlike themes such as punk, flowers or religious inspiration, made the Met Gala red carpet messier and less focused than in past years. Some stars tried to maintain an artistic but wearable line, including Cardi B in Marc Jacobs and Emma Chamberlain in Mugler. Others simply threw on a beautiful dress and left the house, including Zoë Kravitz and Kate Moss, both in black lace evening gowns by Saint Laurent.
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Kate Moss wears Saint Laurent
(Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)
Then some took the artistic angle to the extreme, as if they had been invited to a costume party. Although that is often the criticism surrounding the Met Gala, there is a huge difference between dressing theatrically and arriving in a look that renders you unrecognizable.
Heidi Klum belongs to that genre. On Monday night, she appeared on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum dressed as a living marble statue: a sculptural gray stone-toned gown by Mike Marino, complete with a face covering that created the effect of a veiled classical sculpture.
Klum reminded us of the unforgettable scene from “Mean Girls,” when Cady Heron is invited to a Halloween party and arrives in costume, only to discover she is the only one who did, while the other girls chose minimal, sexy outfits.
Joining Klum in an unrecognizable costume was Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny, who arrived with theatrical face makeup that transformed him into an elderly man in a black evening suit, complete with a walking cane. In interviews, he explained it as a tribute to his roots and to the idea of memory and identity, meaning the way fashion can carry history, heritage and figures from the past. Ironically, he did so dressed in Zara.
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Bad Bunny in theatrical makeup that transformed him into an elderly man
(Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
In this context, it is hard not to recall the words of the late designer Yves Saint Laurent in his 2002 farewell speech to the fashion world. "Fashion is not art but to make clothes you have to be an artist," he said emotionally, with his muse Catherine Deneuve by his side. “Every person needs aesthetic visions in order to live. I pursued them, chased them, captured them. I have experienced many forms of depression and went through many forms of hell, yet in many ways I feel I created the wardrobe of the modern woman.”
Who else stood out on the red carpet?
Beyoncé in Olivier Rousteing
The famous singer, a co-host of the event, returned to the Met Gala after a decade, accompanied by members of her family and wearing a dress by Olivier Rousteing, the former creative director of Balmain. The bejeweled skeleton dress was supported by a long feathered train and gave Beyoncé the “honor” she deserves as an iconic figure. It felt slightly excessive and costume-like, but unlike other stars, she carried it convincingly. Her 14-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy, made her Met Gala debut in an ivory strapless gown by Pierpaolo Piccioli for Balenciaga.
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Blue Ivy Carter wears Pierpaolo Piccioli for Balenciaga
(Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
Rihanna in Maison Margiela and A$AP Rocky in Chanel
Rihanna is the kind of star who is not afraid to take risks on the red carpet, even when the final look resembles a rust-removal scrubber. She chose a dress from Maison Margiela’s haute couture collection by Glenn Martens, while A$AP Rocky wore an elegant look by Matthieu Blazy for Chanel, accessorized with spectacular jewelry.
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Rihanna wears Maison Margiela and A$AP Rocky wears Chanel
(Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)
Stevie Nicks in John Galliano for Zara
Iconic singer Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac revealed a first look at a collection by John Galliano for Zara. The dramatic, dark evening gown is unlikely to make it to the fast-fashion chain’s stores, but it certainly gave her an unforgettable look for one night.
Emma Chamberlain in Mugler
Emma Chamberlain was one of the best-dressed stars of the evening. The colorful, feathered gown by creative director Miguel Castro Freitas recalled a historic design from the fashion house: Thierry Mugler’s “La Chimère” dress from the fall-winter 1997-98 haute couture collection, built around mythological hybrid creatures. The collection was shown in Paris in July 1997 and closed with that look, which has since been considered one of the most famous and technically complex creations in Mugler’s career.
Thierry Mugler’s ‘La Chimère’ dress from the fall-winter 1997-98 haute couture collection
Kim Kardashian in Allen Jones and Whitaker Malem
Kim Kardashian was not giving up the corset this time either. She chose a sculptural design by British artist Allen Jones and designer Whitaker Malem, featuring a metallic orange corset that emphasized the lines of the body, paired with a leather skirt open in the front. The design references Jones’ early work “Body Armour” from 1978, originally created for an unproduced film project, and also echoes Jones’ poster for the 1975 film “Maîtresse,” a provocative work centered on the figure of a dominatrix in leather.
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Kim Kardashian wears Allen Jones and Whitaker Malem
(Photo: Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
Nicole Kidman in Chanel
Sometimes all you need is a beautiful evening gown with standout elements. Nicole Kidman played it safe in a red dress decorated with feathers. Her daughter, 17-year-old model Sunday Rose, chose a Dior dress. Together, they created a show of force for Parisian haute couture.
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Nicole Kidman wears Chanel and Sunday Rose Kidman Urban wears Dior
(Photo: Reuters/Daniel Cole)
Madonna in Saint Laurent
Fair enough, Madonna deserves credit. The singer, who is currently in a much-publicized comeback ahead of the release of her new album, went all in, dressed like a shipwreck witch in the middle of the sea. Yes, it was highly theatrical and better suited to an opera or a theater department graduation party, but in the context of the theme, the result was convincing, celebrated fashion and landed her on the evening’s best-dressed list.
SZA in Bode
Indian princess or flowerpot? Musician SZA wore a yellow floral evening gown by Bode that managed to push the evening’s imagination a little further.
Kylie Jenner in Schiaparelli
Kylie Jenner sought to play with the line between dressed and exposed, much like marble sculptures in which a cloak slips sensually down the body. She chose an artistic dress by Daniel Roseberry for Schiaparelli, a fashion house known for its surrealist language.
Kendall Jenner in Gap Studio by Zac Posen
Her sister Kendall Jenner also chose a similar and successful look: a Hellenistic-style dress that “exposed” one breast, signed by the studio of the commercial fashion chain Gap.
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Kendall Jenner wears Gap Studio by Zac Posen
(Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)
Cardi B in Marc Jacobs
The distorted, voluminous gown worn by rapper Cardi B was one of the evening’s best designs. The pairing between her and designer Marc Jacobs produced an interesting critique of the postmodern human body and the people who stretch, enlarge, inflate, reshape and implant additions and fillers into it.
Teyana Taylor in Tom Ford
Actress Teyana Taylor, one of the best-dressed women on the red carpet over the past year, arrived covered in silver fringe by Haider Ackermann for Tom Ford. The movement of the garment, and the way she played with it on the red carpet, made it one of the evening’s freshest looks.
Chase Infiniti in Thom Browne
Actress Chase Infiniti continued Thom Browne’s artistic language, wearing a dress that looked like a play on color along the contours of the human body. Overall, it was a dress that honored the event and did not fall into caricature.
Alex Consani in Gucci
This is everything wrong with Gucci these days. The dress, inspired by Sandro Botticelli’s “Primavera,” looked like just another gown by Givenchy, Chanel or Zuhair Murad, without reflecting the design direction incoming creative director Demna is trying to introduce.
Sabrina Carpenter in Dior
And here is another idea for the next Purim party: the cinema dress. Singer Sabrina Carpenter arrived wrapped in film in a dress created especially for the event by Jonathan Anderson for Dior. According to the fashion house, the look was a tribute to the 1954 film “Sabrina,” starring Audrey Hepburn.
If you got close enough, you could even make out scenes from the film printed on the fabric, including the characters played by Humphrey Bogart and William Holden. Despite the lovely idea, we expected more from Anderson, who over the past year has somewhat lost his way as Dior’s creative director. This dress is a warning sign for him.
First published: 13:08, 05.05.26