🌟 The Met Gala debrief 🌟
We actually got our Peeta from The Hunger Games moment.
Hello!
Here it is: your 2026 Met Gala debrief. I am 99% sure you’ll need to click read online to see all the photos!
P.S. I was on BBC News yesterday talking about this! Huge moment for our little newsletter. I’ll be on again today — check Instagram for the clips later <3
Okay let’s go!
On Friday, we talked about the theme being vague. A reminder:
The Met Exhibition theme: Costume Art
The Dress Code for the gala: “Fashion is Art” 😬
The exhibition explores the “dressed body” through three lenses: the omnipresent (classical and nude bodies), the overlooked (aging and pregnant bodies), and the universal (the anatomical body). In short: it’s a study of how clothes interact with the physical form in art history.
The dress code, “Fashion is Art”, seemed wide open. You can call anything art, right? But the best looks either offered a deep, contextual approach — the type of thing you need to look at for a long time and hear about the references and process to understand, or, they were inspired by an existing piece of art, and managed to pull off turning it into a garment.
There were fewer “weird body” approaches than I’d hoped for, but that being said, a lot of the “art” stuff was genuinely great in execution. Let’s take a look…
The conceptual takes
Rihanna came dressed as an aging oyster shell, made by Margiela. It received some criticism for not being “totally new” (read: it featured elements of existing Margiela couture), but I loved how she saw something that resonated with her and built on it. She said the piece is inspired by Barbados, her home, and positioning herself as something weathered and organic ties her to her roots and provides reflection on her journey so far. It’s a win for a look to be a bit weird but also feel deep in this way. And the hair and makeup rocks.
I also like how the silver Margiela put this look in conversation with her 2018 Margiela pope look.
Paloma Elsesser’s dress was made from hundreds of vintage dresses from the 20s, 30s, and 40s, sourced on eBay and upcycled by Francesco Risso (Marni). I love it when people use existing materials to make something new, and I think this piece cleverly connects to both the exhibition and the dress code. Using many scraps of material makes this piece feel textured and historic, but also truly made for Paloma’s body. The result is intimate, unique, and ticks the “piece of art” box so easily.
Bad Bunny picked up on the exhibition’s “overlooked” bodies and aged himself up. This is more about the beauty than the clothing — the suit is custom Zara (like his Super Bowl look) and is designed to look ageless to contrast with him. The execution feels a bit Halloween but we needed someone to make this statement and it’s pleasing to see it on a man known for having a great glow up. He knows none of this lasts forever and that’s good!
Kendall Jenner wore custom Zac Posen for Gap, in a look tied both to the exhibition and the dress code. Some photos don’t do it justice, but seeing it photographed properly with the winged cape you get it. It’s inspired by the Winged Victory of Samothrace, a 190 BC Hellenistic Greek sculpture on display at the top of a staircase in the Louvre. Kendall is a quiet Met Gala slay for me, her recent years have been really strong and very her.
Cardi B brought us one of the weirder looks of the night, playing with shapes, anatomy, and the surreal body. It’s by Marc Jacobs, and is inspired by the work of German artist Hans Bellmer, who worked with dismembered dolls. This gets points for “only at the Met” and “beautiful woman willing to look strange”.
Kim Kardashian tapped British pop artist Allen Jones for a fiberglass breastplate, inspired by one previously seen on Kate Moss. The fact that this theme looks so normal on Kim K really cements the impact of her body and aesthetic on our generation.
The “Fashion is Art” takes
I was really frightened of the museum gift shop core angle. And yet so many of the gowns inspired by paintings were actually great. To give credit where it’s due…
Hunter Schafer in Prada was one of the best of the night. Inspired by Klimt’s Mäda Primavesi, it’s fairly subtle yet so fresh. To make white and muted grey florals stand out on a carpet like this is a huge achievement. Love her!!!
Emma Chamberlain’s Mugler hand-painted dress is inspired by the brushstrokes of Munch and Van Gogh, but also her Dad who is a painter. This had the potential to be really bad but it works because a) you can tell she loves it and b) there was as much focus on the garment shaping as there was on the painted aspect.
Gracie Abrams in Chanel was one of those that looks understated until you see the references, and then you think: this is a knockout. This was for the Tumblr girls, for the girls who love vintage jewellery, for the girls who don’t want to move to Kindle.
If you’ve seen the Alexa Chung art account on Instagram, you’ll know how much fun she had with this. For years fans have compared her outfits to paintings, and this time she got to choose one herself, made by Dior. Are we warming up to Jonathan Anderson’s flower earrings?
Love a more gothic Madonna, love that she brought us a bit of carpet spectacle. Although her Saint Laurent piece doesn’t make you think of the body much at all, it does introduce lots of us to a piece of art and creates a scene. It’s uncommon to have this many outfit plus ones on a Met Gala carpet, and even more uncommon to have them dressed as part of the look, and not just helpers in black tuxedos.
Additional details worth seeing
Anok Yai wore Balenciaga, but her make up was the standout. She stayed in character the whole time.
While Rachel Zegler’s main look lacked a bit of texture and depth, her eye mask inspired by The Execution of Lady Jane Grey was elegant and affecting.
Ayo Edebiri’s Chanel look was delicate and beautiful. Not her most memorable Met but the feathered braid, like Rihanna’s glam, created true synergy between her body and her look.
Charli xcx’s Saint Laurent dress featured resin irises, inspired by Van Gogh. Charli noted that Yves Saint Laurent used to give irises to his favourite muses, and the detail of this concept felt in line with where Charli is heading as an artist.
In a carpet interview with Emma Chamberlain, Charli said she’s been feeling inspired by going out and having IRL experiences with people. The physicality of the flower brought this into light — it felt like a push towards the real.
In a different but connected vein, Janelle Monae commented on technology, in a Christian Siriano gown made of mossy nature and discarded cables and bits of hardware. The butterflies and dragonflies moved, and when asked about her look, she simply said “balance must be restored.”
The flops
First up Katy Perry, who wore a Stella McCartney gown and headpiece by Miodrag Guberinic. Her look also commented on technology, but in a heavy-handed “we live in a society” sort of way. Some notes on the mask from the press release:
“A literal and symbolic reflection that invites the observer to consider that their perception of others can mirror their own internal world, and conversely mask truth.”
The problem with KP is a) everything is too literal and b) she’s often doing things a few years later than other very famous people (Kim K, Charli xcx). Her gloves managed to become a big talking point, though, as one hand featured six fingers to mimic the weaknesses in AI image generation. This was a nice nod to the false AI images of Katy Perry at previous Met Galas, but the message didn’t carry enough meaning.
Heidi Klum has been in the Halloween game for a really long time and it shows. Her outfit is made not by a traditional designer but by a makeup artist called Mike Marino. It sounds cool on paper. The feet are mad. But unfortunately this was the Peeta from The Hunger Games moment we all feared.
She obviously looks great but you must hear Nicole Kidman’s inspiration for her look:
“Fashion is art and I wanted something red, because I wanted to embrace the way in which red has been used in art through the years.”
Randomly becoming a death doula. Deciding red needs more recognition. I do want whatever Nicole Kidman is having.
Hailey Bieber looks fine! Still waiting to see her in something freaky. This was too close to Gigi Hadid at Vogue World in 2024.
A series of flops because they did too little:
Carey Mulligan (struggling to connect to the theme at all?), Doja Cat (expected so much more!!!), Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (meh), Elizabeth Debicki (even she looks bored), Margot Robbie (there was potential but the end result is giving nothing).
And also this — Bhavita Mandava is a rising star model. Her look is a reference to her Chanel debut, and her “jeans” aren’t actually made of denim but have been interpreted that way. Although there is meaning here it looks like she missed an opportunity to shine!
A series of flops because they did too much:
Sarah Paulson’s Metieres Fecales dress is awesome. It’s from their collection designed to caricature the ultra-wealthy, which would have been enough for the Bezos gala. The dollar is a) too on the nose and b) now facing a bunch of backlash because she’s wealthy too. Odessa A’Zion we usually love but this one was a struggle, Kris Jenner is in costume, and Amanda Seyfried is going to prom, especially when you see the big ponytail.
Final things worth noting:
Absences: Zendaya, Olivia Rodrigo (did go to the afterparty), Bella Hadid (although she hasn’t been for a few years)
Aariana Rose Philip made history as the first person to attend the Met Gala carpet in a wheelchair. She rocks so much!! (You might recognise her from the Collina Strada runway shows)
Blue Ivy beat North West to the carpet
Closing notes
“Fashion is Art” brought us both highs and lows. While it gave us gorgeous, painterly moments from the likes of Hunter Schafer and Emma Chamberlain, it also allowed for some intellectual laziness (Nicole Kidman, Katy Perry).
But the most impactful moments came from the looks that went beyond looking like a painting, treating their own bodies as the canvas. Rihanna’s Margiela oyster or Janelle Monae’s high-tech nature study will stay with us because they acknowledge that the dressed body is not just a mannequin, but something innately imbued with meaning. The body is living, breathing, and constantly changing. That alone makes it worthy of a piece of art!
Thanks for reading. Have a great week!!! We can blame any spelling mistakes on the chaos of the past 12 hours.
Holly x
Peeta 😭 incredible comparison
coming to this so late but this was suchh a good roundup. Hunter Schafer & Anok Yai were so stunning. have to say I did kind of like Doja Cat even if it was a little underwhelming - a more interesting way to do the 'statue draping' theme!