The Met Gala 2026 will center on the theme “Costume Art,” confirmed by Vogue and the Metropolitan Museum of Art as the concept guiding next year’s exhibition and fundraiser. The gala remains fashion’s most closely watched night, drawing the industry and a global audience to the museum steps each May.
MET GALA
On November 17, 2025, Vogue and The Met outlined the vision behind “Costume Art.” Curator Andrew Bolton described the theme as an examination of “the centrality of the dressed body in the museum’s vast collection.” His approach positions the human form as the constant across 5,000 years of objects, images, and garments that fill the museum, signaling a renewed focus on how clothing shapes our understanding of culture, identity, and representation across time.
“Costume Art” arrives as the Costume Institute prepares to open a significant permanent space adjacent to the Great Hall. The new galleries expand the museum’s ability to stage long-term installations and give fashion a dedicated presence within one of The Met’s most visible areas. The 2026 exhibition will introduce this space with a display of approximately 200 garments paired with 200 artworks. Paintings, sculptures, and objects will sit in dialogue with historical and contemporary pieces from the Costume Institute, establishing direct visual links between bodies in art and bodies in dress.
Bolton emphasized the theme’s foundation when speaking with Vogue. “What connects every curatorial department and what connects every single gallery in the museum is fashion, or the dressed body,” he said. He described the realization that even works perceived as nude exist within cultural frameworks and visual codes. This understanding shaped the exhibition’s structure, which will present a sequence of thematic groupings such as “the Naked Body,” “the Classical Body,” “the Pregnant Body,” and “the Mortal Body.”
“Costume Art” also marks a shift within the Met Gala tradition. Bolton confirmed that this is his first theme without a subtitle. The exhibition originally carried a secondary phrase, but the curatorial team removed it during development. “We took it out and it was like taking off a corset,” Bolton said. “I thought, this is exactly what it should be. It’s bold, it’s strong, it’s a statement of intent. The goal is not to create a new hierarchy. It’s just to disband that hierarchy and to focus on equivalency – equivalency of artworks and equivalency of bodies.”
The exhibition opens on May 10, 2026, and runs through January 10, 2027. The gala itself will likely take place on May 4, following the usual early May schedule. Vogue will announce the dress code in the months ahead, so details on how guests will interpret the theme will follow as the event approaches.
