Anna Wintour arrives for a press preview of The Costume Institute’s exhibition ahead of the Met Gala on May 4.Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
From beyond the museum walls Monday, works of art will move and take shape as the glitterati of guests from Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman to Venus Williams will fashionably ascend the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s steps and exhibit their creative interpretations of this year’s dress code, “Fashion is art.”
The question of whether fashion is art has long been topic of conversation for fashion insiders, and this first Monday in May the dress code is leaving nothing up for debate.
Met Gala 2026: What’s this year’s theme, who’s on the guest list and what time does the event begin?
The dress code for the starry fundraising event calls for guests to “express their relationship to fashion as an embodied art form.”
Fashion has long drawn inspiration from works of art, leaving guests with no shortage of artistic references to show off.
But will guests pull from the fashion archives on Monday or wear custom artistic creations from fashion houses?
Archival fashion looks have become a red carpet phenomenon with fashion savvy stars wanting to get their hands on some of the rarer pieces of fashion history.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art ahead of gala on May 4.Brendan McDermid/Reuters
Designer Elsa Schiaparelli famously collaborated in 1937 with Spanish artist Salvador Dalí to design a white silk dress with a lobster printed on the front. Years later, Yves Saint Laurent would design shift dresses filled with Piet Mondrian’s blocks of color in 1965, and more recently, Marc Jacobs collaborated with artist Takashi Murakami in 2002 to add his designs to Louis Vuitton.
On the eve of the Met Gala, can Vogue find its well-heeled footing?
Monday’s carpet is also chance for celebrities to deliver their own performance art.
The late designer Alexander McQueen was heavily regarded by fashion insiders as an artist. He closed his Spring 1999 show with a piece of performance art when machines sprayed Shalom Harlow’s white dress with black and yellow spray paint as she posed on a rotating turntable.
Past Gala dress codes have honored designers and pulled from literature. Last year, the art of tailoring was center stage with the dress code “Tailored for you.” The high-profile event raises money for the museum’s Costume Institute, and each year the dress code for the gala takes cues from the Costume Institute’s spring exhibition.
On display this Spring, the “Costume Art” exhibit will “examine the centrality of the dressed body.”
The relationship between fashion and art has not always been embraced. Art historian and author Nancy Hall-Duncan writes in her book, “Art X Fashion: Fashion Inspired by Art” that in the 19th century, art was perceived as classical and fashion was frivolous.
When Yves Saint Laurent held the Met’s first fashion exhibit in 1983, the exhibit was met with heavy criticism. Since then, the museum has held countless fashion exhibits throughout the years with museums around the world following suit. The Louvre put on its first fashion exhibition “Louvre couture” last year.
The dress code set by Wintour and the Met’s Costume Institute curator, Andrew Bolton, is the final seal of approval that fashion is art, Hall-Duncan told The Associated Press.
“Isn’t that a giant step?” she said. “It will indeed change perceptions.”