The Met Gala is a high-fashion, haute couture fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York City. Each year, the event has a chosen theme that aligns with the museum’s spring fashion exhibition. This year’s theme, “Costume Art,” was paired with the dress code “Fashion is Art,” exploring fashion as a form of artistic expression, still focusing on connections to fine art pieces.
While some took it in the direction of bodies and celebrated the human form as a canvas, others made subtle or clear nods to artists and pieces of the past. While the night brought about many extravagant outfits, these are my five favorite art-inspired red carpet looks.
Honorable mentions are given to Gracie Abrams for her gorgeous Chanel dress inspired by “Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer” by Gustav Klimt and to Ben Platt for his courageous embroidered and beaded suit referencing elements from “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” by Georges Seurat.
Hunter Schaffer
Hunter Schaffer’s outfit also reflected a Gustav Klimt portrait of Mäda Primavesi. Her Prada gown and headpiece paid a beautiful homage to the painting. The artfully torn-up custom piece drew from the art, while still staying its own.
Angela Bassett
Angela Bassett wore a stunning pink Prabal Gurung gown, ornamented with sparkling flowers and a beaded skirt. The piece was a strikingly similar representation of Laura Wheeler Waring’s “Girl in Pink Dress” painting. The inventful use of different textures and design elements was equal parts eye-catching and elegant.
Coleman Domingo
Coleman Domingo’s Valentino suit was influenced by Basquiat’s iconic painting, “Pez Dispenser.” The colors in the painting that depict a crowned dinosaur were used to inspire the colors of his checkered jacket. The light blue, purple, red, yellow and black was very Basquiat and made Domingo stand out in a sea of other male attendees in all black.
Madonna
It was no surprise that Madonna made a grand entrance at the Met Gala. Her larger-than-life Saint Laurent ensemble beautifully referenced “The Temptation of St. Anthony. Fragment II” by Leonora Carrington, complete with a sheer gray cape, detailed ship headpiece and a golden horn in her hands.
Emma Chamberlain
Emma Chamberlain embodied the theme in a custom Mugler gown, designed by Castro Freitas and hand-painted details by artist Anna Deller-Yee. The off-white bodice was adorned with paint strokes of mainly yellow and varying shades of blue, with pops of red and green at the bottom that beautifully pulled together the show-stopping ensemble. The piece drew inspiration from works by Van Gogh and Munch, as well as a previous Mugler dress, “Butterfly.”
Overall, there was no shortage of incredible looks at this year’s Met Gala. The pieces themselves, as well as the artistic inspiration behind them, are sure to stir up conversation and potentially influence summer fashion. We’ll have to wait and see which Simmons student appears first on the T in an MFA inspired look. Until then, we’ll continue to obsess over the high-fashion, art-inspired outfits we saw at the 2026 Met Gala.
