The first Monday in May now comes with a clear set of instructions: “Fashion Is Art.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art has set the phrase as the dress code for the 2026 Costume Institute Benefit on May 4, which will be co-chaired by Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams and Anna Wintour.
The gala will once again function as the Costume Institute’s largest annual fundraiser and will double as a kickoff for its spring exhibition, “Costume Art.” Opening May 10 and running through Jan. 10, 2027, the show will focus on the “centrality of the dressed body” in The Met’s collection, pairing fashion with artworks from across the museum’s holdings. Nearly 400 objects are slated to be shown, including approximately 200 garments and accessories and 200 paintings, sculptures and decorative arts.
“Costume Art” will be the first show installed in The Met’s new Condé M. Nast Galleries, a nearly 12,000-square-foot area off the Great Hall that will house the Costume Institute’s spring exhibitions and, at times, shows from other departments. The renovation is backed by a lead gift honoring Condé M. Nast, with additional support from Thom Browne, Michael Kors, Lance Le Pere, Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer, Tory Burch LLC, Nancy C. and Richard R. Rogers, and Amy and John Griffin.
Curated by Andrew Bolton, the exhibition groups its pieces into recurring “body” types seen throughout the museum, from the Naked Body and Classical Body to the Pregnant Body and Aging Body, along with broader categories such as the Anatomical Body and Mortal Body.
Within that framework, the “Fashion Is Art” dress code invites Met Gala guests to treat clothing as an embodied art form and to draw on the many depictions of dressed figures already present in The Met’s galleries. The museum has positioned the code as an opportunity for attendees to express their own relationship to fashion and to the dressed body as a site of artistic practice, in line with the exhibition’s thesis.
Anthony Vaccarello and Zoë Kravitz will co-chair the gala’s host committee, which brings together figures from fashion, entertainment, sports and art, including Sabrina Carpenter, Doja Cat, Gwendoline Christie, Alex Consani, Misty Copeland, Elizabeth Debicki, Lena Dunham, Paloma Elsesser, Lisa of Blackpink, Chloe Malle, Sam Smith, Teyana Taylor, Lauren Wasser, Anna Weyant, A’ja Wilson, Yseult, Adut Akech, Angela Bassett, Sinéad Burke, Rebecca Hall, Aimee Mullins, Tschabalala Self, Amy Sherald and Chase Sui Wonders.
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos, the lead sponsors of both the gala and “Costume Art,” will serve as honorary chairs. Proceeds from the evening will continue to provide the Costume Institute with its primary source of annual funding for exhibitions, publications, acquisitions and operations, alongside support for other museum activities.