The event will officially open the museum’s new Condé M. Nast Galleries, a permanent 12,000-square-foot space dedicated to the Costume Institute.
The Met Gala has announced its 2026 theme, and it comes with a major change inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Next year’s event will officially open the museum’s new Condé M. Nast Galleries, a permanent 12,000-square-foot space dedicated to the Costume Institute. To mark the occasion, the institute is launching an exhibition called “Costume Art,” which also serves as the theme for the gala.
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A new home for fashion at The Met
The Costume Institute has long lived in the museum’s basement, even as its shows brought in some of The Met’s biggest crowds. With the new galleries, fashion steps into a bigger, more visible space.
Curator Andrew Bolton describes “Costume Art” as an exhibition centered on the “dressed body” or how clothing appears across almost every part of the museum. Whether it’s ancient statues, Renaissance paintings, or modern photography, the human figure is always dressed, draped, posed, or styled. The exhibition aims to show that clothing has always been part of art, even if it hasn’t always been treated that way.
“It’s a huge moment for the Costume Institute,” he said. “It will be transformative for our department, but I also think it’s going to be transformative to fashion more generally — the fact that an art museum like The Met is actually giving a central location to fashion.”
What visitors will see in “Costume Art”
The exhibition opens on May 10, 2026 and runs until January 10, 2027. It brings together 5,000 years of art and places them next to garments from the Costume Institute’s archive and modern designers.
A late 5th century BCE terracotta figure of Nike, the Greek personification of victory | Photos from The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
An 1875–78 evening dress by French designer Mon Vignon
Haute couture ensemble from Givenchy’s fall/winter 2010–11 collection by Riccardo Tisci
The exhibition is arranged around different ideas of the body: classical, nude, aging, pregnant, anatomical, and abstract. Bolton says this choice was meant to broaden the kinds of bodies we see in fashion and challenge narrow beauty standards.
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“Pregnancy” dress by Georgina Godley, fall/winter 1986–87.
What to expect from the red carpet
Because the exhibition pulls heavily from art history, the red carpet will likely follow. We’re expecting sculptural gowns inspired by historical figures or moments, classic draping, corsets maybe, sheer fabrics, and looks that reference art.
This theme also gives guests a chance to go deeper into archives. With such a wide range of references to choose from, designers may pull from the house archives or reinterpret older pieces.
It’s one of the most open-ended themes in recent Met Gala years, giving designers a lot of room to play.
The 2026 Met Gala happens on May 4, 2026. Hosts haven’t been announced yet. After the gala, “Costume Art” becomes the first exhibition to open inside the new Condé M. Nast Galleries. The wing is funded by Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos, with support from Saint Laurent and Condé Nast.
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