Met Gala 2026
By R. Couri Hay
Photographer Contributions by Patrick McMullan
Costume Art
Anna Wintour reminisced about her first Met Gala. “This is my favorite day of the year, and also my most terrifying one, even several decades in. I sometimes hear it said that my first Met Gala was in 1995, but that isn’t true. I first came here in 1982, when I was a fashion editor at New York Magazine, and Mrs. Vreeland led the Costume Institute. My salary was such that I could barely afford a dress, much less the ticket, but my editor generously paid my way into the Great Hall, which, in those days, one could stand to be on hand as the celebrities exited their dinner. In other words, the cheap seats. I was thrilled.
“I went to Bergdorf’s, I shut my eyes, and I bought a beautiful Saint Laurent cocktail dress for $900, several times my rent. I was a nobody that night, but it meant the world to me, a foreigner who had arrived in New York not so long before, to be part of something so important to the city, and to the daunting world of fashion where I was making my way. I tell you all of this to help explain why it is so meaningful and full circle for me to be here to celebrate the dedication of the new Condé M. Nast Galleries, made possible by the incredible generosity of the Newhouse family, named for the founder of the company that has been a home for me, and for thousands of other working creative people, for nearly 120 years.” The night raised a record-breaking 41 million dollars. metmuseum.org
Condé M. Nast Galleries
The exhibition, “Costume Art,” inaugurates the Costume Institute’s Condé M Nast Galleries, a 12,000-square-foot space that previously functioned as a gift shop. The five rooms are nestled between the Egyptian and Greek and Roman galleries, front and center when you enter the famed Great Hall. Quite a step up from its previous basement locale, and an elevation of fashion’s place within the museum, now physically equivalent to The Met’s storied collections. As Andy Warhol said, “Fashion is more art than art is.” The gala was chaired by Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and Anna Wintour. The night’s honorary chairs were Jeff and Lauren Sánchez Bezos.
“Costume Art” explores the dressed body, placing sartorial pieces beside hundreds of sculptures, paintings, photographs, drawings, and more from the museum’s collections. Andrew Bolton, Curator in Charge, displays 13 forms of the body, including the naked and nude form, the classical and abstract figure, and the pregnant and anatomical body. The show reveals fashion as an embodied art form and celebrates the multiplicity and universality of corporeal experiences. The exhibition will run through January 10, 2027.
