Is fashion art? On Monday night, the Met Gala red carpet answered that question. This year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute unveiled a new exhibition, “Costume Art,” pairing iconic works from the museum’s permanent collection with curated fashion garments displayed across different body forms—the naked body, the classical body, the pregnant body, the aging body, the anatomical body, and the mortal body. It’s a show built around one central idea: that the relationship between clothing, the body, and the dressed body is as worthy of serious artistic attention as anything hanging on a wall.
The dress code for the night? “Fashion Is Art.” In line with the exhibition, the carpet becomes its own gallery, one where designers approach the human body the same way an artist approaches a blank canvas.
Some of tonight’s guests took that literally. Below, we’re breaking down all the celebrities and designers who constructed looks drawing directly from specific paintings, sculptures, and artistic movements.
Hunter Schafer in Prada channeling Gustav Klimt’s Mäda Primavesi, Kendall Jenner in Gap Studio by Zac Posen echoing the Winged Victory of Samothrace, Gracie Abrams in Chanel lifting directly from Klimt’s Portrait of Adele, and Tyla taking on Erté’s iconic Diva Peacock.
Here, see the of the best looks of the night and the artwork they were born from.
Hunter Schafer
Kendall Jenner
Gracie Abrams
Tyla
Hailey Bieber
Ciara
Kim Kardashian
Sabrina Carpenter
Rosé
Madonna
Jessica (aka Jess) is a Senior Fashion Editor at Cosmopolitan, working across both fashion market and styling for print stories, as well as digital fashion and commerce coverage. Prior to joining Cosmo, she worked in fashion at Vanity Fair. Jess lives in New York City and loves spotlighting emerging designers you might not have heard of yet—while also being an unabashedly devoted Love Island fan (dating back to Season 1 of Love Island UK, that’s how serious). See more of her work here, and follow her on Instagram if you love her.
