Is fashion art? On Monday night, the 2026 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 ageing 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 the Met Gala dress code *very* 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 channelling 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. Plus so many more!
Here, see the best looks of the night and the artwork they were born from.
Hunter Schafer
Hunter Schafer in Prada, inspired by Mäda Primavesi by Gustav Klimt, 1912–1913.
Everyone's clicking on...
Kendall Jenner
Kendall Jenner in GapStudio by Zac Posen, resembling Winged Victory of Samothrace, c. 190 BC, Hellenistic Greece.
Gracie Abrams
Gracie Abrams in Chanel, who looks uncannily like the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt, 1907.
Tyla
Tyla in Valentino, giving Erté (Romain de Tirtoff), 1892–1990.
Hailey Bieber
Hailey Bieber in Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello, which was a reimagining of Yves Saint Laurent's autumn/winter 1969 collection, which was originally inspired by Claude Lalanne. It's fashion inception!
Ciara
Ciara in Celia Kritharioti paying homage to Bust of Nefertiti, c. 1345 BC, ancient Egypt.
Kim Kardashian
Kim Kardashian in Allen Jones and Whitaker Malem wowing as a walking piece of modern art, specifically A Model Model by Allen Jones, 2015.
Sabrina Carpenter
Sabrina Carpenter in Dior channelled Sabrina, 1954. Fitting, no?
Rosé
Rosé in Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello, the embellished adornment at her hip no doubt a nod to Les Oiseaux (The Birds) by Georges Braque, 1952–53.
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.
![the 2026 met gala celebrating "costume art" arrivals](https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/images/f856815e-fe68-4e6b-907f-77d056ec23a4.jpeg?crop=0.666666666667xw:1xh;center,top&resize=360:* "The 2026 Met Gala Celebrating "Costume Art" - Arrivals")
