The Metropolitan Museum of Art will open its doors to the world of fashion, with Beyoné, Nicole Kidman and Venus Williams among the hosts.
Met Gala 2026 dress code: Here’s a list of past themes from over the years
The Metropolitan Museum of Arts Costume Institute Benefit, better known as the Met Gala, is held each year on the first Monday of May and brings together some of the world’s biggest names for a glamourous fashion event.
This year’s event will include the likes of Doja Cat, Sabrina Carpenter, Lena Dunham and Elizabeth Debicki among others. The gala is overseen every year by Anna Wintour, the iconic editor of Vogue magazine, who has co-chaired the event since 1995.
Each year the Met Gala is given a specific theme for guests to embrace, although those in attendance are often happy to interpret the guidance fairly liberally.
What is the Met Gala dress code?
The theme for the 2026 Met Gala is ‘Costume Art‘, which is named after the museum’s new exhibition that includes over 400 outfits and other objects.
The dress code for the gala is Fashion is Art and guests are encouraged to wear outfits, clothes, costumes that display the relation between the two.
We can expect to see celebrities wearing outfits that are related to different eras of art history such as Baroque or Renaissance, for example.
A history of Met Gala themes
1984: Man and the Horse
1985: Costumes of Royal India
1986: Dance
1987: In Style: Celebrating 50 Years of the Costume Institute
1988: From Queen to Empress: Victorian Dress 1837–1877
1989: The Age of Napoleon: Costume from Revolution to Empire, 1789–1815
1990: Théâtre de la Mode – Fashion Dolls: The Survival of Haute Couture
1992: Fashion and History: A Dialogue
1993: Diana Vreeland: Immoderate Style
1994: Orientalism: Vision of the East in Western Dress
1995: Haute Couture
1996: Christian Dior
1997: Gianni Versace
1998: Cubism and Fashion
1999: Rock Style
2001: Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years
2003: Goddess: The Classical Mode
2004: Dangerous Liaisons: Fashion and Furniture in the 18th Century
2005: The House of Chanel
2006: Anglomania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion
2007: Poiret: King of Fashion
2008: Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy
2009: The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion
2010: American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity
2011: Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty
2012: Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations
2013: Punk: Chaos to Couture
2014: Charles James: Beyond Fashion
2015: China: Through the Looking Glass
2016: Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology
2017: Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between
2018: Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination
2019: Camp: Notes on Fashion
2020: About Time: Fashion and Duration
2021: In America: A Lexicon of Fashion
2022: Gilded Glamour
2023: Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty
2024: Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion
2025: Superfine: Tailoring Black Style
In recent years the dress code has often been tied to an exhibition at The Met, helping to raise the profile of, as well as money for, the museum. Last year’s theme - ‘The Garden of Time’ - was aligned with an exhibition called ‘Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion’ that spanned more than 400 years of fashion history.
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