If the steps of The Metropolitan Museum of Art usually feel like a runway during The Met Gala, this year they felt like a high-fashion Louvre.
To celebrate the Costume Institute’s groundbreaking exhibition, “Costume Art,” guests were handed a beautifully open-ended dress code: “Fashion is Art”. Rather than simply playing historical cosplay, designers were challenged to treat the human body as a living canvas. The result? A red carpet that blurred the lines between sculpture, performance art, and pure sartorial genius.
From literal interpretations of famous paintings to mind-bending architectural silhouettes, here are the dominant trends that defined the night.
1. Living Sculptures and Molded Anatomy
Since the museum’s exhibit explicitly explores the “dressed body” across 5,000 years, several designers decided to sculpt the physique out of literal art materials. This wasn’t clothing; it was fine art.
The Trend: Molded breastplates, structural bodices, and 3D silhouettes that reshaped the body entirely.
The Standouts: Hailey Bieber took the breath out of the plaza in a custom Saint Laurent 24-karat gold bodice paired with fluid blue silk. Meanwhile, Kim Kardashian leaned into pop art territory with a striking breastplate created by legendary British artist Allen Jones.
My Take: It’s giving Giacometti meets High Couture. I love when fashion forces us to look at the human form from a completely non-traditional perspective.
2. Literal Canvas: Hand-Painted Masterpieces
Why just look at a painting when you can wear it? We saw a massive surge of designers treating delicate fabrics like a blank canvas, resulting in some of the most romantic, sweeping moments of the evening.
The Trend: Impressionist brushstrokes, hand-painted details, and textile artistry that referenced historical gallery pieces.
The Standouts: Emma Chamberlain opened the evening with a massive statement in a custom, multi-hued, hand-painted Mugler gown. Anne Hathaway followed suit, looking like a walking art deco in a hand-painted Michael Kors Collection gown accented with Bvlgari jewels.
My Take: Absolutely stunning. It brought a soft, fine-art romanticism to the carpet that beautifully balanced out some of the more aggressive, architectural looks.
Other looks that channeled the masterpieces that I loved were:
3. The Return of the Icons (and Ultra-Luxury Drama)
You can’t talk about the Met Gala without talking about the sheer theatricality of the industry’s heaviest hitters. With Beyoncé returning as a co-chair after a ten-year hiatus, the bar for standard “glamour” was completely rewritten.
The Trend: Heavy embellishments, performance art dressing, and massive, room-clearing trains.
The Standouts: Beyoncé practically shut down the red carpet in a dramatic, feathered Olivier Rousteing for Balmain masterpiece. Then, of course, there was Rihanna, who proved she is the undisputed queen of being fashionably late, arriving in a shimmering, metallic sculptural creation by Maison Margiela Couture by Glenn Martens.
My Take: Let’s be honest, if seven people aren’t required to help you navigate the museum steps (looking at you, Cardi B and your massively proportioned Marc Jacobs ensemble), did you even really attend the Met Gala?
Other looks of mega magnitude that I lived for were:
4. Sustainable Surrealism: Reimagining Waste
As I mentioned in my previous post about my own outfit choice, art is often about finding beauty in the unexpected. A few select designers used the “Art” theme to make a powerful statement about circular fashion and luxury reinvention.
The Trend: Deconstructed, upcycled materials transformed into high-fashion silhouettes.
The Standouts: Beyond my beloved Kevin Germanier moment (read all about that here), SZA turned heads in a brilliant yellow corset gown by Bode, constructed from 100 yards of fabric meticulously sourced entirely from eBay!
My Take: This is where the future of fashion lies. Taking historical appreciation and marrying it with modern, sustainable consciousness is the ultimate artistic statement.
5. Menswear Masterpieces: The True Fine Art of Suiting
The days of men showing up to the Met Gala in a boring black penguin tuxedo are officially dead and buried. The men absolutely understood the assignment this year, leaning heavily into tailoring as a three-dimensional sculpture.
The Trend: Architectural proportions, deconstructed suiting, and bold, fine-art-inspired embellishments.
The Standouts: Colman Domingo was a vision in a custom Valentino look that fell like liquid elegance. A$AP Rocky matched Rihanna’s iconic energy by turning heads in a masterfully layered, texturally rich ensemble by Thom Browne. Meanwhile, Nicholas Hoult kept it razor-sharp and avant-garde in a custom Prada silhouette that belonged in a museum wing.
My Take: Can we get a round of applause for the men actually taking risks? When the suiting mimics structural architecture, everyone wins.
Other men’s looks I was crushing on:
6. Art Critique: The Looks That Missed the Canvas
Look, art is highly subjective. One person’s masterpiece is another person’s “what were they thinking?” While I respect everyone who took a risk for the “Fashion is Art” theme, a few looks felt less like the Louvre and a lot more like a chaotic arts-and-crafts class.
The Crime: Missing the theme entirely or taking the word “art” just a little too literally.
The Culprits: A few stars showed up in basic, uninspired column dresses that looked like they panicked and bought them off the rack at 4:45 PM on Met Monday. On the flip side, we had a couple of attendees who looked like they were swallowed whole by literal papier-mâché sculptures, rendering them entirely unable to move, blink, or breathe on live television.
My Take: If your dress code interpretation requires you to be rolled up the Met steps on a dolly like Hannibal Lecter just to keep the fabric from cracking, you have moved past “wearable art” and entered “sartorial hostage situation.” Blink twice if you need me to come cut you out of that resin bodice!
What did you think of all of the red carpet looks?
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