Met Gala Looks 2026: Beyoncé, Rihanna, Sabrina Carpenter Steal Fashion's Biggest Night

Met Gala looks from Beyoncé's skeleton gown to Sabrina Carpenter's film dress dominated fashion's biggest night. The Silicon Review reports on the Costume Art theme, Rihanna's late arrival, and the $42 million rose for the Met's Costume Institute.

The 2026 Met Gala red carpet delivered fashion's biggest night with a theme tailor-made for spectacle: "Costume Art" and the dress code "Fashion Is Art." The evening raised a record $42 million for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute.

Beyoncé made her triumphant return to the Met steps after 10 years, arriving as a co-chair in a custom Olivier Rousteing gown mapped with a crystal skeleton motif, paired with a dramatic blue-and-white feathered cape that required its own entourage. She was joined by husband Jay-Z and daughter Blue Ivy, one of the youngest attendees in Gala history.

Sabrina Carpenter delivered one of the most cinematic Met Gala looks of the night in a custom Christian Dior tulle gown made from actual celluloid film from the 1954 Audrey Hepburn classic "Sabrina." The rhinestone-trimmed film strips wrapped around the pop star like a moving reel of cinema history.

Rihanna and A$AP Rocky closed down the carpet in their signature fashionably late style. Rihanna wore a custom Maison Margiela by Glenn Martens gown encrusted with thousands of jewels, paired with an Art Deco-style headpiece, while Rocky arrived in custom Chanel a pink coat with black satin lapels.

Sam Smith paid homage to "Art Deco" Erté in a custom Christian Cowan black mermaid gown, the surface adorned with over 230,000 crystals and a towering feathered headpiece created with legendary milliner Stephen Jones a perfect embodiment of the Costume Art theme's emphasis on sculptural expression.

Blackpink's four members moved through different fashion houses: Jisoo made her Met debut in a pink Dior gown with garden-scene embroidery; Jennie wore Chanel in a blue column dress requiring 540 hours of handwork, 15,000 embroidered elements, and a kiss curly hairstyle; Lisa wore a custom Robert Wun gown with 3D arms in traditional Thai dance poses; Rosé returned in Saint Laurent with a bird motif tied to Georges Braque's Louvre ceiling.

Additional standout Met Gala looks included: Heidi Klum as a literal marble statue with gray body paint and facial prosthetics; Bad Bunny aged 50 years older via hyper-realistic prosthetics by Mike Marino, walking slowly and speaking with an aged tonality; Katy Perry incognito behind a mirrored mask with a sixth-finger glove referencing AI-generated images of her; Kylie Jenner in a Schiaparelli gown featuring a nude illusion corset with faux nipples; Kim Kardashian in a sculpted bronze cone corset with orange hair inspired by Allen Jones' 1975 poster "Maitresse"; Lauren Sánchez Bezos as honorary chair in a Schiaparelli gown evoking John Singer Sargent's scandalous "Madame X" painting; Aariana Rose Philip becoming the first wheelchair user to attend the Met Gala .

The evening saw a protest at the base of the steps over the event's donors, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos, but it was quickly subdued. Event organizers worked closely with the FBI and NYPD amid the ongoing Iran war, with heightened security visible throughout the evening.

As the Costume Art theme transforms fashion's biggest night into a living gallery, The Silicon Review examines how 2026's Met Gala looks from Sabrina Carpenter's film reel dress to Beyoncé's skeleton gown redefined the dressed body as the ultimate canvas, raising a record $42 million while protesters gathered at the museum's base.