Stars shine at Met Gala, fashion’s biggest night for style

On fashion’s biggest night, the Met Gala once again turned Manhattan into a theater of celebrity, drawing Hollywood, music, sports and style’s biggest names — with Beyonce, Madonna and Nicole Kidman leading the charge down the red carpet.

Guests were asked to interpret the theme ‘Fashion is Art’, a concept tied directly to the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute’s new exhibit, ‘Costume Art’.

Not every look hewed closely to the brief, but the gala — traditionally staged on the first Monday in May — still delivered the spectacle, glamour and sheer wattage that have made it one of the world’s premier red-carpet events.

Beyonce, serving as one of the evening’s co-chairs and attending for the first time in a decade, arrived near the end of the carpet and immediately commanded attention in a bejewelled skeleton gown, finished with a sweeping feather coat and headpiece.

Earlier in the evening, fellow co-chairs Venus Williams, the tennis great, and Oscar winner Nicole Kidman helped set the tone as arrivals began.

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Kidman wore a shimmering red long-sleeved Chanel column dress with broad feather cuffs, while Williams appeared in a black crystal Swarovski gown anchored by an ornate neck plate.

Nicole Kidman arrives at the Met Gala celebrating ‘Costume Art’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Madonna was among the evening’s music legends on the guest list

As the carpet filled, the parade of stars only intensified. Music icons Madonna, Cher and Stevie Nicks mixed with a younger generation that included Sabrina Carpenter, Doja Cat and Tyla.

Rihanna and A$AP Rocky, true to form, arrived hours late and turned their entrance into an event of its own.

Bad Bunny, already in the midst of a huge 2026 marked by major Grammy victories and a Super Bowl halftime performance, used prosthetics and a white wig to imagine himself as an older man, according to Vogue.

Doja Cat, a rapper and one of several members of the gala’s host committee, chose a draped latex Saint Laurent gown with a modest neckline and a slit rising to the waist.

Donatella Versace, Tom Ford, Stella McCartney, Anthony Vaccarello and Haider Ackermann were among the high-profile designers attending the event.

Olympic gold medalists Alysa Liu and Eileen Gu — whose dress featured a built-in bubble maker — helped lead a notable athlete presence on the carpet, alongside NFL star Russell Wilson and several men’s and women’s basketball standouts.

Blake Lively made an unexpected appearance at the gala

Blake Lively also made a surprise appearance, arriving just hours after settling a major court case linked to her film ‘It Ends with Us’ with co-star and director Justin Baldoni.

Hovering above it all, as ever, was Vogue global editorial director Anna Wintour, the defining force in American fashion who has overseen the gala for 30 years.

The event serves as a fundraiser for the Met’s Costume Institute, and this year it brought in a record $42 million, up from $31 million in 2025, museum CEO Max Hollein told reporters.

This year’s exhibit places refined fashion alongside paintings and sculpture — pairing, for example, a Saint Laurent design with Van Gogh’s ‘Irises’, or a John Galliano gown for Maison Margiela with an antique statue.

“When I think about the show, if there’s one word to describe it, I suppose it would be equitability or equivalency, equivalency between artworks,” the Costume Institute’s curator Andrew Bolton said.

“So there’s no hierarchy between sculpture, painting, fashion, photography and no hierarchy between bodies, between the classical body or the disabled body.”

‘Genuinely care’

The gala has also attracted controversy this year after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sanchez Bezos, were named lead sponsors and honorary co-chairs.

In the days before the event, opposition to the billionaire couple’s role appeared on streets and subway platforms across New York, with some critics urging a boycott of what they view as an excessive display of wealth.

During the gala, one person tried to enter the secured area but was swiftly dealt with by police and event security. Bezos himself did not walk the carpet.

Wintour said yesterday that the couple had “shown with this event that they genuinely, genuinely care about giving back.”

Rihanna and A$AP Rocky stopped for photos at the Met Gala

The Met Gala began in 1948 and for years remained a fixture of New York high society before Wintour reshaped it in the 1990s into a global showcase for celebrities, fashion and influence.

The Costume Art exhibit, opening on 10 May at the long-established Manhattan museum, will examine the “dressed body” as it appears in artworks across the centuries.

Source: AFP