Everything You Need To Know About The Met Gala 2026

Who is invited to the Met Gala?

The 2026 guest list included everyone from Kim Kardashian and Heidi Klum to Hunter Schafer and Kylie Jenner, Beyoncé and Blue Ivy Carter to Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams, with the latter three making their debuts at the event this year. As always, designers attended with muses, like Madonna and Jean Paul Gaultier in 2018; Lady Gaga and Brandon Maxwell in 2019; Kate Moss and Kim Jones in 2023.

What happens in the build-up to the Met Gala?

Manhattan is always abuzz during the weekend that precedes the first Monday in May, as high-profile guests check in at The Mark or The Carlyle, attend final fittings for top-secret looks, and attempt to squeeze in a radiance-boosting facial or some last-minute lymphatic drainage ahead of the red carpet. Then there are the pre-parties. Traditionally, Vogue’s annual First Friday party kicks things off. For 2026, head of editorial content Chloe Malle was joined by co-hosts Teyana Taylor and Simone Ashley to welcome guests to Madame Tussauds on 42nd Street, for a night of Waisted Cosmo cocktails and jump scares. (Who was real and who was wax?)

The theme of the party - in keeping with the Costume Art exhibition, which, per curator Andrew Bolton, addresses “the centrality of the dressed body in the museum’s vast collection” - was “Bodies, Bodies, Bodies”. Guests Paloma Elsesser and Irina Shayk duly attended in Comme des Garçons’ infamous “lumps and bumps” collection and sculptural Issey Miyake, respectively. Meanwhile It-girl Gabbriette and king of sad boy pop Sombr were spied posing with Timothée Chalamet’s waxwork, surrounded by inanimate versions of the likes of Rihanna and Kim Kardashian, dressed in their Met Gala outfits from years past.

On Saturday night it was Colman Domingo’s turn to play host. The actor, who co-chaired the 2025 Met, and ascended the steps in a custom Valentino cape that nodded to legendary Vogue editor André Leon Talley, invited guests to join him at the Faena Hotel in West Chelsea to toast to the 2026 bash. He kept the dress code succinct, issuing invites that read simply: “Put that sh*t on!”