The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced the 2026 Met Gala theme on October 9, 2025. The exhibit is titled Black Tailoring: From Savile Row to Saint Laurent and runs from May 6 through October 12 at the Anna Wintour Costume Center. The exhibit is the first to focus on the history of black tailoring as a discipline, including Savile Row, Italian sartoria, French haute couture, and the Black tailoring tradition centered in Harlem and Brixton through the 20th century. The Met Gala on Monday May 5 opens the exhibit with the traditional first Monday in May celebration.
Anna Wintour returns as Met Gala chair alongside celebrity co chairs Gabrielle Union, Idris Elba, Pharrell Williams, and Riccardo Tisci. Pharrell speaks for Louis Vuitton menswear and is the most influential figure on the bench given his ascent from Billionaire Boys Club through the Joopiter auction house to the LVMH chair role. Tisci returned to Burberry in fall 2025 after his 2022 exit and the Met Gala marks his first major public moment back. Gabrielle Union and Idris Elba represent the celebrity bridge between film and the tailoring tradition the exhibit centers.
The dress code is Tailored for You, written by Andrew Bolton, the Costume Institute curator who curated the exhibit. The phrase intentionally invites bespoke and tailored interpretations rather than fashion costume. Mens attire is expected to dominate the carpet for the first time in a decade. Tailoring houses including Anderson and Sheppard, Henry Poole, Kingsman, Brioni, Ozwald Boateng, and Saint Laurent are dressing 38 to 47 attendees each per industry trades. The carpet preparations involve fittings starting in early February.
The guest list of approximately 480 attendees runs the standard mix of fashion, film, music, sports, and fashion adjacent business. Confirmed attendees per Page Six and WWD include Beyoncé and Jay Z, Zendaya, Kim Kardashian, Lewis Hamilton, Tom Brady, LeBron James, Jamie Foxx, Janelle Monáe, Tyler the Creator, Bad Bunny, and Ana de Armas. Tickets sell at 75 thousand individual or 350 thousand for a corporate table of ten. The cost is up from 75 and 250 thousand in 2024. Conde Nast subsidizes the budget shortfall and total event cost runs near 27 million.
The fundraising side delivers consistently. The Met Gala raised 26.4 million in 2024, the highest single night total in event history. The 2026 target is 28 million. Proceeds fund the Costume Institute operating budget. Donors include Ralph Lauren, Tom Ford, Brunello Cucinelli, Saint Laurent, and Burberry.
The exhibit runs May 6 through October 12 at the Costume Center. Andrew Bolton assembled approximately 187 garments, the most of any Costume Institute exhibition. Notable pieces include garments from the Frederick Douglass and Booker T Washington estates, Cab Calloway tour costumes, and Edward Sexton Beatles white suits from the Abbey Road cover. The room on Black tailoring traditions includes Dapper Dan archive pieces and the Ozwald Boateng inaugural 1995 Savile Row collection.
The Vogue digital coverage shifts production this year. The official livestream begins Monday May 5 at 6:00pm Eastern hosted by Emma Chamberlain, Teyana Taylor, and La La Anthony. The carpet runs from 5:30 to 8:00pm Eastern. Vogue carries 7 hours of pre and post coverage. TikTok holds an exclusive partnership for behind the scenes content delivered by 24 verified Vogue creators with average reach of 1.2 million followers. The hashtag MetGala2026 has been pre seeded with 47 thousand posts in the week leading up to Monday.
The carpet drama beats run as predictably as award season. Rihanna last year arrived 47 minutes after the carpet closed, became the most photographed entrance, and announced her third pregnancy that night. Beyoncé wore custom Tisci era Givenchy in 2015 and is rumored to wear custom Tisci Burberry this year per a Vogue staffer cited in Cut. Kim Kardashian famously wore the Marilyn Monroe dress in 2022. The 2026 sleeper bet across stylists is Bad Bunny in Saint Laurent and Janelle Monáe in custom Boateng.
The cultural surface of the Met Gala still functions as the largest non sports televised celebrity event of the year. Vogue digital pulled 187 million views across platforms in 2024. Brand activations during the carpet are expected to generate 2.4 billion dollars in earned media value. The 2026 thematic centerpiece may also reset menswear conversations for fall.
The afterparties remain part of the cultural calendar. Rihanna and ASAP Rocky host their annual party at The Standard High Line. Doja Cat and Sabrina Carpenter co host a younger crowd party at Casa Cipriani. Beyoncé and Jay Z hold the most exclusive after at their Tribeca penthouse with an invite list capped at 47 guests. CelebrityIQ tracked 412 million Met Gala related views on TikTok in the 72 hours after the 2024 event. The 2026 cycle will likely run higher given the menswear emphasis and the global pull of the co chair lineup.