The Met Unveils Spring 2026 Costume Institute Exhibition Costume Art and Opens Major New Fashion Galleries

Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and Anna Wintour will co-chair the Met Gala fundraiser on Monday, May 4, with Anthony Vaccarello and Zoë Kravitz leading the Gala Host Committee. Additional members will be announced at a later date.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced Costume Art, The Costume Institute’s spring 2026 exhibition, opening May 10, 2026, at The Met Fifth Avenue. The exhibition will inaugurate the Museum’s new, nearly 12,000-square-foot galleries adjacent to the Great Hall, marking a significant evolution in how fashion is presented within the institution.

Costume Art explores the centrality of the dressed body, placing historical and contemporary fashion from The Costume Institute in dialogue with artworks drawn from across The Met’s encyclopedic collection. Running through January 10, 2027, the exhibition repositions fashion not as a decorative counterpart to art, but as an embodied and material form of artistic expression.

To celebrate the exhibition’s opening, The Costume Institute Benefit—widely known as the Met Gala—will take place on Monday, May 4. Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and Anna Wintour will serve as co-chairs, while Anthony Vaccarello and Zoë Kravitz will co-chair the Host Committee. Committee members include Sabrina Carpenter, Doja Cat, Gwendoline Christie, Alex Consani, Misty Copeland, Elizabeth Debicki, Lena Dunham, Paloma Elsesser, LISA, Chloe Malle, Sam Smith, Teyana Taylor, Lauren Wasser, Anna Weyant, A’ja Wilson, and Yseult. The dress code and additional hosts will be revealed closer to the event. Proceeds from the Gala provide the primary annual funding for The Costume Institute’s exhibitions, publications, acquisitions, and operations.

Focusing largely on Western art from prehistory to the present, Costume Art is organised around a series of thematic body types, examining how clothing and the body continuously shape one another across time. The exhibition moves fluidly between the universal and the overlooked, from the “Naked Body” and “Classical Body” to the “Pregnant Body,” “Aging Body,” “Anatomical Body,” and “Mortal Body.” Through these pairings, the show reveals fashion as both a cultural artefact and a deeply corporeal medium.

The new galleries—named the Condé M. Nast Galleries in recognition of a significant lead gift from Condé Nast—represent a major institutional investment in fashion as an art form. Additional contributions toward the renovation were made by Thom Browne, Michael Kors, and Lance Le Pere, with further support from Aerin Lauder, Tory Burch LLC, Nancy C. and Richard R. Rogers, and Met Trustee Amy Griffin and John Griffin.

The exhibition and Benefit are made possible by Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos, with additional support provided by Saint Laurent and Condé Nast. The accompanying catalogue is also made possible by Saint Laurent.

Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and Chief Executive Officer, described Costume Art as “a dynamic and scholarly conversation between garments and artworks,” highlighting the Museum’s ability to frame fashion within more than 5,000 years of art history while introducing new ways of seeing.

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Andrew Bolton, Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute, emphasised the exhibition’s focus on fashion as an embodied art form. Rather than privileging visual spectacle, Costume Art foregrounds materiality and the inseparable relationship between clothes and the bodies that wear them—a perspective that marks a pivotal moment for the department.

Designed by Miriam Peterson and Nathan Rich of Peterson Rich Office (PRO), the Condé M. Nast Galleries will also host exhibitions from other curatorial departments, including shows exploring the intersection of fashion and art. Their opening represents the first phase of a broader transformation of The Met’s Great Hall area, with future initiatives including new entrances, dining spaces, and retail experiences to be announced.

An illustrated catalogue written by Andrew Bolton will accompany the exhibition, featuring imagery by artist Julie Wolfe, photographer Paul Westlake, and stylist and editor Nathalie Agussol. Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and distributed internationally by Yale University Press, a limited-edition deluxe version will be available exclusively at The Met Store.