2026 Met Gala Raises $42 Million for Costume Institute

The 2026 Met Gala took place on May 4, 2026, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, raising a record $42 million for the museum's Costume Institute. Max Hollein, the CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, announced the figure, which surpassed the $31 million raised at the 2025 event.

The charity ball spotlighted the intersection between fashion and art, with attendees asked to dress for the theme 'Fashion is Art'.

Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez Bezos served as lead sponsors and honorary co-chairs of the 2026 Met Gala. Venus Williams and Nicole Kidman co-chaired the event, joined by Beyoncé, who made her first appearance at the gala in a decade. Doja Cat, a member of the host committee, arrived wearing a draped latex Saint Laurent gown with a demure neckline and a slit up to her waist.

Nicole Kidman arrived in a shimmering red long-sleeved Chanel column dress with wide feather cuffs. Venus Williams, 45, wore a black crystal Swarovski gown with an elaborate neck plate and told Vogue the look was inspired by a painting of her in the National Portrait Gallery. Beyoncé appeared at the event on May 4, 2026.

The 2026 Met Gala exhibit, titled 'Costume Art' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, opens on May 10, 2026, and explores the dressed body in artworks across the centuries. It juxtaposes fashion looks with paintings and sculpture, including a Saint Laurent design next to Van Gogh's Irises and a John Galliano gown for Maison Margiela paired with an antique statue.

Andrew Bolton, curator of the Costume Institute, told Agence France-Presse that when thinking about the 'Costume Art' show, one word to describe it is equitability or equivalency between artworks, with no hierarchy between sculpture, painting, fashion, photography, and no hierarchy between bodies, between the classical body or the disabled body.

Anna Wintour, the global editorial director of Vogue, has helmed the Met Gala for 30 years. She said on May 4, 2026, that Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez Bezos had shown with the event that they genuinely care about giving back. The Met Gala is traditionally held on the first Monday in May.

A campaign opposing the involvement of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez Bezos appeared in New York's streets and subways before May 4, 2026. Protesters gathered blocks away from the gala location in Manhattan on May 4, 2026. The campaign was organized by a group founded in Britain called 'Everyone Hates Elon', which targets other billionaires beyond Elon Musk, the world's richest person, according to a spokesperson for the group.

The 2025 Met Gala showcased the subversive style of Black dandyism and was a spotlight on men and male fashion. The Met Gala was first organized in 1948 and was reserved for New York high society for decades until Anna Wintour transformed it into a high-profile catwalk for the rich and famous in the 1990s.