Fashion is Art, and Art Belongs to the People (Met 2026)

The first Monday in May is a date fashion lovers around the world know well. This is the beauty and importance of fashion: like art, music, cinema, and poetry, fashion allows people to escape reality and become someone new.

The theme of the 2026 Met Gala, Fashion Is Art, was exciting for many reasons, most importantly because fashion has long been looked down upon within the art world. The Met Gala itself is a fundraiser for the Costume Institute at the museum, which originally struggled for recognition because fashion was not considered “real art” in the same way as painting or sculpture. This year’s theme finally acknowledged, on a large scale, that fashion is art, and its recognition as such feels incredibly significant.

The theme also offered huge creative potential. People wanted extravagance, garments that would never appear on a typical red carpet. Instead, what we received were underwhelming gowns and casual blue jeans. As expected, many of the men arrived in predictable black tuxedos, with only a few standing out: Luke Evans in Palomo Spain, Jordan Roth in Robert Wun, and Sam Smith in Christian Cowan.