Beyoncé and Venus Williams to Lead 2026 Met Gala as Co-Chairs

Global music icon Beyoncé and tennis legend Venus Williams have been named among the co-chairs for the 2026 Met Gala, setting the stage for what organisers promise will be one of the most conceptually ambitious editions of the event to date.

The announcement, made on February 23, confirmed that the 2026 gala will revolve around the theme “Costume Art,” with an official dress code of “Fashion Is Art.” The theme signals a deliberate effort to blur the line between clothing and fine art, inviting guests to treat their ensembles not merely as outfits, but as creative statements.

The star-studded fundraiser will return on Monday, May 4, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. As tradition dictates, the gala marks the grand opening of the Costume Institute’s spring exhibition, which runs in conjunction with the evening’s theme.

Each year, the Met Gala’s theme is directly inspired by the Costume Institute’s exhibition, and 2026 will be no exception. According to the museum, “Costume Art” will focus on the relationship between clothing, the human body and artistic expression across centuries.

“Celebrate fashion as an art form this spring at The Met,” the museum shared in an Instagram post announcing the exhibition. “Focusing primarily on Western art from prehistory to the present, the show will explore artistic representations of the dressed body, pairing fashions and artworks from the Museum’s vast collection to highlight the inherent relationship between clothing and the body.”

The exhibition aims to examine how garments have functioned not just as practical attire, but as extensions of identity, power and aesthetic philosophy. By placing historical artworks alongside iconic fashion pieces, curators hope to emphasise that the distinction between art and fashion may be more artificial than real.

Andrew Bolton, curator of the Costume Institute, has long championed the idea that fashion deserves the same intellectual and cultural respect as painting or sculpture. With “Costume Art,” he hopes to settle the debate once and for all.

“Hopefully, it will put an end to the rather obsolete ‘is fashion art?’ debate,” Bolton said. The exhibition, he explained, is designed to demonstrate that not only can fashion be viewed as art — something previous shows have illustrated — but that art itself is often inseparable from fashion.

By centring the “dressed body,” the exhibition will explore how garments shape the way individuals are perceived and represented, whether in classical portraiture, avant-garde runway presentations or contemporary red-carpet moments.

The Met Gala has built its reputation on dramatic interpretations of highly conceptual themes. Over the years, guests have embraced theatrical silhouettes and daring designs, often blurring the line between couture and costume.

At the 2019 gala, themed Camp: Notes on Fashion, attendees leaned into exaggerated glamour and irony, donning flamboyant looks that celebrated artifice and theatricality. In 2018, the exhibition Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination inspired ornate ensembles featuring religious iconography and cathedral-worthy embellishments. The 2023 gala honoured Karl Lagerfeld, with many stars arriving in custom Chanel designs or monochromatic tributes referencing the late designer’s signature aesthetic.

Given this history, “Fashion Is Art” appears deliberately flexible — a dress code that allows for maximum creativity. Guests may interpret the theme through sculptural couture, painterly prints, or conceptual designs that transform the body into a living canvas.

With Beyoncé and Venus Williams serving as co-chairs, anticipation is already mounting over how the two cultural powerhouses will interpret the brief. Beyoncé, known for her meticulous visual storytelling and high-fashion red carpet appearances, has frequently delivered some of the gala’s most memorable looks. Williams, who has cultivated a strong presence in both sport and fashion, often merges athletic confidence with couture sophistication.

They will join Nicole Kidman and longtime Met Gala architect Anna Wintour as co-chairs of the 2026 event. Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue and the gala’s guiding force for decades, continues to shape the evening’s guest list and creative direction.

As the first Monday in May approaches, designers, stylists and celebrities will undoubtedly begin sketching ambitious interpretations of a theme that challenges them to dissolve the boundary between museum and runway.

If previous years are any indication, the 2026 Met Gala will not simply ask whether fashion is art — it will attempt to prove it on the grandest red carpet in the world.

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