On November 17th, the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced its 2026 spring exhibition: “Costume Art.” This theme will inspire the glitzy Met Gala on May 4, 2026.
The spring exhibition will open on May 10, 2026, inaugurating a nearly 12,000-square-foot gallery suite adjacent to the Great Hall, known as the Condé M. Nast Galleries. This new space will give fashion a more important location in the Met’s galleries. “It’s a huge moment for the Costume Institute,” curator in charge Andrew Bolton told Vogue. “It will be transformative for our department, but I also think it’s going to be transformative to fashion more generally—the fact that an art museum like The Met is actually giving a central location to fashion.”
“Costume Art” will pair nearly 200 artworks with approximately 200 garments and accessories. The exhibition will survey representations of the dressed body across primarily Western art from prehistory to the present. This exhibition intends to better integrate the fashion and art worlds, continuing a trend for both industries in recent years.
The Met Gala is one of the most important events for the museum’s Costume Institute. This celebrity-packed red-carpet party opens the exhibition with a major fundraiser for the institution. Previous years’ themes have included “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” in 2025 and “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” in 2024.
“This immensely creative and collaborative exhibition will demonstrate the Museum’s innovative and forward-thinking approach to presenting Costume Institute exhibitions, and will highlight The Met’s unique ability to position fashion within the context of more than 5,000 years of art represented in its collection,” said Max Hollein, director of the Met, in a statement.
Garments will be displayed on mannequins raised on six-foot platforms, with corresponding artworks integrated directly into the structures. Palestinian Canadian artist Samar Hejazi has been commissioned to create mirrored heads for the mannequins.
According to the museum, the exhibition will focus on different themes around the body, such as “Naked Body,” “Classical Body,” “Pregnant Body,” “Ageing Body,” “Anatomical Body,” and “Mortal Body,” among others. The museum will additionally cast real bodies for certain presentations, a gesture intended to broaden representations of beauty and counter standardized mannequin forms.
The Met Gala has yet to announce its hosts. Fashion giant Anna Wintour stepped down as Vogue’s editor-in-chief earlier this year; however, she still works as the magazine’s editorial director. This means Wintour will still supervise the celebrity-packed event in the Spring.
The fashion sponsors for this exhibition are Jeff and Lauren Bezos, Saint Laurent, and Condé Nast. The exhibition will be open through January 10, 2027.
