When the Met Gala announced its dress code for 2026, fashion experts collectively furrowed their brows. “Fashion is Art” might be the Costume Institute’s most on-the-nose theme yet. Does it mean that Lady Gaga will arrive on the red carpet wearing a giant picture frame? Or will stylists interpret the line in the press release that alludes to the “centrality of the dressed body” and give us dozens of naked dresses?
The dress code for this year’s event – taking place May 4 – is inspired by “Costume Art,” the name of the Costume Institute’s Spring exhibition that explores depictions of the dressed body through a series of thematic body types: “the naked body,” “classic body,” “pregnant body” and “ageing body.” Guests are encouraged to think of their bodies as a blank canvas.
“There are so many ways you can look at it,” says celebrity stylist Mickey Freeman, who styled Tony Award-winning producer Cody Renard Richard for last year’s Met Gala. “There’s actual literal art and figurative art. But that’s the beauty of the Met Gala: it’s your interpretation.”
Below, we spoke to celebrity stylists about their sartorial predictions for this year’s biggest night in fashion….
Yes, there will be lots of naked dresses
Since the “Costume Art” theme celebrates how the human body is a living canvas for fashion — we can expect to see some risqué looks. Celebrity stylist KJ Moody, who will be dressing VIPs for this year’s event, predicts that we’re going to see a lot of sheer, lace dresses on the red carpet. The translucent look that accentuates parts of the female form, known as “naked dressing,” has been a popular red carpet look in recent years, as seen on actor Julia Fox, who wore a transparent Dilara Findikoglu dress to the 2025 Vanity Fair Oscars party and musician Chappell Roan, who wore a burgundy Mugler dress suspended from her nipples at this year’s Grammys.
Moody believes that the inspiration behind these looks will celebrate iconic moments from fashion history.
“One of my favorite Met Gala looks is when Beyoncé wore a sheer black look by Givenchy in 2012. It had a blue and black feather train,” he says. “So I think we’ll see homages to moments like that.”
Unconventional silhouettes
Not all red carpet gowns need to be form-fitting. Moody predicts that celebrities may go in the opposite direction and play with sculptural, oversized and eccentric silhouettes.
He believes Met Gala guests can find inspiration in the designs of John Galliano, who celebrated the oversized silhouette in his 2003 couture show for Christian Dior. The event featured Japanese kimonos and traditional Chinese attire transformed into some of the most voluminous silhouettes ever seen, with models submerged in 18th-century hoopskirts, tent-like structural dresses and oversized ruffled coats with enlarged shoulder pads.
Paintings transformed into fashion
People may also interpret this year’s theme very literally. Moody says guests could honor iconic pieces of art — like a dress printed with the Mona Lisa. Or, say, a sequined jacket depicting “The Swing,” a classical 18th-century painting by French artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard, which portrays a woman in a large pink dress on a swing.
“We will see a lot of sculptures or interpretations of art on the wall,” he says. “Or work from designers’ favorite visual artists.”
Rare, archival references
The best outfits could be the ones we never thought we’d see again, according to Freeman. The stylist says that runway looks that have been buried deep in the fashion archives for decades will be unearthed for the occasion.
“We can expect certain outfits to make their debut at the Met Gala, like the designs of Thierry Mugler,” he says, referencing the work of the late French designer during the 1980s and 1990s, which played with theatrical silhouettes and architectural structures. The House of Mugler, a French fashion house founded by the designer, has an extensive collection of his signature decades-old looks that are perfect for this theme.
“Mugler’s rare archival pieces never see the light of day,” says Freeman. “I think they could finally be getting their moment.”
Anatomical fashion
If you’re squeamish, you may want to avert your eyes while watching this year’s red carpet. Freeman predicts that celebrities might interpret the theme by celebrating what’s inside their bodies through garments that mimic organs and bones, dubbed anatomical fashion.
He references Elsa Schiaparelli’s 1938 Skeleton Dress — featuring three-dimensional ribs, vertebrae and limb bones — and Alexander McQueen’s 2023 “Anatomy” collection, which featured designs that resembled dissected bodies. “Let’s not forget the human body is beautiful, and yes, it actually is a work of art,” says Freeman.
A… ‘cement suit’
Met Gala guests might go one step further and turn themselves into actual museum objects. Freeman thinks we could see designers use clay products to form a “cement suit” that mimics the appearance of a Renaissance sculpture. He gushes over South African singer Tyla’s skin-tight Balmain strapless gown, covered in real sand, that she wore at the 2024 Met Gala for the theme, “The Garden of Time.”
“I would really love to see some kind of cement,” he adds. “Or just unconventional materials used to make a garment.”
