Fashion is art, but not every canvas deserves a frame.
A-listers, Hollywood elites, and billionaires climbed the grand staircase of New York City’s Metropolitan Museum on Monday evening for the Met Gala, dressed in elaborate and eyebrow-raising interpretations of this year’s theme, “Costume Art.”
A number of celebrities declined invitations to this year’s event amid backlash about its sponsorship by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos.
Protests against the ultra-wealthy couple—who are serving as honorary chairs of the gala—have swept through New York, with slogans such as “Boycott the Bezos Met Gala” projected onto the Bezoses’ $80 million penthouse near Madison Square Park.
The stars who did show up for the glitzy gala arrived in looks inspired by the dress code “Fashion is Art,” a theme whose open-endedness yielded some baffling misfires.
Here are the 2026 Met Gala looks that proved not all art belongs on the red carpet.
Lena Dunham
The Girls star was engulfed by a dense cluster of red feathers scrunched around her neck, contrasting with featherless sections that revealed a sparkle-encrusted red layer underneath.
Katy Perry
Flapping open a metallic visor to reveal her face, the pop singer looked like she was still cosplaying as an astronaut more than a year after her 11-minute space trip with Lauren Sánchez aboard Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Perhaps it’s time to come back down to Earth.
Olivia Wilde
It’s unclear what vision the artist-director had in mind when she put on her black off-the-shoulder dress and decided to extend it with a white tulle train topped by a wooden cage. Centaur? Birdcage installation?
Troye Sivan
The “One of Your Girls” singer made a bold choice by showing up to the annual gala in jeans, and it did not pay off.
Ben Platt
The actor and singer hit the theme, but little else landed. The suit looked stiff and cheap, the trousers sat awkwardly high above the ankle, and the cotton-candy palette would make any painter wince.
Doja Cat
The Grammy-winning artist is celebrated for pushing fashion boundaries and looking good doing it, which makes it all the more puzzling that she would trade her signature flair for what resembled a plastic bag. Doja Cat later shed the plasticky layer, revealing a barely-there illusion of a garment underneath.
Adrien Brody
The Oscar-winning actor’s matte leather pants sat uneasily beneath a black suit jacket, while polished shoes added yet another clashing finish.
Lauren Sánchez Bezos
Lauren Sánchez may have been channeling John Singer Sargent’s Madame X; however, nothing about her dress reads “Fashion is Art.” Though Singer’s portrait with its evocative pose may have been controversial at the time, the unexciting matte color and the striking lack of texture are proof that the billionaire seems to have opted out of both fashion and art.
Hugh Jackman
Jackman arrived at fashion’s biggest night in a tuxedo, white shirt, and black bow tie—an outfit that could have come straight from any awards show on the calendar.
Cardi B
The rapper, wearing a bizarre Marc Jacobs creation, looked like she was auditioning for a part in The Substance 2.
