{"id":470679,"date":"2026-05-06T04:51:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T04:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/470679\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T04:51:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T04:51:28","slug":"met-gala-2026-from-beyonce-to-blake-lively-and-an-unrecognisable-bad-bunny-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/470679\/","title":{"rendered":"Met Gala 2026: From Beyonc\u00e9 to Blake Lively and an unrecognisable Bad Bunny \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sculptural dresses, art history references, and dramatic headpieces were among the biggest red-carpet trends at the Met Gala<\/a> on the first Monday in May at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York<\/a> last night. <\/p>\n

Ireland was represented by Sin\u00e9ad Burke<\/a>, a writer and fashion activist, who served on the host committee for the illustrious event and also featured in the exhibition, posing for two mannequins on display. Burke wore a black sequinned corseted gown. <\/p>\n

Irish design was also visible on the Met carpet, with Jonathan Anderson<\/a>, creative director of Dior, dressing guests including Sabrina Carpenter and Alexa Chung. <\/p>\n

Sean McGirr<\/a> of Alexander McQueen designed a multicoloured sequin gown for Chase Infiniti, and a white lace gown for Daisy Edgar-Jones. Simone Rocha<\/a> also opted for a white design dressing model Adwoa Aboah in a sheer corseted gown. <\/p>\n

One of the most anticipated red carpets, the Met Gala marks the Costume Institute\u2019s spring exhibition, this year titled Costume Art. <\/p>\n

More evolved and expansive than mere fashion pieces inspired by artistic works, the exhibition explores the relationship between fashion and art, and how both mediums interpret, celebrate, or conceal the human body. <\/p>\n

Serving as a benefit for the Costume Institute, the Met Gala also doubles as an extravagant fashion spectacle, a parade of custom, couture, and archival ensembles, donned by A-listers across the fashion, entertainment, and music landscapes. With a dress code that reflects the exhibition\u2019s theme, this year\u2019s directive, Fashion as Art, set the mood on the red carpet, with Vogue encouraging guests to consider the many ways that designers use the body as their blank canvas. <\/p>\n

The results veered from literal to art history lessons to predictable naked dressing. <\/p>\n

\"Beyonce'sBeyonce’s studded exoskeleton dress is a Olivier Rousteing design. Photograph: Angela Weiss\/ Getty Images \"BadBad Bunny in custom Zara. Photograph: Julian Hamilton\/Getty Images \"BlakeBlake Lively in an archive Atelier Versace design. Photograph: Jamie McCarthy\/Getty Images \"SinéadSin\u00e9ad Burke in a custom Christian Siriano gown. Photograph: Mike Coppola\/Getty Images \"SabrinaSabrina Carpenter in a custom Christian Dior design. Photograph: Mike Coppola\/Getty Images \"KatyKaty Perry in a white dress by Stella McCartney. Photograph: Dimitrios Kambouris\/Getty Images for The Met Museum\/Vogue <\/p>\n

Guests like Beyonc\u00e9, Nicole Kidman, and Charli XCX opted for their finest interpretations as they ascended the iconic museum\u2019s steps. For many, the brief was a chance to go conceptual: model Heidi Klum was unrecognisable as she turned herself into a Grecian statue; Bad Bunny aged himself with prosthetics and wore Zara; and Eileen Gu wore a bubble-adorned dress that actually spouted bubbles. <\/p>\n

Taking cinema as inspiration, Carpenter wore a Dior-designed gown crafted from film reels from Audrey Hepburn\u2019s movie Sabrina. Surrealist styles were also prominent, including hand motifs with sculpted hands wrapped around the body on Lena Mahfouf\u2019s gown. Gwendoline Christie wore a feathered red dress by Giles Deacon, complete with a real-life masquerade mask, and Janelle Mon\u00e1e wore a custom Christian Siriano tech-meets-nature-inspired gown. <\/p>\n

\"AlexaAlexa Chung in Dior. Photograph: Getty Images \"CharliCharli XCX in Saint Laurent. Photograph: Mike Coppola\/Getty Images \"EileenEileen Gu wears a bubble Iris van Herpen design. Photograph: Mike Coppola\/Getty Images \"NicoleNicole Kidman in a custom Chanel look by Matthieu Blazy. Photograph: Jamie McCarthy\/Getty Images \"HeidiHeidi Klum in a custom Maison Blanche design. Photograph: Mike Coppola\/Getty Images \"ChaseChase Infiniti in a trompe l\u2019oeil Thom Browne dress. Photograph: Mike Coppola\/Getty Images \"DaisyDaisy Edgar-Jones wearing custom Alexander McQueen. Photograph: Mike Coppola\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Dresses with riffs on the traditional human form also dominated. For her first Met Gala carpet in 10 years, Beyonc\u00e9 embraced exoskeletal dressing in a skeletal-inspired gown embellished with a dramatic feathered train. Zoe Kravitz opted for a full black lace Saint Laurent dress with an exaggerated bustle-hip detail, and Cardi B wore a lace Marc Jacobs with bulging shoulder detail. Moulded, sculptural gowns also fit into the body-centric dress code, with Kylie Jenner appearing in a trompe-l\u2019\u0153il nude Schiaparelli corset dress. Hailey Bieber also got the moulded memo, in a Klein blue chiffon gown, complete with a gold-breasted corset inspired by Saint Laurent\u2019s body-sculpting work with Claude Lalanne. Kim Kardashian arrived in a sixties, sci-fi, liquid-copper ensemble designed by artist Allen Jones.<\/p>\n

Metallic sculptural gowns were also seen on Margot Robbie and Gracie Abrams, both in Chanel. Rihanna wore a metallic embellished gown with sculptural wreath detail by Maison Margiela. Draped detailing, with falling fabric and goddess-inspired gowns reminiscent of sculptures, was spotted across the red carpet, including Serena Williams and Liu Wen. Kendall Jenner\u2019s Zac Posen for Gap gown featured a twisted white T-shirt corseted into a gown referencing the goddess Nike. <\/p>\n

Naked dresses remained a Met Gala stalwart, with slinky mesh and sheer layers paying tribute to the human form, as seen on Kate Moss, Gigi Hadid and Joey King. Tonal styles that gave the illusion of a second skin were spotted on Ashley Graham and Lauren Harrier, both designed by Di Petsa. <\/p>\n

\"ZoëZo\u00eb Kravitz in Saint Laurent. Photograph: Mike Coppola\/Getty Images \"CaraCara Delevingne in a Ralph Lauren gown. Photograph: Theo Wargo\/FilmMagic \"AshleyAshley Graham in a sheer gown designed by Di Petsa. Photograph: Angela Weiss \/ AFP via Getty Images \"GigiGigi Hadid in custom Miu Miu. Photograph: Jamie McCarthy\/Getty Images \"KylieKylie Jenner in custom Schiaparelli. Photograph: Dimitrios Kambouris\/Getty Images for The Met Museum\/Vogue <\/p>\n

Sarah Pidgeon brought a burst of colour in a Loewe chartreuse crop top and skirt, and Tessa Thompson wore a sculptural blue dress by Klein for Valentino. Amanda Seyfried and Camila Morrone also leaned into single-colour gowns, opting for pretty pastel shades that brought a soft, sweet note, if not exactly on theme. <\/p>\n

Fiery red dresses were a fixture with Nicole Kidman in a sequin-feathered gown by Chanel, while tennis player Naomi Osaka did a red-carpet reveal, arriving in a white dress coat before stripping down to a laced-back red sequinned dress by Robert Wun. Figure skater, Alysa Liu, who has just been announced as Louis Vuitton\u2019s ambassador, wore a red tiered gown by the French fashion house. Lena Dunham merged colour palette and art history, with her red sequin Valentino gown, taking inspiration from Artemisia Gentileschi\u2019s Judith Slaying Holofernes. <\/p>\n

\"LenaLena Dunham in feathered Valentino. Photograph: Jamie McCarthy\/Getty Images \"KimKim Kardashian wears custom Allen Jones and Whitaker Malem. Photograph: Theo Wargo\/FilmMagic \"SZASZA in custom Bode. Photograph: Jamie McCarthy\/Getty Images \"SarahSarah Pidgeon in a bright Loewe look. Photograph: Mike Coppola\/Getty Images \"AarianaAariana Rose Philip in a Louise Linderoth design. Photograph: Jamie McCarthy\/Getty Images \"JanelleJanelle Mon\u00e1e in Christian Siriano. Photograph: Mike Coppola\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Also drawing inspiration from iconic art-historical references, Lauren Sanchez Bezos wore a midnight-hued Schiaparelli dress with an off-the-shoulder strap detail, a nod to the Madame X painting, which hangs at the Met. Claire Foy, in a black Erdem gown, and Julianne Moore, also used Madame X as a reference point. Rococo paintings inspired Blake Lively\u2019s multi-pastel-hued Versace gown with a huge train. Charli XCX put a goth spin on her Van Gogh Irises-inspired look, opting for a black sheer dress adorned with subtle blooms by Saint Laurent. <\/p>\n

\"AnnaAnna Wintour in a feathery mint Chanel look. Photograph: Mike Coppola\/Getty Images \"TessaTessa Thompson in Valentino. Photograph: Jamie McCarthy\/Getty Images \"LenaLena Mahfouf in a Burc Akyol design. Photograph: Jamie McCarthy\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Florals also emerged as a leading trend, with dresses adorned with bold blooms, sculptural petal details, headpieces and appliqu\u00e9s, rather than traditional floral prints. Karlie Kloss wore a look from Jonathan Anderson\u2019s first couture show for Dior, complete with lilac orchids in her hair. Alexa Chung also wore Dior, in a silky chartreuse gown featuring a lily-pad brooch. Sza wore a yellow corseted dress by Bode with a dramatic floral headpiece. <\/p>\n

Offering a tougher twist on suiting for men were leather two-pieces, as seen on Nicholas Hoult and Luke Evans, while Patrick Schwarzenegger topped his tux with a cropped leather jacket, and Romeo Beckham trimmed his tux with leather lapels. Capes were another trend with singers Sam Smith and Sombr wearing dramatic, embellished iterations. <\/p>\n

\"RomeoRomeo Beckham in Burberry. Phitograph: Jamie McCarthy\/Getty Images) \"AmandaAmanda Seyfried in pink Prada. Photograph: Jamie McCarthy\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

With the exhibition\u2019s ethos centred on reclaiming the body beyond a singular, traditional ideal, the Met Gala reflected a more visibly diverse red carpet. In the exhibition itself, mannequins were mirrored on real bodies, with those individuals also attending the gala, including Burke, alongside Aariana Rose Philip, the first wheelchair user to attend the Met Gala. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sculptural dresses, art history references, and dramatic headpieces were among the biggest red-carpet trends at the Met Gala…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[30343,206475,12283,8150,206010,91276,18,117,19,17,206476,4113,40632,361,10420,974,206474,7783],"class_list":{"0":"post-470679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-anna-wintour","9":"tag-ashley-graham","10":"tag-beyonce","11":"tag-blake-lively","12":"tag-cara-delevingne","13":"tag-daisy-edgar-jones","14":"tag-eire","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-janelle-monae","19":"tag-kim-kardashian","20":"tag-lena-dunham","21":"tag-magazine","22":"tag-nicole-kidman","23":"tag-sabrina-carpenter","24":"tag-sinead-burke","25":"tag-zoe-kravitz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116525839673777500","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}