Independent Arts News Reporting The Met Announces Spring Costume Art Exhibition
Reported on Wednesday, May 13, 2026
Pictured Above: Inscribed Body. Photo Credit: Contributed.
NEWSROOM POST: NEW YORK, NEW YORK
Starting May 10, the show will inaugurate the Museum’s nearly 12,000-square-foot Condé M. Nast Galleries, named for the organization’s late founder in recognition of a lead gift. Featuring nearly 400 objects from The Met’s vast collection, Costume Art will juxtapose garments and works of art to illuminate new connections. On view now through January 10, 2027
New York, NY – Metropolitan Museum of Art announced recently new details for The Costume Institute’s spring 2026 exhibition, Costume Art, and the annual Met Gala fundraiser, which took place on Monday, May 4.
The show will examine the centrality of the dressed body, juxtaposing garments and works of art from across the Museum’s vast collection to create pairings that not only illuminate the indivisible connection between clothing and the body but also the complex interplay between artistic representations of the body and fashion as an embodied art form. Costume Art will be on view at The Met Fifth Avenue from May 10, 2026, through January 10, 2027.
To celebrate the opening, Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and Anna Wintour will co-chair The Costume Institute Benefit (also known as The Met Gala) on Monday, May 4. Co-chaired by Anthony Vaccarello and Zoë Kravitz, the Gala Host Committee will include Sabrina Carpenter, Doja Cat, Gwendoline Christie, Alex Consani, Misty Copeland, Elizabeth Debicki, Lena Dunham, Paloma Elsesser, LISA, Chloe Malle, Sam Smith, Teyana Taylor, Lauren Wasser, Anna Weyant, A’ja Wilson, and Yseult, and newly announced members Adut Akech, Angela Bassett, Sinéad Burke, Rebecca Hall, Aimee Mullins, Tschabalala Self, Amy Sherald, and Chase Sui Wonders. As this year’s lead sponsor for the Gala and exhibition, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos will serve as Honorary Chairs for the evening.
The Gala dress code will be “Fashion is Art,” inviting guests to express their own relationship to fashion as an embodied art form and celebrate the countless depictions of the dressed body throughout art history. The Met Gala takes place annually on the first Monday in May and the proceeds provide The Costume Institute with its primary source of annual funding for exhibitions, publications, acquisitions, and operations. The funds raised also support other Museum activities.
Costume Art will inaugurate The Met’s new, nearly 12,000-square-foot galleries adjacent to the Great Hall, which will display The Costume Institute’s annual spring exhibition and, at times, shows from the Museum’s other curatorial departments, including those that explore the intersection of fashion and art. In recognition of a significant lead gift from Condé Nast, the space will be named for the company’s founder, the late Condé M. Nast. Additional generous contributions toward the renovation are provided by Thom Browne, and Michael Kors and Lance Le Pere. Further support is provided by Met Trustee Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer, Tory Burch LLC, Nancy C. and Richard R. Rogers, as well as Met Trustee Amy Griffin and John Griffin. The spring exhibition and new Galleries are designed by Miriam Peterson and Nathan Rich of the Brooklyn-based architecture firm Peterson Rich Office (PRO).
The exhibition and Benefit are made possible by Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos. Additional support is provided by Saint Laurent and Condé Nast.
Pictured Above: Inscribed Body. Photo Credit: Contributed.
The catalogue is made possible by Saint Laurent.
Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and Chief Executive Officer said: “Costume Art will present a dynamic and scholarly conversation between garments from The Costume Institute and an array of artworks from across The Met’s collection, elevating universal and timeless themes while bringing forward new ideas and ways of seeing. This immensely creative and collaborative show 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. The newly designed, state-of-the-art Condé M. Nast Galleries further reflect The Met’s commitment to displaying and appreciating fashion as an art form, and also to continually investing in gallery improvement projects that will benefit our visitors for generations to come. We are thrilled to announce such an esteemed group of co-chairs and members of the host committee, and further we are deeply grateful to all our donors for their remarkable generosity to create these new, grand public galleries.”
Andrew Bolton, Curator in Charge, The Costume Institute, added: “For The Costume Institute’s inaugural exhibition in the Condé M. Nast Galleries, I wanted to focus on the centrality of the dressed body within the Museum, connecting artistic representations of the body with fashion as an embodied art form. Rather than prioritizing fashion’s visuality, which often comes at the expense of the corporeal, Costume Art privileges its materiality and the indivisible connection between our bodies and the clothes we wear. The opening of the new Galleries will mark a pivotal moment for the department, one that acknowledges the critical role that fashion plays not only within art history but also within contemporary culture. I am grateful to Max for his support and to the generous donors to the Galleries for their belief in fashion’s transformative possibilities.”
Costume Art will feature nearly 400 objects from The Met collection, spanning centuries of artistic expression. Fashions will be juxtaposed with works of art from across time to create connections that will range from the formal to the conceptual, the individual to the universal, and the playful to the profound. The exhibition will be organized into a series of thematic body types that reflect their ubiquity and endurance through time and space. The categories will present body types that are pervasive in works across the Museum, such as the “Naked Body” and the “Classical Body,” as well as those that have traditionally been overlooked, such as the “Pregnant Body” and the “Aging Body”. Other categories, such as the “Anatomical Body,” and the “Mortal Body,” will explore universal bodily experiences. Objects will be displayed on pedestals and platforms to represent equivalency between types of artworks and types of bodies. Underscoring the exhibition’s focus on the embodied experience of fashion, the mannequins will feature heads with polished steel surfaces, designed by artist Samar Hejazi, that invite visitors to see themselves reflected in the body types and garments.
Highlights will include: a 2022–23 suit by Glenn Martens for Y/Project in collaboration with Jean Paul Gaultier paired with a 1st–2nd century CE marble statue of Diadoumenos; a walking dress from about 1883 juxtaposed with Georges Seurat’s 1884 Study for “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte”; a 1997–98 ensemble by Comme des Garçons displayed with Max Weber’s 1917 “Figure in Rotation”; and a 2023 dress by Dilara Findikoglu presented alongside an 1868 mourning brooch by Tiffany & Co.
Credits
The exhibition is organized by Andrew Bolton, Curator in Charge, The Costume Institute, with the support of Costume Institute staff Stephanie Kramer, Senior Research Associate; Ayaka Iida, Research Associate; and Emily Mushaben, Research Associate.The exhibition will be designed by Miriam Peterson and Nathan Rich of Peterson Rich Office (PRO). Additionally, artist Samar Hejazi will create bespoke heads for the show’s mannequins.
Programming
The Met will host a series of public programs and events that will explore various elements and themes presented in the exhibition. Further information will be released at a later date.
Related Content
An illustrated catalogue written by Bolton will accompany the show and feature new imagery by artist Julie Wolfe, photographer Paul Westlake, and stylist, editor, and designer Nathalie Agussol, with an introduction by Dr. Llewellyn Negrin, adjunct senior researcher with the School of Creative Arts and Media at the University of Tasmania, Australia, and an epilogue by Andrew Solomon. The book will be published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and distributed internationally by Yale University Press. Additionally, a limited-edition deluxe publication will be available exclusively at The Met Store.
Join the conversation about the exhibition and Gala on social media: #MetCostumeArt, #CostumeInstitute, @MetCostumeInstitute, and #MetGala.
