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Associated Press

You certainly do not have to tell Beyonce this: fashion, when deployed properly, is nothing less than art.
Now, the fashion-forward superstar will have another chance to make the point. When she co-chairs the Met Gala in May, all eyeballs will be glued to the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see how one of the most watched women on the planet, in her eighth gala appearance, interprets the dress code: “Fashion is Art”.
The museum announced the dress code on February 23, along with some gala-related details, including new guest names. Joining the top co-chairs – Beyonce, Nicole Kidman, tennis champ Venus Williams and ex-Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour – is a “host committee” chaired by designer Anthony Vaccarello and filmmaker Zoë Kravitz.
They, and everyone else attending, will be figuring out what to wear come May 4. The code seems to have been chosen for maximum flexibility. And, says Andrew Bolton, curator of the Met’s Costume Institute: “Hopefully, it will put an end to the rather obsolete ‘is fashion art?’ debate once and for all.”

For Bolton, though, the show’s the thing, to paraphrase Hamlet. As gala-watchers know, the big party is not only a fundraiser for the institute – a self-funding department – but a launch pad for the annual spring fashion exhibit. Curated by Bolton and his team, this year’s show, “Costume Art”, seeks to present fashion as a through-line in the entire history of art.
The exhibition will be the biggest, in terms of objects, that the institute has ever done: nearly 400 in total, or 200 garments and 200 artworks from around the museum, placed in pairs.
The idea, Bolton says, is to examine “the dressed body” in all its aspects, and to make the point that not only is fashion art – something previous shows have demonstrated – but that art is fashion.
“It’s reversing what we’ve done before,” Bolton says. “Now we’re looking at art through the lens of fashion.”
What that means, in practice, is that you might see an art object in a glass case – say, a vase from ancient Greece. Displayed above the case will be a garment from the museum’s vast costume collection, echoing the fashion on figures in that vase.
The show also aims to enable viewers to see themselves in some of the fashions. Thus, mannequins will feature heads with polished steel surfaces – as in mirrors – designed by artist Samar Hejazi.
Bolton, who has curated the Met’s biggest costume shows, nonetheless says he felt special pressure here to do “something spectacular”. That is because “Costume Art” is inaugurating, with fanfare, a prominent new home for the museum’s fashion exhibitions. The new Conde M. Nast Galleries – created from what was formerly the museum’s retail store – will occupy nearly 12,000 sq ft (1,115 square metres) off the museum’s Great Hall.

For one thing, that will mean gala guests can now conveniently view the exhibit and then stroll easily to the dinner portion of the evening at the Temple of Dendur – or toggle between the two. A more lasting result: it will prevent snaking queues elsewhere in the museum, once the show opens to the public on May 10 (it runs until January 10, 2027).
For “Costume Art”, the galleries, still being completed, consist of two main rooms with different heights – one with an 18-foot (5.5-metre) ceiling, one with a nine-foot ceiling. The idea is for viewers to weave in and out of each space. “There’s a permeability,” Bolton says.
He calls the new show already one of the highlights of his career – and a statement of intent.
“We’re trying to make a statement here – that this is something we can do at the Met,” he explains. “We have access to 16 curatorial departments across the museum.” And, of course, access to the institute’s more than 33,000 garments. “Really, nobody else has this capacity,” he says.
He hopes the show will inaugurate not only new galleries, but an era of collaboration with the rest of the museum – one that puts fashion, well, forward.


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Zoe Kravitz and Anthony Vaccarello, meanwhile, chair a ‘host committee’, as the dress code – ‘Fashion is Art’ – is also announced


Zoe Kravitz and Anthony Vaccarello, meanwhile, chair a ‘host committee’, as the dress code – ‘Fashion is Art’ – is also announced.


Met Gala 2026: Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams among co-chairs

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Zoe Kravitz and Anthony Vaccarello, meanwhile, chair a ‘host committee’, as the dress code – ‘Fashion is Art’ – is also announced

Zoe Kravitz and Anthony Vaccarello, meanwhile, chair a ‘host committee’, as the dress code – ‘Fashion is Art’ – is also announced