Ahead of the Met Gala, “Costume Art” Connects Fashion and the Body

The Metropolitan Museum of Art previewed the Costume Institute’s new, permanent galleries and “Costume Art” exhibition on the morning of the Met Gala, famously known as Fashion’s Biggest Night. The Met was closed to the public for the day in preparation for the big event as Fifth Avenue set up to host the most glittering red carpet between the Oscars and the Emmys, but the museum offered a peek at the exhibition, which opens to the public on May 10.

“Fashion is Art” is the theme for this year’s Met Gala, which has already raised over $42 million for the museum. Former Vogue editor and Costume Institute Benefit co-chair Anna Wintour was the first of several honored speakers to open Monday’s press event, remarking at one point, “This is my most favorite day of the year, and also my most terrifying one.” Her fellow Met Gala co-chair Venus Williams also spoke at the podium, as did event sponsor Lauren Sánchez Bezos. In a statement, the Met’s Chief Executive Officer, Max Hollein, added: “‘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.”

The “Costume Art” exhibition itself features over 400 objects from within the Metropolitan’s collections, establishing fashion’s place as an art form and reference point within over five millennium of history. By putting the new Condé M. Nast galleries right off the Great Hall main entry, the Museum has finally put the fashion exhibits in a place that matches their centrality in the public heart. Although Costume Institute shows are always a huge draw for the museum, they previously took place in a set of galleries downstairs from the Egyptian Wing, or in varying special exhibition spaces, or occasionally spaced around other wings to use the art as a contextual backdrop. The new space rectifies the generations-long space shuffle.

The exhibition itself is divided among themes pertaining to the body and its forms, including “The Classical Body,” “The Pregnant Body,” “The Mortal Body,” “The Disabled Body,” “The Corpulent Body,” “The Abstract Body,” “The Reclaimed Body,” and “The Naked Body.” It embraces the diversity of the body within human experience and sartorial self-expression. Mannequins echo a comprehensive array of body types. While previous mannequins featured a stylized set of facial features based on supermodel Christy Turlington, the new mannequins all had mirrors on their faces, allowing the viewer to see themself in the original wearer, however much time and place divide them.

Curator Andrew Bolton discussed the theme: “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.”

Bolton has called the main area of the the new space “the cathedral,” and it feels far more vast than the old gift shop that it replaced. It is the largest of four smoothly connected rooms within the new galleries. These rooms also incorporate what was previously office space. Just as the exhibit itself places fashion as an equal within the art history context, so too the galleries place the Costume Institute within the full scope of the Metropolitan’s story by smoothly incorporating architectural elements hidden from public view for much of living memory, including pieces of the first and third building that were eventually enveloped by newer wings and the familiar white marble facade.

Architects Miriam Peterson and Nathan Rich, of Brooklyn’s Peterson Rich, made reference to the museum’s 150-plus years of archive materials to create a suite of rooms that fit organically into the structural heart of the institute. The lighting meets the seemingly conflicting goals of being soft and indirect while adequately illuminating fragile textiles. They used plaster walls instead of paint to give a sense of permanence. See-through scrims subdivide the space by subject and body type while allowing the viewer to see beyond. Sustainability was also prioritized: because the walls do not shift, there will be less waste as the installations change.

The exhibit is accompanied by a gift shop collection that includes “Costume Art”-themed decoupage paperweights and trays by John Derian, a Tory Bury silk scarf, some very fun his ’n hers Thom Brown nesting dolls, and sculptural jewelry by Charlotte Chesnais.

“Costume Art” is on view May 10, 2026–January 10, 2027 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.