The Metropolitan Museum of Art today announced its highly anticipated 2026 Costume Institute exhibition, “Costume Art,” scheduled to open May 10, 2026, and run through January 10, 2027, at The Met Fifth Avenue. The exhibition will inaugurate the museum’s newly designed, nearly 12,000-square-foot Condé Nast Galleries adjacent to the Great Hall. This significant institutional milestone positions fashion at the center of the museum’s public experience.
“Costume Art” will examine the relationship between clothing and the human body through a novel curatorial lens, pairing historical and contemporary garments from The Costume Institute’s collection with artworks drawn from the museum’s expansive holdings. The exhibition’s thematic structure – organized around a series of “body types” such as the Naked Body, Classical Body, Pregnant Body, Aging Body, Anatomical Body, and Mortal Body – reflects a scholarly effort to reveal how artistic representation and fashion mutually shape cultural perceptions of the embodied form across time.
The show marks a new chapter for the Costume Institute, transitioning its signature spring exhibition from basement spaces into a prominent gallery suite at the forefront of The Met. The Condé Nast Galleries, named in recognition of a lead gift from Condé Nast, will serve future seasonal shows and cross-departmental explorations of fashion and art.
The opening of “Costume Art” will be celebrated with the annual Met Gala on Monday, May 4, 2026, one of the fashion world’s most influential events. This year’s gala will be co-chaired by Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and Anna Wintour, alongside a distinguished host committee featuring prominent figures from entertainment, fashion, and art.
Proceeds from the Met Gala remain a primary source of funding for The Costume Institute’s exhibitions, acquisitions, and programming. The gala’s theme and dress code are expected to reflect the exhibition’s focus on the intersection of clothing, the body, and artistic expression.
Max Hollein, The Met’s director and chief executive officer, underscored the institution’s ambitious vision, noting that the exhibition and new galleries represent a transformative moment that elevates fashion’s role within the broader context of art history. Curator in charge Andrew Bolton emphasized that “Costume Art” prioritizes the embodied experience of dress, challenging conventional hierarchies that have long separated fashion from fine art.
Visitors and fashion enthusiasts alike can anticipate a dynamic dialogue between garments and artworks spanning millennia, inviting a reassessment of how clothing both shapes and is shaped by culture, identity, and artistic innovation.
The exhibition and gala highlight the growing cultural significance of fashion in institutional art spaces, building on the Costume Institute’s history of groundbreaking shows that blur the boundaries between couture, history, and contemporary artistic discourse.
