The steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art have seen a lot. Sculptural gowns that look like they belong in a gallery. Looks that sparked conversations about gender, power and identity. And Met Gala jewelry that told stories reaching back centuries with natural diamonds pinned, layered and draped with as much intention as the garments they accompanied. Every first Monday in May, the world watches fashion do what it has always done best: speak volumes.
This year, the Met Gala theme, “Costume Art”, makes the argument of whether or not fashion can be classified as art explicitly. Fashion is art. The body is the canvas. And for those who understand how natural diamonds function on a red carpet, 2026 is a particularly significant moment.
But to understand why this year matters, it helps to know how the whole thing began.
How did the Met Gala start?
The Met Gala, formally called the Costume Institute Benefit, has a more modest origin than its current spectacle suggests. Fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert founded it in 1948 as a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s newly established Costume Institute1.
The Costume Institute itself has an origin story of its own. Irene Lewisohn was a New York philanthropist who, with her sister Alice, helped found the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the theatre. It was here she met Aline Bernstein, a pioneering set and costume designer who became the first woman admitted to the United Scenic Art Union2. Both believed costume was a serious art form.
In 1937, they organized the Museum of Costume Art on Fifth Avenue; Bernstein served as its first president. By the time of its merger with the Met in 1946, the collection had grown from 493 garments to approximately 8,000. The Costume Institute’s research library still bears Lewisohn’s name today3.
Because it was the only curatorial department at the Met required to fund its own operations, the Gala was the lifeline from the start (though for its first two decades it bore little resemblance to what it would become). Venues like the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center hosted what was essentially a high-society charity dinner4. That changed in the early 1970s.
Why does the Met Gala have a theme?
Diana Vreeland and the birth of the dress code
When Diana Vreeland, former editor of American Vogue, joined the Costume Institute as a consultant in 1972, she transformed the event’s DNA. She moved it into the Met itself, introduced more elaborate decor and, most significantly, created the practice of matching the evening’s theme to the museum’s annual exhibition5.
The first themed Gala came in 1973, honoring “The World of Balenciaga”. Early themes such as “Romantic and Glamorous Hollywood Design”, “Vanity Fair: A Treasure Trove” and “La Belle Époque”6 drew from cultural history rather than spectacle. Vreeland also opened the guest list to Met Gala celebrities: Elizabeth Taylor, Andy Warhol, Bianca Jagger, Diana Ross, Cher. The event became a party rather than a dinner. Fashion became entertainmentvii. As Vreeland herself once put it: “Fashion must be the most intoxicating release from the banality of the world.”7
Anna Wintour and the modern era
Anna Wintour took over as chair in 1995, moving the Gala from December to the first Monday of May and systematically elevating the ambition of its themes8. Under her stewardship, the Gala became what it is today: an invitation-only event capped at roughly 650 to 700 guests, with individual tickets now priced at $75,000 and tables starting at $350,000x. In 2025, it raised nearly $31 million in a single evening – a new fundraising record for the Costume Institute9.
The theme isn’t just atmosphere, it’s a directive. Guests are expected to respond to it, and the best looks in Met Gala history are the ones that understood exactly what they were saying. Not everyone thinks the shift toward full theatrical dressing is a triumph. Designer Tom Ford has been characteristically direct, saying, “The only thing about the Met that I wish hadn’t happened is that it’s turned into a costume party. [It] used to just be very chic people wearing very beautiful clothes going to an exhibition”.10 It’s a fair observation and yet the looks that genuinely engage with a theme, rather than simply perform it, remain the ones that endure.
How Met Gala themes evolved
From tuxedos to theatrical dressing
For much of its history, the Met Gala was attended in ball gowns and black tie. The exhibition theme informed the décor, not the dress code. That began to shift in 2004, when “Dangerous Liaisons: Fashion and Furniture in the 18th Century” invited guests toward more elaborate, costume-driven interpretation11. Amber Valletta’s Marie Antoinette-meets-punk look, which paired a nude corset by Maggie Norris Couture with an 18th-century hairstyle12 became a marker for what Met Gala fashion could be when guests really committed.
The themes that defined a generation
From there, ambition grew. “Punk: Chaos to Couture” in 2013. “China: Through the Looking Glass” in 2015. “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” in 2018, which drew 1.65 million visitors, becoming the most successful Costume Institute exhibition in history. “Camp: Notes on Fashion” in 2019. Each theme pushed Met Gala outfits further, transforming fashion from entertainment to fashion as argument, concept and cultural commentary.
The 2026 Met Gala theme explained: what is “Costume Art”?
This year’s Met Gala 2026 show, curated by British art curator Andrew Bolton, places fashion in direct dialogue with more than 5,000 years of art from the Met’s own collection. Paintings, sculptures and antiquities will be presented alongside historical and contemporary garments. “What connects every curatorial department and what connects every single gallery in the museum is fashion, or the dressed body,” says Bolton. “It’s the common thread throughout the whole museum.13”
The goal, as Bolton describes it, is not hierarchy but equivalency. “When you juxtapose a garment with an artwork, another meaning comes about. Something else happens. It’s as if one plus one equals three.”14 The Costume Art Met Gala exhibition opens on May 10 and runs through January 2027. It will be the inaugural show in the Met’s new Condé Nast Galleries, a nearly 12,000-square-foot space that becomes the permanent home of the Costume Institute’s annual spring show15.
The dress code: “Fashion Is Art”
Guests are encouraged to wear garments that could stand as art in their own right. These could be pieces made in collaboration with visual artists, archival works referencing a specific movement, or new creations that use the body as a living canvas. Expect silhouettes drawn from art history, artist collaborations and antique diamond styles worn with the same intention as the clothes they accompany. As Bolton puts it, the aim is to “put an end to the rather obsolete ‘Is Fashion Art?’ debate once and for all.” 16
Met Gala jewelry: how natural diamonds function as artistic tools
On any Met Gala red carpet, the most considered looks treat natural diamond jewelry as the narrative core of an outfit, not an addition to it. Met Gala jewelry carries weight, combining diamond history, craft, rarity and intention. The best moments aren’t about scale or price. They’re about what a specific piece says in a specific context.
Iconic Met Gala diamond moments
2016
Uma Thurman pinned a historic Cartier peacock brooch to her Ralph Lauren gown. It was a special commission from 1948, nearly eight inches tall, set with more than 90 carats of natural diamonds, making its Met Gala red-carpet debut almost seven decades after it was created.
That same night, Sarah Jessica Parker wore an antique natural diamond rivière necklace from Fred Leighton. Madonna wore more than 400 carats of natural diamonds as body chains and hair jewelry against a black lace Givenchy ensemble17, a Met Gala diamond necklace moment that remains one of the most extravagant in the event’s history.
2022
For the “Gilded Glamour” theme, Billie Eilish wore a cache of early 20th-century natural diamond brooches, necklaces and rings from Fred Leighton, all in platinum18. These weren’t just beautiful antique diamonds, they were as researched as the gown itself.
2023
Dua Lipa wore the Tiffany & Co. Lucida Star diamond necklace, a D-color natural diamond of more than 100 carats making its first-ever red-carpet appearance19. Nicola Peltz Beckham layered an exceptional Harry Winston piece borrowed from her mother. The gem was once owned by the socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean, who had also owned the Hope Diamond before Harry Winston acquired her entire collection in 1949.
2025
Natural diamond brooches became the defining Met Gala jewelry looks of the evening. Rihanna wore Art Deco Bulgari double diamond brooches alongside a Cartier diamond brooch20. Pharrell Williams wore a Tiffany & Co. Coronation Ring featuring fancy color diamonds of more than 20 carats, while Colman Domingo wore Boucheron’s Iceberg necklace21.
What “Costume Art” means for Met Gala diamonds in 2026
For the Met Gala 2026 Costume Art theme, the potential is significant. Natural diamond formation begins deep beneath the earth’s surface in a process that takes millions to billions of years. This unique structure mirrors the same permanence found within great art. It’s a material with centuries of history in royal adornment, high jewelry and arresting artworks. When fashion argues that it belongs alongside art, natural diamonds are one of the strongest cases it can make.
What natural diamonds bring to fashion’s biggest night
The Met Gala is fashion’s most intellectually stimulating evening. It asks guests to have an argument, take a position, make a choice that holds up under scrutiny. The Met Gala iconic looks that endure are the ones that say something.
Natural diamonds have appeared at every significant moment in this event’s history not because they’re valuable, but because they’re irreplaceable. From the Oscars jewelry moments earlier this year to the Met steps in May, the conversation about natural diamonds on the red carpet reflects modern diamond trends that go far beyond aesthetics: permanence, provenance and the kind of meaning that time only deepens.
Sources
- www.voguearabia.com/article/eleanor-lambert-the-woman-who-created-the-met-gala ↩︎
- www.metmuseum.org/essays/dress-rehearsal-the-origins-of-the-costume-institute/ ↩︎
- www.metmuseum.org/essays/dress-rehearsal-the-origins-of-the-costume-institut/e ↩︎
- www.vogue.com/article/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-met-gala-video/ ↩︎
- www.voguecollege.com/articles/london/the-evolution-of-the-met-gala/ ↩︎
- www.people.com/style/timeline-of-met-gala-themes/ ↩︎
- www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a775/diana-vreeland-bazaar-years-0911/ ↩︎
- www.voguecollege.com/articles/madrid/anna-wintour-the-icon-who-shaped-the-met-gala-and-redefined-fashion/ ↩︎
- www.vanityfair.com/style/story/ahead-of-the-met-gala-2025-costume-institute-raises-record-dollar31-million/ ↩︎
- www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/tom-ford-met-gala-costume-anna-wintour/ ↩︎
- wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-scoops/feature/met-gala-history-how-it-turned-from-fundraiser-to-fashions-biggest-night/ ↩︎
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- www.metmuseum.org/press-releases/costume-institute-spring-2026/ ↩︎
- www.voguescandinavia.com/articles/met-gala-2026-everything-you-need-to-know/ ↩︎
- www.metmuseum.org/press-releases/costume-institute-spring-2026/ ↩︎
- www.apnews.com/article/met-gala-fashion/ ↩︎
- www.naturaldiamonds.com/ae/culture-and-style-ae/best-met-gala-natural-diamond-jewellery-ever/ ↩︎
- www.naturaldiamonds.com/ae/culture-and-style-ae/best-met-gala-natural-diamond-jewellery-ever/ ↩︎
- www.vogue.com/article/dua-lipa-met-gala-2023 ↩︎
- www.naturaldiamonds.com/culture-and-style/rihanna-met-gala-jewelry/ ↩︎
- www.naturaldiamonds.com/culture-and-style/2025-met-gala-jewelry/ ↩︎
