It was announced last year that “Costume Art” will be the central theme for the spring exhibition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, which hopes to explore how fashion (and clothing) is a form of and expression of art — there exists a space where both are given an equal measure of admiration and awe.

As the first Monday of May approaches, all roads lead to the 2026 Met Gala, and its recently announced theme and dress code “Fashion is Art.” Call it an ode to the exhibition’s theme, with the intention to showcase how the dressed body can be transformed into a living work of art.

The main exhibit, Costume Art, will feature a 200-piece collection that looks to explore the centrality of the dressed body, told across canvases juxtaposed against costumes curated from The Met, and The Costume Institute’s vast collections. It will be showcased in the newly-dedicated 12,000-square-foot suite of galleries, adjacent to the Great Hall of the Metropolitan Museum in New York City, beginning 10 May.

For Costume Institute curator Andrew Bolton, in an interview with Vogue, fashion is the crux of both the exhibit and this year’s gala.

“What connects every curatorial department and what connects every single gallery in the museum is fashion, or the dressed body,” he explained. “It’s the common thread throughout the whole museum.”