Never one to make a timid entrance, Madonna made a big statement on the 2026 Met Gala red carpet.

There was the witchy dress, the tumble of raven hair, and the seven ladies-in-waiting carrying her diaphonous lavender cape, a reinterpretation of the 1945 oil painting The Temptation of St. Anthony, by one of the singer’s favorite artists, the British-Mexican Surrealist Leonora Carrington.

All of this seemingly in service of the dramatic centerpiece: a towering headpiece featuring a skeletal ship dripping in tulle and beads. The hat once belonged to the infamous fashion editor Isabella Blow, and was commissioned by her from fashion’s go-to milliner, Philip Treacy, who says it’s among his favorite creations and that Michael Jackson once offered him $25,000 to purchase it (Treacy politely declined). “There’s something very exciting about Madonna wearing a ship hat to the Met ball,” Treacy said in an exclusive video. “I think Isabella would be thrilled,” he added. “Isabella is going to The Met, in spirit, on Madonna’s head.”

The infamous Treacy-designed “ship hat” was so beloved by Blow that it was placed on her coffin at her 2007 funeral.

Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Blow was, of course, well known for her love of demonstrative, face-obscuring, statement-making headwear, a manifestation of her desire to be noticed coupled with her insecurity about her looks. As such, she had no dearth of dramatic hats, and yet this one was so beloved that it was placed on her coffin during her 2007 funeral.

Terence Donovan, British Vogue, February 1995.

Fritz von der Schulenburg The World of Interiors, March 2009