The Met Gala<\/a> always asks for interpretation, but this year it practically begged for it. Inside the museum, the exhibition \u201cCostume Art\u201d<\/a> is a thoughtful, almost academic meditation on the dressed body\u2014how fashion shapes, frames, and occasionally distorts it across centuries. Outside, on the steps, the dress code \u201cFashion Is Art\u201d was something else entirely: a prompt, a dare, a license to get a little literal. Some guests nodded politely to the theme. Others showed up ready to hang.<\/p>\n Because if the exhibition is about ideas, the red carpet<\/a> was about references\u2014big, bold, occasionally delightfully on-the-nose ones. Gracie Abrams shimmered straight out of Klimt\u2019s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I<\/em>, while Rachel Zegler delivered full historical drama via The Execution of Lady Jane Grey<\/em>. Madonna<\/a> didn\u2019t just reference Leonora Carrington\u2014she staged her, entourage and all\u2014while Heidi Klum went full illusion in a wearable take on The Veiled Virgin<\/em>. And then there was the unexpected trio:Lauren S\u00e1nchez<\/a> three separate takes on Sargent\u2019s Portrait of Madame X<\/em>, courtesy of Claire Foy, Lauren S\u00e1nchez, and now Julianne Moore\u2014proof that even one scandalous strap can have a long afterlife. These were the looks that didn\u2019t just understand the assignment\u2014they practically cited their sources.<\/p>\n Photo: Taylor Hill \/ Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n Hans Bellmer,\u00a0La Poupee. Seconde Partie (The Doll. Part II)<\/em>, 1936, hand tinted photo.<\/span>\u00a9 2026 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Bridgeman Images<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n Cardi B in Marc Jacobs – Hans Bellmer sculptures<\/p>\n Cardi B arrived as a surrealist fever dream courtesy of Marc Jacobs, her body reworked into the uncanny proportions of Hans Bellmer. Bellmer, a 1930s provocateur, is best known for his disturbing, meticulously staged photographs of dolls\u2014limbs rearranged, torsos doubled, bodies fragmented into something both hyper-feminine and deeply unsettling. Jacobs pulled directly from that visual language, exaggerating Cardi\u2019s hips, shoulders, and silhouette into something sculptural and slightly off-kilter.<\/p>\n Photo: Jamie McCarthy \/ Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/picture><\/span><\/div>\n
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