On the first Monday in May, the upper echelons of the fashion industry gather on the Upper East Side for the most opulent display of style, taste and creative excellence; more commonly known as the Met Gala.
For the uninitiated, the annual charity ball has been hosted for three-quarters of a century and raises funds for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. With an exclusive guest list that gathers aristocrats, designers, actors, musicians, athletes, business tycoons and titans in their respective industries, the show-stopping night has come to be known as the crème de la crème of the sartorial calendar.
The actual proceedings of the event are an enigma thanks to a strict no-phones policy—save for star-studded selfies captured in the ladies’ room—making it also one of the most secretive events across the East Coast.
But of course, the real standout of the evening is the array of looks that grace the red carpet. Serving as a proverbial runway, the granite front steps are elevated beyond disbelief, serving both a literal and figurative platform for the haute couture creations that exceed all expectations.
From Gigi Hadid’s bespoke Thom Browne gown that made history for taking over 13,500 hours to construct to Dua Lipa wearing a completely beguiling 100-carat Tiffany & Co. necklace that was reportedly worth over $100 million USD, these ensembles aren’t for the faint of heart.
And with the annual Met Gala just around the corner, we felt it pertinent to revisit the best Met Gala dresses of all time. Blood racing, heart pumping, jaw-dropping and gasp-inducing, consider this the ultimate guide to the most memorable looks of all time.
The 13 Best Met Gala Dresses of All Time
1. Rihanna
Style Notes: With the theme as expansive and loaded with historical connotations as “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,” it was only fitting that Rihanna take not only the most subversive route, but also the most straightforward.
Quite literally taking the fashion set to church, the multi-hyphenate musician and makeup mogul opted for a custom silver Maison Margiela cape-and-dress concoction designed by John Galliano. The pièce de résistance, however, was her homage to papal regalia in the form of her Stephen Jones headpiece. Hers is one conclave we’d gladly join.
2. Princess Diana
Style Notes: Six months after Princess Diana enshrined her fashion legacy by turning up to the Serpentine Gallery Summer Party wearing the inimitable revenge dress designed by Christina Stambolian, the late Lady Spencer made a discreet public outing to deliver another iconic ensemble for the ages.
Blending in with the Manhattan evening, she arrived at the soiree in an understated midnight blue slip dress designed by John Galliano for Christian Dior. (Just one of the British enfant terrible’s many features on this list.) Her one and only appearance at the event eventually came to define her sartorial shift following her separation from King Charles III; elegant, unburdened and an expression of her true sense of self.
3. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
Style Notes: without an appearance from the perennially mysterious Olsen Twins. Mary Kate and Ashley have been fixtures at the soirée since they were 18 years old, making the event a true home-away-from-home for the secretive duo. However, it was at the 2017 iteration, which was themed “Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons”, where The Row designers made their biggest impact.
Returning to their bohemian roots, the duo arrived in truly antique lace slip dresses that were reportedly over a century old. Dripping in pendant necklaces, fur-trimmed jackets and chunky accessories, the looks also honoured the Japanese designer’s autumn/winter 2005 collection “Broken Brides”, which was a subtle full-circle moment, given it also acknowledged the year they first started attending.
4. Zendaya
Style Notes: You can rest assured that whenever Zendaya has confirmed her RSVP, a sartorial feast is guaranteed. As one of the pioneers of method dressing, the 29-year-old takes her job as a guest incredibly seriously. However, when it came to her co-chairing the event in 2024, she exceeded all expectations.
Not only did she both open and close the red carpet with two separate but incredibly visionary looks, she delivered the most hauntingly beautiful interpretation of the theme “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion”. With the dress code being "The Garden of Time," which was inspired by J.G. Ballard's 1962 short story exploring themes of beauty, decay, and the fleeting nature of time, she wore a custom gown by John Galliano for Maison Margiela that embodied the ephemeral and elegant source material. Quite euphoric.
5. Kate Moss
Style Notes: Another iconic co-chair came in the form of Kate Moss. Attending the 2009 iteration, which adhered to the theme “The Model as Muse”, she proved the power that supermodels wield as the ultimate shapeshifter. A true incarnation of Marc Jacobs' vision for the evening, she ditched her Camden-core leather jackets, skinny jeans and knee-high boots for a gold lame mini dress and matching Elizabeth Taylor-inspired turban.
6. Zoë Kravtiz
Style Notes: One of the symbols for Anthony Vaccarello’s sensually sophisticated visions for Saint Laurent, Zoë Kravitz was truly firing on all cylinders when she arrived at the 2021 Met Gala. Dressing to the theme “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion”, the actor-turned-director’s phenomenally risqué wore what could only be described as a netted dress made from dazzling crystals that made the shape of itty-bitty YSL monograms. Because who needs a slip dress when you’re dripping in diamantes?
7. Lady Gaga
Style Notes: Why have one look when you can have four? That was the thesis question that Lady Gaga designed her 2019 Met Gala ensemble around, landing on a captivating Brandon Maxwell look that was part performance art, part moving installation and completely camp.
Beginning with a magenta overcoat that featured an elongated train and accompanied by five dancers, she later slipped into a gown before changing into a Madonna-esque column dress, before closing out her epic entrance in a sequin-encrusted black bralette, panties, fishnet tights and platform booties.
8. Lily-Rose Depp
Style Notes: As someone who was appointed as one of Karl Lagerfeld’s “choupettes” as a teenager, it should come as no surprise that Lily-Rose Depp has almost unlimited access to Chanel’s archives for her public appearances.
At the 2019 Met Gala, The Idol star embraced the French maison’s most vampy silhouettes in a little black dress adorned with gold chains and gilded camellias. The piece was also first worn by Christy Turlington on the luxuriate’s spring/summer 1992 runway and later featured on Penelope Cruz in Pedro Almodóvar’s 2009 romantic thriller Broken Embraces.
9. Naomi Campbell
Style Notes: From walking the runway alongside her fellow “supers” to George Michael’s “Freedom” for Versace’s autumn/winter 1991 show to wearing the Italian designer’s iconic chainmail butterfly dress to an event alongside Kate Moss in 1999, Naomi Campbell has had no shortage of iconic Versace moments in her lifetime. Of course, the most sentimental moment came when she attended the 1995 Met Gala—the first hosted by Anna Wintour—alongside the brand’s founder, Gianni.
10. Tyla
Style Notes: It’s quite a feat to make the Met Gala best dressed list on your first time attending. But that’s exactly what South African pop sensation Tyla did for the 2024 event. In the spirit of surrealism and trompe l'oeil, the singer arrived in a Balmain dress that evoked the sands of time.
The gown was a custom fit to her figure and ended up being so tight that she needed to be carried up the steps by a security guard. Made from a plaster moulding that combined mica and mirror powder, the look was a true standout and firmly established her place in fashion’s elite circles.
11. Kendall Jenner
Style Notes: Though she might be known for her signature stealth wealth way of dressing, Kendall Jenner delivered her most high-octane look when attending the 2019 Met Gala in custom Versace. Wearing Marty Supreme orange and a feathered gown that left a trail of plumage, the look has become incredibly iconic over the years for the way the showgirl-esque silhouette completely transformed the model turned tequila maven. Later that year, for her Halloween-themed birthday party, the waiters were dressed up in this exact costume, proving just how camp the look actually was.
12. Kim Kardashian
Style Notes: Of course, it wouldn’t be a guide to the most iconic Met Gala dresses if it didn’t include this Kim Kardashian look on the list. Love it or hate it, this infamous Riccardo Tisci for Givenchy design helped segue the reality star and aspiring lawyer into a new stratosphere of fame.
Whilst many were vicious in their lamenting over her attendance at the event in the first place, the majority were brutal in tearing down the dress itself. Earning comparisons to Robin Williams in Mrs Doubtfire and even the couches owned by grandmothers, it's safe to say that Skims founder herself had the last laugh, given how iconic this look has become in its own right.
13. Anne Hathaway
Style Notes: Bearing resemblance to both an Oscar statuette and Star Wars character C3PO, Anne Hathaway’s Ralph Lauren dress from the 2015 Met Gala just proves how ahead of the fashion curve she is. This is a fact we might all recognise now, but it wasn’t the case over a decade ago. But as her fictional grandmother in The Princess Diaries, played by the incredibly Dame Julie Andrews, said, a queen is never late, everyone else is simply early.
What Is The Theme of the 2026 Met Gala?
As announced by VOGUE, the theme of the 2026 Met Gala is "Costume Art". As always, the theme is derived from the Costume Institute's spring exhibition. According to the centre's head curator, Andrew Bolton, the theme addresses “the centrality of the dressed body in the museum’s vast collection".
The museum reports that the exhibition will "pair garments with artworks to reveal the inherent relationship between clothing and the body". It continues, "from the formal to the conceptual, the aesthetic to the political, the individual to the universal, the illustrative to the symbolic, and the playful to the profound, these pairings are organised into a series of thematic body types that reflect their pervasiveness and endurance through time and cultures."
The exhibition is sponsored by tech billionaire Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sanchez Bezos, Saint Laurent and Condé Nast.
What is the Dress Code for the 2026 Met Gala?
Accompanying the theme, guests are invited to adhere to a compulsory dress code that further elucidates the crux of the exhibition. Keeping things incredibly simple for the 2026 event, the dress code is "Fashion is Art". This can be translated however the guest sees fit and can run the gamut from gowns that literally transpose famous works onto fabric to dresses that embrace the Métiers d'Art (or arts and crafts) that underscores any ensemble.
When is the 2026 Met Gala?
Like clockwork, the 2026 Met Gala is set for Monday, May 4, 2026. As the event is held in New York City, those of us here in the United Kingdom should expect to see looks from the red carpet begin to trickle in during the early hours of Tuesday, May 5, 2026. Gird your loins!