Fashion's biggest night is one week away. Here is everything to knows about the 2026 Met Gala.

The 2026 Met Gala will be held Monday, May 4 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City — sticking to its first Monday in May tradition. The night benefits the Costume Institute and previews its spring exhibition, Costume Art, which opens to the public May 10 and runs through January 10, 2027. The exhibition pairs roughly 200 garments with 200 artworks across 5,000 years of art history from the museum's collection — "the centrality of the dressed body," as curator Andrew Bolton has framed it.

This year's dress code is Fashion Is Art. According to ABC News, the directive invites guests "to express their own relationship to fashion as an embodied art form and celebrate the countless depictions of the dressed body throughout art history." Translation: high-concept interpretations of the body as a blank canvas, with the New York Times noting the theme is "designed to encourage creativity while steering guests away from extreme takes on naked dressing." After last year's Manet-style suiting tributes for "Tailored for You," expect bigger swings.

This year's co-chair list is short, and it is heavy. Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and Anna Wintour will lead the night.

Beyoncé's involvement is the headline. The 2026 Met marks her first time walking the red carpet in a decade — she last appeared in 2016 in a nude latex Givenchy haute couture gown by then-creative director Riccardo Tisci. She has previously served as honorary chair, but this is her first co-chair role. Kidman is co-chairing for the third time. Venus Williams is making her co-chair debut. Wintour, as ever, has been at the helm since 1995.

Jeff and Lauren Sánchez Bezos will serve as honorary chairs as the lead sponsors of both the gala and the exhibition.

The 2026 Met Gala Host Committee is co-chaired by Anthony Vaccarello (creative director of Saint Laurent, the gala's main fashion sponsor) and Zoë Kravitz, one of his muses. Other host committee members announced so far include Sabrina Carpenter, Doja Cat, Gwendoline Christie, Alex Consani, Misty Copeland, Elizabeth Debicki, Lena Dunham, Paloma Elsesser, LISA (of Blackpink), Chloe Malle, Sam Smith, Teyana Taylor, Lauren Wasser, Anna Weyant, A'ja Wilson, and Yseult. Vogue has indicated additional members will be announced.

As BET.com previously reported, last year's "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style" theme — paired with a co-chair team of Pharrell Williams, Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, and A$AP Rocky — gave the gala one of its most culturally specific and most photographed nights in years. The 2025 edition raised $31 million, a record in the gala's 77-year history. The 2026 "Costume Art" framing is broader, but the co-chairing team — anchored by Beyoncé and Venus Williams — keeps Black women at the center of the conversation.

Coverage of the carpet begins Monday, May 4 in the late afternoon ET. BET.com will be all over it.