All posts tagged: met gala 2026

Blake Lively Baldoni Settlement, Louis C.K. Returns to Netflix

Blake Lively Baldoni Settlement, Louis C.K. Returns to Netflix

Published by Daniella Wilson

LOST: Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni: A year ago, I argued Lively and Baldoni were locked in mutually assured destruction and only their lawyers, the media and fans obsessively watching this feud would be the real winners (writing at the time, “In the lawsuit filings, Lively comes across like somebody who would order the launch of nuclear warheads over not getting a booth at a restaurant. Whereas Baldoni seems like somebody who would burst into tears when a Tinder date fails to praise his unsolicited dick pic”). That prediction turned out to be correct. The duo settled this week ahead of their courtroom showdown and issued a needle-thread media statement, which was a meaningless, blameless word salad with hedge sauce. If a New York Post report is correct that no money changed hands — except for the duo paying a stunning $60 million in legal fees — the settlement is even more striking. All that drama … for a stalemate and statement? The budget for It Ends With Us was $25 million. Lively and Baldoni …

Anok Yai Says She Felt “Extremely Nervous” to Wear a Prosthetic Wig as Balenciaga’s Black Madonna

Anok Yai Says She Felt “Extremely Nervous” to Wear a Prosthetic Wig as Balenciaga’s Black Madonna

Published by Sam Flores

“This is the first Met where I’ve done something crazy that I don’t think anyone will do,” supermodel Anok Yai told Vanity Fair as she was getting ready for the Met Gala 2026. “No one’s going to show up in another prosthetic wig, right?” Although Bad Bunny and Heidi Klum both used prosthetics for their Met Gala looks, it was the first Monday in May regular Yai, prepping for her “lucky number seven” Met Gala, who donned the evening’s only silicone-based hair. The unorthodox updo included a nod to the Greek mythological character Medusa, complete with a knotted snake adorned on the back of Yai’s head. Inspired by Renaissance paintings, Balenciaga creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli reimagined Yai as the Black Madonna, a figure seen throughout religious art. “I’m always nervous,” the Sudanese American model says. “But this time, I’m, like, extremely nervous.” The custom Balenciaga couture, complete with black ruched detailing, an oversized hood, and black leather gloves, required 15 people working around the clock for a week to make. “The train is about five …

‘Most Masculine Men Wear Skirts’

‘Most Masculine Men Wear Skirts’

Published by Daniella Wilson

Dwayne Johnson is opening up about his decision to wear a skirt as part of his look for the 2026 Met Gala on Monday. The Moana actor made his debut at fashion‘s biggest night, wearing a custom all-black Thom Browne ensemble that featured a mohair tailcoat, white vest and a pleated skirt over trousers. He walked the carpet alongside his wife, Lauren Hashian, who was wearing a white halter-neck dress by the designer. When asked about his look by reporters, Johnson said it was in part inspired by his Polynesian culture, where “the most masculine men wear skirts.” “I feel great!” he replied. “First, [Thom Browne’s team] sent the illustrations over and [asked], ‘Hey, is DJ going to be cool with this pleated skirt?’ And I was like, ‘Look, in our culture, Polynesian culture, we rock lavalavas, we rock skirts.’ The most masculine men, not that I’m one of them, but the most masculine men wear lavalavas and skirts.” Dwayne Johnson at the 2026 Met Gala. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue Elsewhere on …

Exclusive: Grace Gummer Was an Earth Goddess Mother Warrior at the 2026 Met Gala

Exclusive: Grace Gummer Was an Earth Goddess Mother Warrior at the 2026 Met Gala

Published by Sam Flores

Emma Beiles Howie “Okay. She said, ‘You’re going to look like a badass elegant vision. I’m getting really excited,’” reads Gummer. “I said, ‘I’m beyond excited. Warrior. Helen of Troy vibes.’ And she said, “Ancient and futuristic vision. You are the empress. I will be your lady in waiting…the mother goddess loves us and she is chic as fuck.” Emma Beiles Howie Gummer walked the carpet with Hearst, who wore a black gown from her own collection. But while “golden goddess of past, present, and future” was on the mood board, there were also other elements at play. “The edges are raw,” Gummer notes. “It’s both raw and sophisticated. Together, like nature.” The gown, Gummer says, is a bit of a departure from what she typically wears. “The thing that does feel like me and something that I would go for fashion-wise is that it does show my body,” she says. “It’s very body-conscious, and it’s putting everything on display, but not in a grotesque, gratuitous way.” Given that the gala’s theme was about “embodied …

At Cartier’s Met Gala Afterparty, Flowing Champagne, a Roaming Jazz Band, and Celebrities Ready to Let Loose

At Cartier’s Met Gala Afterparty, Flowing Champagne, a Roaming Jazz Band, and Celebrities Ready to Let Loose

Published by Sam Flores

My mother always said that nothing good happens after midnight. With all due respect to her, she should’ve been my date to Cartier’s Met Gala after-party at The Carlyle last night, where, just as the clock struck 12, Jon Batiste sidled up to the piano at Bemelmans Bar and began to play. Like, really play—he rocked his head and pulsed his hands on the keyboard while his band swayed and danced alongside him. On the piano hung the white floor-length puffer jacket the singer wore to the Met Gala. Designed by ERL, it was inspired by Barkley L. Hendricks’s 1976 painting Steve, which currently hangs in the Whitney Museum. Considered a seminal piece of Black portraiture, it depicts a young Black man standing tall in a pair of aviator sunglasses and a luminous white trench coat. Until Batiste took the stage, Cartier’s party had been an elegant yet restrained affair. White-jacket waiters passed deviled eggs and pigs in a blanket. Mini Champagne bottles sat on silver trays and custom matchbooks were arranged on every table. …

Exclusive: Emily Blunt Says She and Stanley Tucci Like to Drink Tequila Before Hitting the Met Gala Carpet

Exclusive: Emily Blunt Says She and Stanley Tucci Like to Drink Tequila Before Hitting the Met Gala Carpet

Published by Sam Flores

The Oscar nominee and I speak during the frenzied 15-minute window before her appointment with Lord Gavin McLeod-Valentine, a celebrity facialist with clients ranging from Kim Kardashian to Jonathan Bailey. Her eventual slicked-back bun and smoky eye makeup came courtesy of Blunt’s longtime glam team, including hairstylist Laini Reeves and makeup artist Jenn Streicher. “I’ll come with a bunch of ideas; they’ll send me images. It’s very low-stress with them. We just know each other,” Blunt says. “Jenn could paint my face with her eyes closed at this point, and it’s the same with Laini. Recently, I’ve been wanting to do a much cleaner space of makeup, but I don’t really want to do that tonight,” she adds. “We’ve got to push the boundaries of what I’m usually comfortable with. Obviously, it looks nothing like me on the school run, clearly.” Emily Blunt poses before Met Gala 2026Jenna Jones As with her glam team, Blunt has worked with her stylist, Jessica Pastor, for 20 years, and she helped the actor reverse engineer her look around …

From Molded Torsos to Corseted Curves, the State of the Body at The Met

From Molded Torsos to Corseted Curves, the State of the Body at The Met

Published by Sam Flores

I was so struck by them because, despite the real celebration of body diversity in “Costume Art,” it is diminishing in our real lives. Getting a GLP-1 prescription has made losing a few (or dozens) of pounds easier than ever. Plastic surgery procedures and injectables at a med spa have never been more accessible or less expensive. I try not to judge those who opt for those transformations and instead try to continue questioning why we support these stringent standards and what the cost is for resisting. I thought about that while wearing a size 12 skirt on my own body, with my gray hair and Botox-free face. While trapped in my own daze, I found Stark, who was wearing one of her own designs, with a corset that made her waist tiny, and her breasts almost overflow from her sheer black gown. “I have a GG cup,” she says with a laugh. This weekend, she had passed by a Brooklyn lingerie store called The Rack Shack to get properly measured. I asked how she …

From Lauren Sánchez Bezos to Beyoncé, Who Actually Nailed the Met Gala Theme?

From Lauren Sánchez Bezos to Beyoncé, Who Actually Nailed the Met Gala Theme?

Published by Sam Flores

In an ideal world, those who nailed the theme at the Met Gala 2026 would also be the evening’s best-dressed stars. We do not live in a utopia, and so some of those who hit the theme, Fashion Is Art, at last night’s Costume Institute Benefit did not quite make the cut for best of the evening. (This could be for a variety of reasons, be they matters of sophistication or taste.) That out of the way, Monday night’s Met Gala pushed attendees to think of fashion in more nuanced ways than perhaps they were used to. Not one known for her subtlety, Heidi Klum gave everyone lots to talk about when she appeared in a full prosthetics look to mimic a classical sculpture. It was a bit of an on-the-nose read, and leaned more costume than fashion, though she seemed to have had a great time and inspired others to do the same. Also in the prosthetics world was Bad Bunny, whose look was a nod to the idea of the aging body, a …

Exclusive: Elizabeth Debicki Explains the Sly, Sparkling Royals Reference In Her Vintage Tiara and Vera Wang Gown

Exclusive: Elizabeth Debicki Explains the Sly, Sparkling Royals Reference In Her Vintage Tiara and Vera Wang Gown

Published by Sam Flores

During fittings this weekend, Wang, Debicki, and her longtime stylist Elizabeth Saltzman figured out how to make the regal headpiece work with the romantic gown. “The dress wanted something, but it didn’t want it to sort of overpower anything,” Debicki says. “Then my brilliant stylist just went, ‘Why don’t we just turn it around and put it on the back of your head?’ There were 10 people in the room, and everyone went, ‘Oh, yeah.’” Photographer Elias Tahan Photographer Elias Tahan Saltzman and Wang, both former editors at Vogue, have known each other for years, and Debicki said that working on the dress as it evolved over 12 sketches and iterations was an educational experience. “It was like being sat in front of a documentary that I didn’t even know I wanted to watch about fashion,” she says. “For me, I was just eating Swedish fish, just watching them talk for hours.” Her appropriately Grecian sandals were made custom by London-based Footwear for Film, and the details were hand-foiled. Debicki made a special trip to …

Exclusive: Julianne Moore On Her Met Gala 2026 Table, and the Time She Met “Ebullient” Paris Jackson

Exclusive: Julianne Moore On Her Met Gala 2026 Table, and the Time She Met “Ebullient” Paris Jackson

Published by Sam Flores

Julianne Moore is a pro at this point. Certainly as an actor —she’s an Oscar winner after all—but likewise on the red carpet. The star was cool and calm, at least about her look, as we chatted days before the Met Gala 2026. “It’s always a little bit stressful because of the amount of people,” Moore says on Zoom, as she sits in her sunny Manhattan kitchen in a white T-shirt and oversized aviator glasses. But that can be a good thing, too. “It’s the most extraordinary collection of people from across fashion and film and music and theater. And you kind of run into people you never expect to meet.” She had just come from a fitting with Bottega Veneta, and was feeling good about her dress—mainly because she’s a big, big fan of the brand’s creative director, Louise Trotter. Julianne Moore attends the 2026 Met Gala. Michael Loccisano/GA/Getty Images “I love everything that Louise is doing. I just think she’s really cool,” Moore says. “I literally bought her shoes the last time I …