What Objectively Caused Conversation At Fashion's Biggest Night

Analyzing some of the fashion from the 2026 Met Gala, and which brands came out as winners.

There’s certainly a lot of fashion to digest from arguably the industry’s biggest event of the year, the Met Gala, which, on Monday evening, welcomed the world’s most prominent brands and celebrities to its red carpet inspired by the dress code “Fashion is Art”.
Was it naive of me to think that this could be the first Met Gala dress code since 2019’s “Camp: Notes on Fashion” to bring back fashion’s boldness and theatricality? It seems so.

Of course, some attendees interpreted the theme quite literally, wearing clothing that referenced, well, actual works of art.

Like actress Rachel Zegler’s white gown made by South-Asian-American designer, Prabal Gurung (one of my favorite New York Fashion Week designers), referencing French painter Paul Delaroche’s The Execution of Lady Jane Grey. Or, like Colombian singer Maluma, who wore a Tom Ford suit in homage to Colombian artist Fernando Botero, accentuated with Bvlgari emeralds (the national stone of Colombia).

Other attendees let their looks be the actual works of art, themselves. Like model Paloma Elsesser’s dress which was patchworked from thirty vintage gowns sourced from eBay, beautifully constructed into one, showstopping piece. Or, like actress Chase Infiniti’s rainbow-colored Thom Browne look made up of 1.5 million (yes, million) sequins with tiered silk fringes in over 600 different colors. I mean, wow.

Some other attendees, well, perhaps missed the mark altogether. So, in the aftermath of what was meant to be Fashion’s Biggest Night (though, that has recently been up for debate), I did what I always do and turned to the data to understand what happened, what viewers cared about, and what brands came out as winners. Let’s get into it.