The first Monday of each May, the top 1% of society gather their glitz and glam and attend the prestigious Met Gala, held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City. Each year, there are looks praised and hazed. Here are our top four picks for best and worst dressed.
I was surprised by how much I loved Emma Chamberlain’s dress. It felt so unique and fit the art theme perfectly, and the painting was amazing. It looked like the dress was dripping off her. The colors trailing down towards the bottom of the skirt remind me of watercolor in the best way, which makes sense considering the dress took 40 hours to hand-paint by artist Anna Deller-Yee. The whole look felt like the perfect balance of a crazy, maximalist, memorable Met Gala dress while still being classy, beautiful and ethereal.
Blake Lively’s dress was another dress that blew me away. I loved the color palette of this dress, and I thought it really fit the theme of costume art, as this dress reminded me of a dress a little kid would wear if they were dressed as a princess. Her dress was an archived 2006 Atelier Versace piece and was inspired by 18th-century paintings and architecture. Her bag featured artwork done by her four children, tying her look into the theme further.
One dress I thought flopped, despite having a good idea and following the theme, was Rachel Senott’s. It was a simple black dress with a plunging neckline, but she was wearing pink tights under her dress. There was a purple spot on the train and a blue spot on the front of her dress, and she was wearing mismatched shoes. Her dress was inspired by artist John Baldessari’s signature dot series, so it followed the theme. In the end, I did not like this look, and there were so many better outfits throughout the night.
Janelle Monet’s look followed the theme, combining nature and technology and was designed to be wearable art. I really disliked this look. I thought parts of this dress were pretty but other parts, such as the shape, were not my favorite. I like the idea of combining nature, her dress was made with real moss and technology. I do not think this dress was the way to do it. Her dress was not my least favorite of the night but it was nowhere near the top of my list.
Another outfit I loved was Anne Hathaway’s. Her dress was a little simpler than some of the others but it was gorgeous and the simplicity was one thing I loved about it. Her dress was hand-painted and designed by Michael Kors in collaboration with artist Peter McGough and was inspired by the 1819 poem ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ by John Keats. The dress is reminiscent of ancient urns with a goddess of peace painted on the train. Overall, I thought this outfit was gorgeous and I thought it stood out despite it being a simpler look.
Bad Bunny took the costume theme very literally as he showed up in full prosthetics, depicted as an old man, making the statement that “aging is an art.” Despite his suit being relatively simple, I loved that he fully embraced the theme and showed up dressed up as something other than himself, while simultaneously making a statement. The message behind his look was very sweet, and the hair and makeup was a super realistic deception of an aged man, and he did all of it while still looking classy and handsome.
Newer to the red carpet world, actress Teyana Taylor disappointed me a little with her look. I loved her performance in “One Battle After Another.” I’ve loved her previous red carpet looks this year and I overall just think she’s beautiful, so I was expecting more with her look. Her wig immediately reminded me of Cher’s iconic silver fringe wig, which we’ve already seen several other celebrities reference over the years, such as Jennifer Lopez and Katy Perry. I’m not sure if this is Taylor’s inspo or not, but I just feel like we’ve seen the metallic silver fringe look so many times. It felt forgettable and I was expecting so much more from her. In fact, I think a lot of her looks from other red carpet events this year would have better suited the theme, especially her white dress from the 2026 actor awards.
Sam Smith has recently been known to dress extravagantly and push the limits of fashion. I love it when celebrities go all out with their Met Gala looks, so it makes me sad to say that, despite Smith’s wild outfit, it was one of my least favorite looks of the night. The crazy feather hat was fun in theory but the execution was just not there. I also liked that he was experimenting with his posing, but altogether the look just felt overstimulating and cheap.
