Cara Delevingne is, by now, a master of the Met Gala red carpet, always pushing sartorial boundaries where she can. At the 2026 Met Gala, for her duties as a livestream host alongside Ashley Graham and La La Anthony, she kept things a little more simple—or so it seemed.

On the carpet, Delevingne stepped out in a svelte black halter neck dress by Ralph Lauren, featuring black mesh illusion cap sleeves. It’s a look fit for the supermodel that she is; however, it wouldn’t be Cara Delevingne without an unexpected twist: Said illusion mesh continued all the way behind the dress, revealing a totally sheer backside covered only by a beautifully embroidered peacock. The striking look is reminiscent of Rooney Mara’s 2011 Vogue cover shoot—also in Ralph Lauren—save for a dragon embroidery instead of a shimmering bird.

It is, after all, the year of the peek-a-butt, as demonstrated by Devon Lee Carlson at the Vanity Fair Oscars Party—a notion only confirmed by this year’s exhibition at the Costume Institute, which centers on the body in both fashion and art. Plenty of naked dressing, then, is to be expected—but it’s exactly this sort of risk-taking that has made Delevingne a Met Gala red carpet regular.

While Delevingne first attended the Met Gala in 2011, it’s in her more recent appearances that she’s gone all-in on the themes. Most memorable, perhaps, is her semi-sheer, rainbow-striped Dior look for “Camp: Notes on Fashion” in 2019, though her Dior pseudo-pantsuit look in 2022 for “In America: An Anthology of Fashion” was also daring. (Her red cigarette trousers were paired with a matching coat that, once taken off, revealed her torso painted gold sans shirt—business on the bottom, party on the top?)

If there’s one thing Delevingne understands about a red carpet look, it’s that boldness favors balance, but neither need to be boring. After all, why should you have to choose?

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