The first Monday in May is a highly reliable source of can’t-miss moments, and the 2026 Met Gala was no exception. The looks were iconic, the details were carefully attended to, and the red carpet abounded with stars.

Below, find a roundup of the best moments from the gala, from Madonna turning the occasion into a veritable girls’ night out to Rihanna and A$AP Rocky redefining couples’ style.

All the mother-daughter slays

Not only did Beyoncé escort Blue Ivy Carter to her very first Met Gala on Monday night, but Nicole Kidman had a charming red-carpet moment with her daughter Sunday Rose—and, of course, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Kendall Jenner, and Kris Jenner helped make the 2026 Met Gala a family affair.

Bad Bunny getting his Benjamin Button on

What’s more artistic than quite literally transforming yourself via prosthetics? That’s exactly what Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio—a.k.a. Bad Bunny—did at the 2026 Met Gala, tapping makeup artist Mike Marino to turn him into a vision of the aging body. 50 years older…yet still handsome as hell!

Hunter Schafer subtly referencing Klimt

While some celebrities went big (à la Bad Bunny), others made quieter nods to famed artists and artworks—and in the case of Euphoria star Hunter Schafer’s sweet tribute to Gustav Klimt’s Mäda Primavesi in Prada, less was most certainly more.

Masks, helmets and face coverings of all sorts abounding

From Katy Perry to Gwendoline Christie, Teyana Taylor to Sarah Paulson, the girls could simply not get enough of partially or fully obscuring their vision. Was this trend a reaction to the early COVID-era days of constant mask-wearing, or simply a fun way to hide from the paparazzi?

Madonna having her sheer cape carried by seven besties-in-waiting

Doesn’t every girl (material or otherwise) just want to bring a bunch of pals to the biggest party of the annual fashion calendar? That’s exactly what Madonna managed to do at the 2026 Met Gala, referencing Surrealist painter Leonora Carrington with a Saint Laurent slip dress and translucent organza cape handled by seven fab female helpers.

Eileen Gu bringing a new meaning to the term “bubble hem”

“I have 15,000 glass bubbles on me,” the Olympic freestyle skier told ESPNW of the Iris Van Herpen dress she wore to the 2026 Met Gala. “It took 2,550 hours to make. There’s technology under the dress that enables reality to kind of come together with art. It’s a play on surrealism, it’s a play on movement, it’s a play on nature, on fun, on whimsy.”

Everyone getting naked (or appearing to, anyway)

Well, not everyone, but more than a few stars embraced the naked-dressing trend at the 2026 Met Gala, from Gigi Hadid revealing (almost) all in Miu Miu to Irina Shayk deploying the time-honored ab reveal and Doechii pairing bare feet with a nearly-bare torso.

Lena Dunham referencing blood splatter (in a feminist way)

At first glance, it might have appeared that the actor, director, and Famesick author was just clad in scarlet Valentino sparkles and feathers for the fun of it, but as it turns out, Dunham’s 2026 Met Gala look was a reference to Artemisia Gentileschi’s circa-1620 painting Judith Slaying Holofernes, one of the most significant feminist works in art history. “I shared that inspiration with Alessandro, but because his brain works in the most magical ways, rather than leaning into the Renaissance garments or the swords or any of it, he was attracted to a particular blood spatter on the neck of Holofernes,” Dunham told Vogue.

Sabrina Carpenter being unafraid to reference (or not reference) Hollywood’s golden era

It’s no secret that the film industry has fallen on some hard times lately, which made Carpenter’s 2026 Met Gala look—a custom Dior tulle dress made of rhinestone film strips from Audrey Hepburn’s 1954 film Sabrina—as poignant as it was sartorially powerful.

Heidi Klum outdoing herself, costume-wise (yet again)

A vision of Klum’s 2022 worm Halloween costume still pops up in my head with alarming regularity, but the model upped the ante at the 2026 Met Gala by turning herself into a real-life marble statue. Klum said she was inspired by Italian artist Raffaele Monti’s “Veiled Vestal” sculpture, telling Vogue red carpet correspondents Ashley Graham and Cara Delevingne: “I was like, I want to become her!” Mission accomplished.

Rihanna showing up, period

Any time Rih is on the Met Gala red carpet, life is good—all the more so when she’s in custom sculptural Maison Margiela by Glenn Martens with a Chanel-clad A$AP Rocky by her side.

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