How to Watch Met Gala 2026 and Live From E! on TV and Online

There's a reason Lena Dunham has been called the voice of her generation. 

The Girls star isn't afraid to take risks—including on the red carpet. And the 39-year-old certainly turned heads at the 2026 Met Gala on May 4, posing at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art in a red Valentino gown that was chock-full of sequins. But that wasn't all, for the event in support of the Costume Institute's "Costume Art" exhibit, the dress had a giant boa train that began art her bust and cascaded down the dress into a train. (See all the celebrities—and how they interpreted the "Fashion Is Art" theme—here.)

It's Lena's first time back at the Met Gala since the "Camp" iteration in 2019, when she attended with Girls costar Jemima Kirke—both in Christopher Kane—with Lena stepping out in black latex gloves and a baby pink bow dress emblazoned with the word "Rubberist." 

"I hate it when people are jerks about the theme, which is supposed to celebrate the exhibition, anyway," she told W Magazine at the time. "I mean, what are you doing if you’re just coming in a nude column dress?”

"Just because I’m not always making 'elegant' choices doesn’t mean I don’t have a perspective," she wrote on Good Thing Going in January. "We ALL have a perspective. I am attracted, generally, to things that feel specific, evoke a cultural connection and an emotional memory, and have a detail that would make someone uninitiated think: 'what the f--k is that?'"

The Famesick author—who’s also been candid about her personal health struggles—quipped, "Combine that with chronic illness and long stretches spent in bed, and you have a recipe for a very intense relationship with eBay and Etsy."