Surprise! While Blake Lively has been a no-show at the Met Gala for the past few years (despite co-chairing the event in 2022), she just shocked fans by showing up at the 2026 Met Gala in an archival pastel Versace gown with a stunning train…just hours after settling her It Ends With Us lawsuit with Justin Baldoni.

Back in 2022, the Gossip Girl star wore an Atelier Versace gown for the “Gilded Glamour” theme, a look she styled herself with Lorraine Schwartz jewelry. She once said to WWD about self-styling a few years back, “So once you have the clothes, you just pick out what to wear like any other human being does. But it’s easier because you have access to clothes and so it’s not that hard. The hard part is going through all the fashion shows and screenshotting all the looks you like and calling them in. I have an assistant who helps in calling in the looks. But a lot of it is I have relationships with the designers.”

“I love design and I love fashion and it’s a way to be creative,” she added. “In my job, I get to be creative, but it’s over a period of time and so many other people are involved, whereas this is a beginning, middle, and end, and I get to be creative and there’s an end date in the near future. It’s the same reason why I like doing my friends’ hair and makeup or cooking—you get to be creative and finish it. Whereas with my job you do it and then two years later, it’s finished. It probably goes back to the control issues; it’s like, ‘Okay, I did it, I completed it, it’s done!’”