NEW YORK (AP) — The Met Gala’s new co-chairs have been announced, and it’s a high-powered quartet: Beyoncé, Venus Williams and Nicole Kidman will join Vogue’s Anna Wintour to host star-studded event next May.
Williams, who has never hosted before, takes on the role seven years after her younger sister and tennis champion, Serena, served as co-president. Beyoncé was honorary president in 2013, and Kidman co-chaired in 2003 and 2005. Wintour, of course, oversees the annual eventa fundraiser that brought a record $31 million into the coffers of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute last year.
The museum also announced on Wednesday the creation of a gala organizing committee, chaired by designer Anthony Vaccarello and filmmaker Zoë Kravitz. It includes musicians Sabrina Carpenter, Doja Cat, LISA, Sam Smith and Yseult; dancer Misty Copeland; actors Teyana Taylor, Elizabeth Debicki, Gwendoline Christie and Lena Dunham; basketball player A’ja Wilson; models Alex Consani, Paloma Elsesser and Lauren Wasser; Chloé Malle, editor-in-chief of Vogue; and artist Anna Weyant.
For years, seven-time gala guest Beyoncé was one of the most-watched celebrities on the carpet, keeping everyone in anticipation of her (fashionably) late arrival. In 2015, she made the wait worth it with a daring custom Givenchy gown that, with its strategically placed pearls, gave new meaning to the term “sheer” and announced the ubiquity of the nude dress trend. A year later, the superstar wore Givenchy again, this time in a shiny, form-fitting latex dress.
No word on what she’ll wear next; the dress code for the May 4 gala has not yet been announced. But it will agree with the “Costume Art” theme, announced last month as the institute’s next spring exhibition.
The exhibition aims to celebrate “the dressed body” as it appears in art throughout the centuries. It will do this by pairing clothing with objects from across the museum to show how fashion has long been linked to different art forms.
“It’s an exhibition that can really live in a fascinating way at the museum and can draw inspiration from all the different areas of our collection — paintings, sculptures, drawings,” museum CEO and director Max Hollein said in an interview last month.
The show, overseen as always by Costume Institute curator-in-charge Andrew Bolton, will be organized thematically by different body types. It will include, for example, the “Naked Body” and the “Classic Body”, but also less traditional themes such as the “Pregnant Body” and the “Aging Body”.
The new exhibit will also have a shiny new home. “Costume Art” will inaugurate a new gallery space occupying some 12,000 square feet (1,115 square meters), just off the museum’s Great Hall – giving fashion a significant space in the museum and also helping to control congestion at busy exhibitions. The new Condé M. Nast Galleries – created from what was once the museum’s retail store – will house not only all of the Costume Institute’s Spring exhibits, but also other shows from different parts of the museum.
Bolton said the gallery space “will mark a pivotal moment for the department, one that recognizes the essential role that fashion plays not only in art history but also in contemporary culture.”
Venus Williams returned to competition in July at age 45 after nearly a year and a half away from the circuit, even though she had never retired. She became the oldest player to play singles at the US Open since 1981. Serena Williams, meanwhile, recently I threw cold water on the idea that she may be preparing to return to tennis.
“Costume Art” opens to the public on May 10, 2026 and continues until January 10, 2027.
