Stars get ready for the Met Gala as Irina Shayk wears a face mask and Heidi Klum buffs her body

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Benefit, also known as the Met Gala, falls on the first Monday in May every year.

And stars were already seen getting ready for the fashion bash early on Monday morning.

Irina Shayk had a facemask on as she prepared to look her best at the Met in an image shared to Instagram.

Heidi Klum was seen walking her dog in NYC on the morning of the Met Gala before she got her nails painted white then zipped herself up in an oxygen chamber. 

Olivia Wilde shared a selfie as she explained to her Instagram followers she needed time to ‘mentally prepare’ for the Met Gala before flashing her pink manicure.

And Rihanna was spied in a fur-lined coat with high heels on just hours before the red carpet for the Met Gala was set to kick off. 

The theme of this year’s event – widely considered the Super Bowl of celebrity red carpets – is ‘Costume Art’ while the dress code is ‘Fashion Is Art.’ 

The dress code calls on the A-list attendees to explore how designers use the human body as a blank canvas. 

Leading the charge is a powerhouse trio of co-chairs, with Beyonce, Nicole Kidman and Venus Williams joining forces with Vogue’s global editorial director Anna Wintour to oversee fashion’s biggest night. 

It’s the first time tennis superstar Williams has co-chaired the gala. 

Kidman previously co-chaired the star-studded event in 2003 as well as 2005, and Beyonce was an honorary chair in 2013.

The New York City museum will pair historical and contemporary garments from the Costume Institute for the exhibition, which will be loosely divided into three categories, including the classical and the nude body, aging and pregnant bodies, and the anatomical body. 

The exhibit – set to unveil the Met’s sprawling new Conde M. Nast Galleries – has been made possible by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sanchez, who are the lead sponsors and honorary co-chairs. 

‘The title “Costume Art” refers to the history of the costume institute,’ Andrew Bolton, the Costume Institute’s curator, said at a press conference.

Bolton, who selects the theme, said fashion has ‘the status of art because of, and not in spite of, its relation to the body.’

French luxury fashion house Yves Saint Laurent is also sponsoring the exhibit.

The 2026 Met Gala will also have a host committee that includes committee co-chairs Anthony Vaccarello and Zoe Kravitz, along with members Sabrina Carpenter, Doja Cat, Angela Bassett, Gwendoline Christie, Misty Copeland, Elizabeth Debicki, Lena Dunham, Sam Smith, Teyana Taylor and more. 

Costume Art will run from May 10, 2026 through January 10, 2027, following the Met Gala on May 4.

The Met Gala is a huge money-maker for the museum, and provides the Costume Institute with its main source of funding. 

The 2026 Met Gala marks a major moment because it’s the first one since Wintour technically stepped back from one of her famed roles at Vogue. 

In June 2025, Wintour announced she was stepping down as the editor-in-chief of American Vogue after 37 years.

The global director for Vogue and global chief content officer at Conde Nast hired Chloe Malle as the new head of editorial content at Vogue.

Wintour has famously been incredibly hands-on with the Met Gala over the years, and is credited with making it the splashy A-list affair it has become, beloved by celebrities like Rihanna, the Kardashians, Blake Lively, Zendaya and more.

Last year, many stars did not attend the Met Gala, and some people thought it was to avoid making a faux pas because of the theme, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, which was centered around the political and aesthetic constructs of Black dandyism.