Discover The Met Store’s Special-Edition Products in Celebration of “Costume Art” for the 2026 Met Gala

Reported by Vogue.

The Met Gala's dress code has always been its own kind of manifesto, but the 2026 edition is doing something more permanent. Tonight's theme — "Costume Art" — isn't just a red-carpet directive; it's the framing device for a new era at the Costume Institute, which is inaugurating its 12,000-square-foot Condé M. Nast Galleries as its forever home. Fashion finally has a room of its own, and it's a big one.

The exhibition itself spans 5,000 years of artistic depictions of the dressed body, treating garments with the same curatorial seriousness as a Vermeer or a Rodin. Which makes the merchandise drop feel less like gift shop and more like an extension of the argument. According to Vogue, The Met Store tapped a roster of designers to create bespoke, limited-edition pieces inspired by the show — and the results are genuinely covetable: a silk scarf from Tory Burch, nesting dolls from Thom Browne, a T-shirt and tote from Michael Kors, and decoupage trays and paperweights from John Derian. All available now at store.metmuseum.org.

What's Worth the In-Person Trip

Starting May 5, the in-store offering expands. Elif Uras — whose 2015 work Pregnant Haliç II appears in the exhibition itself — designed a series of hand-fired vases that blur the line between retail object and artwork. Jean Paul Gaultier contributed fragrances to the mix, because of course he did. These aren't afterthought souvenirs; they're pieces that sustain the conversation the exhibition starts.

For anyone who wants to go deeper, Andrew Bolton, Curator in Charge of the Costume Institute, wrote the accompanying exhibition catalogue. It moves through the sartorial contributions of masters including Madeleine Vionnet, Madame Grès, and Alexander McQueen — designers whose work has always deserved the wall space it's now getting.

The "Costume Art" thesis isn't new, but having a permanent gallery to make the case — and a merch drop to match — means fashion's place in the art historical canon just got a lot harder to argue with.

Read the original at Vogue.