The 2026 Met Gala transformed the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art into an intimate tableau of power couples, each pairing a sartorial dialogue that echoed through lingerie history. Under the night’s dress code, “Fashion Is Art,” these duos reminded us that the most compelling garments often begin as undergarments—structured, sensual, and deeply personal.
Ciara arrived as a modern Nefertiti in Celia Kritharioti’s glittering gold, her silhouette recalling the ancient Egyptian use of linen corsets to shape the female form. Beside her, Russell Wilson’s gold-winged shoulders evoked the armored bodices worn by 16th-century noblewomen, where metal boning served both protection and allure.
Rihanna and A$AP Rocky commanded the night with deliberate contrasts. Rocky’s pink Chanel jacket—a nod to Coco Chanel’s 1920s liberation of women from the corset—paired with Rihanna’s Maison Margiela fall 2025 couture, a deconstructed piece that referenced Martin Margiela’s 1989 reimagining of the bustier as an exoskeleton. Together, they embodied the tension between constraint and freedom that defines lingerie’s evolution.
Gabrielle Union Wade and Dwyane Wade offered a study in transparency and tailoring. Union’s semi-sheer Michael Kors skirt whispered of Edwardian petticoats, while Wade’s sleeveless jacket echoed the 1970s rise of the unlined, unstructured men’s vest—a quiet rebellion against the starched shirtfronts of yesteryear.
Venus Williams, co-chair of the evening, wore custom Swarovski couture with a necklace that traced her tennis career like a garter belt’s elastic webbing—supportive yet decorative. Her husband Andrea Preti’s maroon accents recalled the deep burgundy of Victorian corset ribbons, a subtle nod to the color’s history in signaling intimacy.
The night’s most poignant historical echo came from Suleika Jaouad and Jon Batiste in ERL. Batiste’s ruffled shirt and puffy coat, inspired by Barkley Hendricks’s “Steve,” channeled the 18th-century chemise à la reine—a garment that blurred the line between underwear and outerwear, much as the Met’s “Costume Art” exhibition argues for fashion’s place in the fine arts.
Adrien Brody and Georgina Chapman closed the evening with a lesson in duality. Chapman’s Marchesa gown, with its floral embroidery and beadwork, traced its lineage to the 19th-century corset cover—a decorative layer that simultaneously revealed and concealed. Brody’s Dior suit, meanwhile, recalled Christian Dior’s “New Look,” which famously used boned bodices to reshape the female silhouette after war.
At the Lingerie Museum, we see these red carpet moments as chapters in a longer story: the history of how we dress the body, layer by layer, from the skin outward.
Originally reported by WWD