Fashion’s night of nights was co-chaired by Nicole Kidman, and attended by Margot Robbie, Naomi Watts, Hugh Jackman, Troye Sivan, and Miranda Kerr.
With a ticket cost of $140,000, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual ‘Costume Institute Ball‘ is more than just the most extravagant and coveted invitation on the fashion calendar. The Met Gala, as it has come to be known, raises around $44 million for the Museum’s Costume Institute each year, funding the collation of 33,000 fashion items spanning seven centuries.
In 2026, the event was co-chaired by Nicole Kidman, alongside Beyonce, Venus Williams, and Anna Wintour.
Kidman, who wore statement burgundy feather and sequined Chanel, was joined by her daughter Sunday Rose, and some of Australia’s most high profile acting talent.
Queensland-born Margot Robbie also wore Chanel, in accordance with her contract with the French Maison, as did Vogue’s global editorial director, Anna Wintour.
In her Met Gala debut, Rose donned Dior, as did fellow Aussies Naomi Watts and Miranda Kerr, as well as Sabrina Carpenter.
Elizabeth Debicki, who played Princess Diana inThe Crown, and was on the Host Committee for the 2026 event. She wore Vera Wang.
On the men’s front, Sydney-born, NY-living Hugh Jackman, opted for Giorgio Armani, and Troye Sivan highlighted Aussie designer Christopher Esber.
The ‘Costume Art’ exhibition
The theme of this year’s Met Gala, which takes place on the first Monday of May each year and marks the opening of the Spring exhibition, was ‘Fashion is Art.’ Guests were invited to “express their own relationship to fashion as an embodied art form” and “celebrate the countless depictions of the dressed body throughout art history.”
The ‘Costume Art’ exhibition opens in the new Conde M Nast area of the Museum on May 10, and will run until January 10, 2027. Financial contributions for the recent renovations were made by fashion names Michael Kors, Tory Burch LLC, and Saint Laurent.
Controversially, the 2026 event and exhibition were made possible by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sánchez Bezos. Activist group Everyone Hates Elon has staged a string of stunts protesting the “Bezos Met Gala” – including planting 300 bottles of fake urine inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a reference to complaints from Amazon workers forced to urinate in bottles – the New York Times reported.
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The Aussie designers on the Gala carpet
In addition to the Aussie actors, antipodean fashion labels also capitalised on the global spotlight, estimated by Launchmetrics to be valued at around $1.8 billion in 2025.
Maia Mitchell wore Zimmermann, Adut Akech stepped out in Toni Maticevski, and Troye Sivan and Lisa from Blackpink wore Christopher Esber.
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