Guests at the Met Gala arrive wearing custom, highly artistic outfits tied to the event’s dress code, “Fashion is art.” Multiple outlets highlight Naomi Osaka’s look as she leaves The Mark Hotel for the ceremony: she wears a dramatic custom Robert Wun white sculptural fitted gown with exaggerated shoulders, red feathers, and a matching headpiece. Osaka also adds painted details, with reports describing her hands as dipped in dripping red paint. On the Met steps, she opens her dress and removes the headpiece for a reveal underneath. Several outlets note that a similar Robert Wun design appears in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute exhibition “Costume Art.”

Other coverage emphasizes Emma Chamberlain’s custom Mugler by Miguel Castro Freitas hand-painted dress, described as featuring multiple colors from her décolletage down to a spiral train and fringe at the cuffs. Beyoncé is also mentioned as adopting an arts-forward approach, including a custom Olivier Rousteing sculptural skeleton dress with a feathered train and a diamond crown for “Queen Bey,” with her family posing together on the Met steps.