Hours before the first Met Gala guests even set foot on the red carpet, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute has already registered another record-breaking fundraiser of $42 million.
Lauren Sánchez Bezos, Venus Williams, Thom Browne, Michael Kors, Tory Burch and Saint Laurent’s Anthony Vaccarello were among the 400-plus attendees to learn the news, while attending Monday morning’s curtain-raiser for the Costume Institute’s spring exhibition “Costume Art.”
The Met’s director and chief executive officer Max Hollein shared the news at Monday’s press preview. The $42 million total is quite a hike compared to last year’s tally of $31 million, which had been the Costume Institute’s largest fundraiser yet. Sánchez Bezos and her husband Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder, are the lead sponsors of this spring’s Costume Institute exhibition and red carpet event.
What started as a 1948 midnight supper that was known as “the Party of the Year” has evolved into what is now the largest museum fundraiser in the world. The annual event is the primary fundraiser for the Costume Institute, which is a curatorial department within the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Costume Institute sprang from the Museum of Costume Art, an independent entity that was formed in 1937 and was led by Irene Lewisohn, the founder of the Neighborhood Playhouse. With financial support from the fashion community, the Museum of Costume Art merged with The Met in 1946 and morphed into the Costume Institute. It became a curatorial department in 1959.
The museum’s leader also emphasized how “Costume Art” and the new Condé M. Nast Galleries, which include two exhibition spaces — one of which is named for Thom Browne, and the other for Michael Kors and Lance Le Pere — solidifies the notion that fashion is art. That main-floor space will also provide another gateway for The Met’s more than millions of annual visitors to not just celebrate fashion as an art form, but to have a shared human experience.
As a nonprofit institution, The Met relies on donors such as Sánchez, Bezos, Condé Nast, Kors, Le Pere, Burch, Aerin Lauder Zinterhofer, Amy and John Griffin, and Nancy C. and Richard R. Rogers — all of whom were recognized by Hollein.
Inside the “Costume Art” exhibit for Met Gala 2026.
Masato Onoda/WWD
Wintour started cochairing the Met Gala in 1995 and is cochair of this year’s Met Gala with Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Nicole Kidman and Williams. She told attendees, “This is my favorite day of the year, but also my most terrifying even several decades in.” As a longtime trustee of The Met, Condé Nast’s chief content officer, and Vogue’s global editorial director, Wintour plays an integral role in wrangling donors, celebrities and designers to to the blowout event.
Wintour described how she first attended a Met Gala in 1982 as a fashion editor at New York magazine, whose ticket — “in other words the cheap seats” — was generously paid for by her boss. Recalling how she bought a Saint Laurent dress at Bergdorf Goodman for $900 — multiple times her monthly rent — and how going to the event “meant the world to her,” Wintour shared that story to explain why the dedication of the galleries is so meaningful and full-circle for her.
Condé Nast’s CEO Roger Lynch was also on hand along with Steven Newhouse, chair of Advance Publications, Condé Nast’s parent company, and his wife Gina Sanders. Wintour also honored the commitment of the fashion industry, which has supported the museum for decades, including after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in lower Manhattan, after the AIDS epidemic and after the COVID-19 pandemic. “Fashion leaders always come through,” she said, “now fashion is everywhere and belongs to everyone whether or not they can afford to splurge on a Yves Saint Laurent dress.”
In her remarks, Sánchez Bezos, the Met Gala’s honorary chair, said, “Fashion is art. The designers who we are celebrating today are truly artists. The Costume Institute is the custodian of their work.”
Making the point that as an art form, the future of fashion deserves investment, Sánchez Bezos noted how scientists are growing sustainable silk. What she didn’t spell out is how last month the Bezos Earth Fund committed $34 million in grants to support research into breakthrough materials for the fashion and textile industries that are being explored at Columbia University in conjunction with the Fashion Institute of Technology; the University of California, Berkeley; Clemson University and through the Cotton Foundation.
Williams said the tennis court presents a stage for fashion and how she has always has an appreciation for fashion at its core. “Fashion has always simultaneously distinguished me from my fellow players, because it always was a contest about power, strength, will, skill and having the best dress.”
The tennis pro also spoke about how it not only allowed her to connect with fans all over the world but also to connect with herself.
Before attendees walked through “Costume Art,” the Costume Institute’s chief curator in charge Andrew Bolton said, “Fashion isn’t only something that we see or that we wear,” with its meaning evolving in different ways and being “deeply meaningful.” Referring to the opening of the Condé M. Nast Galleries in the prime main-floor location, Bolton said, “The Costume Institute takes its place in the center of the museum, physically, spatially and intellectually.”
After going through the galleries, Burch said, “This is my favorite show by far. It’s breathtaking. People has always questioned, ‘Is fashion art?’ For me, this is the strongest exhibit that demonstrates that.”
