Beyonce aligns with Dazed’s 2026 Met Gala picks
beyonce sits at the edge of the same logic driving Dazed’s Met Gala 2026 picks: the red carpet will reward looks that read as art first and clothes second. Dazed editors backed Zendaya, Doja Cat, Michaela Stark and an Alexander McQueen No. 13 finale for the night built around “Fashion is Art.”
The Met Gala 2026 dress code is “Fashion is Art,” and the exhibition is called Costume Art. That gives editors room to lean into literal references, from a pink Comme des Garçons AW26 look for Zendaya to Doja Cat in nothing but International Klein Blue body paint, wet enough to roll down the steps and echo Yves Klein’s Anthropometry paintings.
Zendaya and the AW26 pink look
Dazed’s Zendaya pick came from Comme des Garçons’ AW26 show, specifically one of the pink looks. It is the kind of choice that reads cleanly on a Met staircase, where a single color and silhouette can do the work of a full campaign image. The suggestion also fits a theme broad enough to absorb runway references without needing explanation.
That breadth is the point. Dazed tied the event to past fashion and art references, including Schiaparelli’s AW23 couture collection and Phoebe Philo’s Celine SS17 collection, both of which used Yves Klein’s International Klein Blue. Jean Paul Gaultier’s SS94 collection Les Tatouages pushed further, with tattoos printed on clothing and stencilled on models’ bodies.
Doja Cat and blue paint
Doja Cat’s proposed look was the most extreme on the list: naked, with only International Klein Blue body paint. Dazed said the paint would need to stay wet so she could roll down the Met steps and recreate Yves Klein’s Anthropometry paintings. That is less a styling note than a performance instruction, and it fits a gala that often rewards images built for immediate circulation.
The editors did not treat that as a gimmick in isolation. They folded in the idea that the Met’s 2026 framing could support unusually direct references to art history, especially when the outfit itself becomes the medium. Tracee Ellis Ross’s 2019 appearance with a picture frame around her face sits in the same lane: fashion as a prop for an idea, not just a finished look.
Michaela Stark and McQueen No. 13
Michaela Stark’s work, in Dazed’s view, already lives between fashion and art. The magazine pointed to her contorting corsetry, which subverts female forms, and to a 2026 calendar inspired by Lee Bowery. That makes her one of the few names in the list whose practice already matches the Met’s open-ended brief.
Alexander McQueen’s legendary No. 13 show supplied the final reference, because its closing look created a one-of-a-kind work live on the runway. For a Met Gala shaped by “Fashion is Art,” that is the sharpest possible benchmark: not just a dress that photographs well, but a look that behaves like an event. The editors’ picks suggest the 2026 carpet will reward guests who treat the invitation as a performance brief, not a safe styling exercise.
