Met by the Numbers: All the Hidden Details Behind Your Favorite 2026 Met Gala Looks
And that’s a wrap! While the 2026 Met Gala might be officially finished, our appreciation of the hundreds—and sometimes thousands—of hours of work behind these special dresses isn’t quite done yet.
Oftentimes, preparations for a Met Gala look can start weeks or even months in advance. (It is fashion’s biggest night, after all.) Take Lila Moss in Conner Ives, whose Art Deco–inspired gown was made from not one but three vintage gowns. Or Chase Infiniti’s trompe l’oeil Thom Browne, which was inspired by Alexandros of Antioch’s second-century-BC Venus de Milo statue. The dress was embroidered with a whopping 1.5 million stacked sequins and featured over 600 fringed colors—no small feat!
Likewise, SZA and Bode teamed up with eBay to source secondhand fabric. “We worked with a vintage dealer who sourced over a hundred yards of yellow fabrics for us in various materials—tulle, taffeta, silk faille, and beadwork on lace,” Emily Adams Bode Aujla told Vogue ahead of the big night.
Scroll on to see the numbers behind some of our favorite looks, below.
- Michael Loccisano/GA/Getty Images
Chase Infiniti’s Thom Browne gown consisted of over 1.5 million stacked sequins and fringes in over 600 different colors.
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For her sculpted bodice, Kim Kardashian collaborated with British artist Allen Jones, using an original mold from 1968.
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- TheStewartofNY/Getty Images
Blake Lively opted for archival Versace—spring 2006, to be exact—adding a 13-foot bustled train.
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Kylie Jenner’s Schiaparelli gown took over 11,000 hours to complete the embroidery, not to mention the 10,000 baroque pearls and 7,000 painted pearlescent fish scales.
4/17 - Gilbert Flores/Getty Images
Emily Blunt wore half a million dollars’ worth of pearls from Mikimoto.
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- Taylor Hill/Getty Images
Emma Chamberlain’s hand-painted look was partly inspired by Thierry Mugler’s iconic 1997 butterfly design. The train featured a nine-meter circumference and 880 lines of ruffles, consisting of over 150 meters of fabric and 958 hours of work. Artist Anna Deller-Yee worked with 30 base colors to complete it over the course of 40 hours.
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SZA and Emily Adams Bode Aujla (of Bode) worked with eBay to source over a hundred yards of yellow fabrics for the look.
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Madonna arrived on the carpet in custom Saint Laurent with seven ladies-in-waiting—a direct reference to Leonora Carrington’s The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1945).
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- Taylor Hill/Getty Images
Skepta wore a custom white Thom Browne suit inspired by his own tattoos, featuring over 4,500 meters of black thread for 500,000 finished stitches.
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Gracie Abrams was Gustav Klimt’s golden lady in custom Chanel, which required 294 hours and about 5,150 embroidery elements to complete.
10/17 - Gilbert Flores/Getty Images
Lila Moss’s custom Conner Ives gown was actually composed of not one but three vintage 1920s dresses sourced by Ives and his team. The base of the dress is hand-dyed, taking over seven dye trails to get the exact shade.
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- Taylor Hill/Getty Images
Yu-Chi Lyra Kuo’s Jean Paul Gaultier gown took over 900 hours to make, consisting of 142 yards of cotton poplin and 43 yards of steel bones and piano strings.
12/17 - Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s custom Thom Browne featured a three-ply mohair tailcoat with over 350 meters of hand-pleated silk ribbons.
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Camila Mendes wore a Manish Malhotra dress, including a three-meter hand-painted tulle veil featuring Amrita Sher-Gil’s Three Girls (1935).
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- Cindy Ord/MG26/Getty Images
Kun channeled the exhibition's “The Vital Body,” wearing Thom Browne. The ensemble is composed of over 400,000 sequins and beads.
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Margot Robbie’s custom Chanel gold lamé dress took 761 hours to make and features over 1,100 pieces of embroidery.
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Lisa wore custom Robert Wun, composed of two extra arms (made from 3D scans of her very own) and 66,960 Swarovski crystals.
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