Venus Williams Paid Shimmering Homage to Family, Legacy, and Tennis at the 2026 Met Gala

Since you are sparkling so much today, my love.

That's so sweet. Of course.

Happy Met Day. Thank you.

Mwa. Mwa.

I'm assuming there's Swarovski crystals in here.

I'm not sharing this to anybody.

I'll be carrying this around all day today, like. [laughs]

[upbeat music]

Today we're in New York City

and we are getting ready for the Met Gala.

I am fortunate enough to be a co-chair this year,

so I'm feeling like a lucky girl.

I've got the best team around me, making me look perfect.

It's gonna be a big night.

It's a lot of energy at the mark. [giggles]

All the celebrities, all the designers, photographers, fans,

paparazzi, you name it;

wanted to like go into it with a calm mind, calm body.

We'll go experience the energy of The Mark soon,

but we'll keep that at a minimum.

[chill music]

When I heard the theme I thought, Wow, this is perfect.

Not only is it costume art,

it's also about representing all bodies.

My body of work uses my body. [laughs]

When I came with designers before, I just tried

to embrace the design and the style that they brought,

but this time I felt like was a lot more pressure

to get the design and the dress,

everything exactly right.

Even though the theme is costume,

I don't wanna be too costume.

The inspiration is my portrait

at The National Portrait Gallery.

Robert and I worked on that project together

a few years ago.

We took elements from that including

the massive exaggerated necklace that I'm wearing,

so taking like little cues from that

and making it red carpet worthy.

[chill music]

This year my wardrobe is also highlighting women

and the fact that only 6% of research

in sports and sciences go to women,

which is a real shocker folks.

But I'm hoping that after tonight,

lots of people will know about it

and that will boost those numbers up,

and that women are equally represented

in sports science research.

I think we kind of followed the direction of the dress.

The dress is so beautiful,

we don't want to like have anything

hanging down and hiding the neck.

We're doing an updo, adding some volume to the hair

'cause I felt like it compliments the dress,

and then we're doing like a little bit of a braid detail

around and then we might do some Swarovski crystal

depending on if she wants to or not.

I am!

[Stylist] We're going HAM right now.

The hair has to compliment the dress,

have its own wow moment but not so wow that it's too wow.

Yeah, but also like if you wanna go wow, wow, wow,

on the carpet, the Met is the place to do it.

I'm kind of a timeless girl.

I like to experiment

but I want it to be amazing a hundred years from now.

What's more timeless than a smokey eye.

She is gonna look like the diamond that she is,

and that's also why I wanted to incorporate that sparkle.

Not all over the place.

We kept it in that inner corner.

I also want to add a little bit of highlight

just to keep that va va voom.

You definitely want to, [chuckles] be in the right hands.

This is like the prime time moment in fashion.

I created this with Venus in mind

'cause she's a woman who contains multitudes.

You know, she's constantly evolving,

and I wanted the stones to kind of represent like strength,

which she has, and then the crystals kind of cascade down

and almost like it's this effort, like elusive.

We wanted to just enhance the full look

of what she's growing for today.

Swarovski crystals, they sent these in,

and I went with it.

My favorite part in the preparation process

is when it's all done,

then it looks great. [people laughing]

Keep it real.

But when it's done it's all worth it.

What am I looking forward to the most?

Just partying? Yeah.

[people laughing]

There's a lot of work that goes into this,

like I've been doing over eight hours of hair fittings

and makeup over the last few days,

so at some point you just want to have fun, so. [laughs]

In the beginning, you go up the carpet.

After that, you hopefully,

if you got there in time and weren't running late,

which is pretty much every,

most people don't get there in time.

I mean, I haven't. [chuckles]

I don't wanna put that on anybody else,

but usually I don't get there enough time

to see the exhibit.

There's a cocktail hour

and you eat as many yummy treats as you can.

After that you are ushered to your table,

but it's quite a long walk.

So if you wear the most uncomfortable shoes,

you will be dying.

You enjoy the dinner and the speeches

and the surprise guest artists.

There's a lot of star spotting too.

Last year I saw Diana Ross and I'm a huge fan

and she's such a legend.

And I didn't wanna bother her,

I just said, Oh, my gosh, I love you.

[staff talking indistinctly in the background]

You know, it's very hectic

because you have a red carpet arrival time,

so everyone's arrival time is a little bit different.

You're at a different table

because you usually sit at the table

of the designer who's hosting you.

But usually afterwards, we meet up

and have a good time at the parties.

[upbeat music]

Just a little bling, never hurt nobody,

nothing too crazy, just a-

Oh, she's being so good today.

Normally she's like, Ah! No!

[stylist laughing]

[screams] Yeah, I'm thinking- [screams]

We have all of our 6% jewelry that we're gonna put on.

We're all done here.

We're gonna go to The Mark and get dressed.

[chill music]

[people talking indistinctly in the background]

They did a great job.

Wow. I can't even look at it.

I have to make sure- [Venus laughing]

It's gonna be like-

Fashion is art.

And then she's in Portrait,

National Portrait Gallery of course.

The Double Venus,

one of the Venus wearing a version of this necklace.

And then we started from making the glorious interpretation

of the fabulous necklace

that has all this wonderful meaning about your father,

your origin, and all of that.

I'm just grateful that Giovanna

was able to take some of my feedback because she's great.

So she could have been like, No.

It starts with a dream,

but then it starts with, you know,

someone as talented and amazing as her,

like making it actually work.

Ron too is over there.

He was grinding it out every single day.

[people laughing] Talk about Ron right now.

He was like,

Can you just take a minute to respond to a text?

[people laughing]

Of course it's a tribute to you.

As I told you yesterday, I'm here to serve.

Thank you.

No tennis. [people laughing]

Just clothes. I was like,

You sure did that job.

[upbeat music]

This is Harry's first Met Gala

and he has a matching outfit as mom and dad.

He's a body of science ambassador also,

so he has his 6% charm.

Now Harry got ready with me.

This is Harry's last look.

[Photographer 1] Harry, give us a-

Three, two, one.

[Photographer 2] Gorgeous.

People, look here.

That's beautiful, you guys.

[people laughing]

He doesn't like to wear clothes.

He's very upset.

[paparazzi shouting] [cameras flashing]

[chill music]