Hudson Williams Turns Into a (Shirtless) Balenciaga Matador at the 2026 Met Gala

Gag it!

Gag it.

[calm music]

Hey, I'm here for my final fitting with Balenciaga.

We're two days away from the Met, you know,

and I'm just so excited.

You know, it's a great team.

I'm just waiting for my stylist, Anastasia Walker,

groomer Aika Flores, and then we'll get into it.

But I'm at the Ritz Carlton.

It's just absolutely a dream.

[calm music]

Oh my god,

Guys.

Oh my God. Hello.

That's- Thank you.

I don't even know if I should touch it.

I know it's too pretty.

Oh.

You see this train? The train.

Crazy.

I don't, guys.

It's the reference.

I can't wear this.

I can't wear this. Let's leave.

It's too nice.

I'm not gonna use profanity,

but that's what I would lead with.

I am just truly sort of taken back,

'cause I've never done something this grand before

and it looks perfect,

but I just can't possibly believe I am gonna be in

that 'cause it's so pretty.

This is Aika Flores, she's my groomer.

She grooms me.

And then this is...

Do you wanna say something?

No [laughs]. Okay.

And this is Anastasia Walker, she's my stylist.

She keeps me bougie and stuff.

[upbeat music]

This year's Met Gala theme is costume art

and the red carpet dress code is fashion is art.

When we heard that the theme was costume art,

we really wanted to pay homage to the house

of Cristobal Balenciaga.

And given that he drew a lot

of inspiration from his Spanish roots

and culture, this particular piece is based off

of Spanish Bullfighters.

It's so cool seeing something

that came from an original reference just being recreated

and like with Pierpaolo's own take on it.

There's like, like these photos I saw

of like these matadors

and they have the kind of pants folded over like this.

That's what this was inspired by.

I don't know, Or maybe I just read it somewhere,

'cause I'm like super well read about

fashion and everything.

I want to wear this.

I will wear it now.

[calm music]

Crazy, it's absolutely crazy.

Oh my God.

Originally we had a high collar,

but we've lowered that a bit.

This is also gonna help accentuate his glam look,

so stay tuned for that.

Wow.

And then by lowering this pant just a bit,

we're just giving body yada yadi, sex.

And it's just cool.

It's just cool, chic relaxed.

We have this very cool wider leg pant,

which is a modern take on the Matador,

instead of it being the traditional tighter fitting.

Usually in scenes, I don't have a train

with me, so I just need to figure out

how I don't get lost in it or trip on it.

Or like maybe just curl up inside of it and cry.

There's so many people that are

gonna be there to help you on the carpet.

It's gonna be so natural.

You're just gonna go, you look pretty.

Right. Hot, Hudson, Hudson.

And you're like, yeah. Mm hmm.

This?

Yeah. That's what I'm giving?

I'm just kind of, stop, stop, stop.

Yeah, yeah, that's it.

Try your walk darling, try a turn.

[upbeat music]

[indistinct] being served.

What's being served?

[Anastasia] Balenciaga, uh uh. And try a real

turn, like if you really were, so you stop, pose, camera,

Hudson, Hudson.

[Anastasia] Boom. Beautiful.

Give them some over the shoulder.

Boom. Yes.

This is beautiful.

I like how it plays sort of with, you know,

like I feel like a matador is sort

of a classically masculine symbol,

but we're still playing with softness and shape and flow

and femininity

and I feel like it's all sort of existing in one thing,

which is really cool for just a guy like me.

We have a couple more tweaks to make,

but I will see you when you're getting ready

with me a little later.

And when I've had more than two hours of sleep.

[upbeat music]

Welcome back guys.

I have had more than two hours of sleep now

and I'm so excited to get ready for the Met.

My first Met.

[Hudson screaming]

[Crew] What were you doing exactly on this day last year?

Hold, I'm checking my camera roll.

I was in Toronto on an off day for Heated Rivalry.

A little show.

Have y'all heard of it?

Oh, I was at the Museum of Art Gallery of Ontario

with my girlfriend Kaitlyn.

And then eventually, I think we met up with Connor

that night and we watched a movie.

What movie did we watch?

I don't remember.

But we kikid and we laughed and we had fun.

So Hudson's a devoted cinephile

and he shared early on that one of his favorite films

is Black Swan.

So we saw an opportunity to kind of work it into the glam

for this Met.

The story we're telling is more purity turning into power.

So white swan losing its innocence

and turning to more powerful, more tailored black swan.

With the hair I wanted it to look like the swan's feathers

and the swan's tail.

With Black Swan, we still wanted it

to be a little bit more

[Hudson] chaotic and freedom. Freedom, reverence.

And reverence.

Stealing my spotlight, this guy.

[tense music]

Blue side is the white swan.

And then here the red is a little bit

of like giving black swan.

In the movie she has the red end, the red eyes trying

to add a little bit of the mess to the black swan side,

you know, the sort of freedom, the chaos.

And then on the blue side we're trying

to add the sort of austere sort of perfect qualities

that the white swan has.

We were talking movies and referencing like movies that

we just find or consider high art

and that, you know, we all sort of agreed on between me

and Aika for the makeup look.

And then when we got the kind of mock up little drawings,

then all, then we thought, oh, these kind of go

with our top options.

The, even though maybe story-wise they're not cohesive,

we felt visually they were.

I feel like in my downtime, which isn't all this,

I'm still shooting a movie so I'm usually just absorbing

as much, reading as much as possible.

Watching as much.

And then social media is purely gone from my phone.

But I've been really liking Night of the Hunter.

I watched it a long, long time ago,

but it's a great fricking movie.

Some of the best cinematography

and the filmmaker only, it was like his one and done.

He made the movie.

It's almost perfect.

So good, so good.

I'm gonna put the look on now after I freshen up

and maybe shut my eyes for a quick 20 seconds

and then I'll see you guys later.

[Hudson giggling]

[bright music]

Bulgari.

We're doing kind of a tasteful amount.

I think this is the piece that really is the piece

and we just have a little pinky ring in case you know,

as I'm holding the train, we got a little pinky ring action.

We got a little earring action as well.

[bright music continues]

This is her, the original that it's based on

Cristobal had, it was more like this,

but it didn't have this little peak of white,

but I think they reinvented it with a really nice way.

But then we tried to kinda like lose it

around the collar completely

and then it just didn't feel cohesive.

It felt like kind of like the white just disappeared.

So then we kind of like spent a lot

of time making this collar action pop.

Pop, pop, pop.

I think we executed the look.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think it's stunning.

He has- And I'll have

my train person.

Yes, you have a train person.

He's happy, I'm happy. Do you see this?

Can we just get into the glow?

Also, congrat, look at this work you've done.

Christ, I really hope it's cold in there,

'cause I'm realizing now...

[Aika] We anticipated, that's why you're shirtless.

He's, he runs hot.

[upbeat music]

This is my look, Met Gala, train, Balenci, Yaga.

That's the show I'm in.

Watch it when it's out.

Go support my boy Connor Storrie.

[upbeat music continues]

Okay, we gotta go but thank you Vogue.

Okay.

Holy shit, here we go.

[grand dramatic music]