By Luke Mantle
Every year, the Met Gala promises fashion’s biggest night. Every year, people stay awake until unreasonable hours to watch celebrities walk up a staircase. And every year, the internet becomes ‘expert’ fashion critics, dissecting every stitch to appear at the event.
London Metropolitan University’s students were among those to weigh in.
The 2026 Met Gala, themed ‘Fashion is Art’, was expected to deliver theatricality. Instead, according to many students, the carpet felt strangely restrained. For an event built on excess, risk and spectacle, some believe the mark was not met this year.
Tali, a second year student studying fashion marketing and journalism, described the celebrities as ‘severely underdressed’, arguing that many relied too heavily on literal references without fully embracing the drama traditionally associated with the Gala.
‘Even if they were referencing paintings, I think they could’ve done it in a way that felt more Met Gala,’ she said. ‘They played it safe.’
Still, there were clear standouts on the runway. Robert Wun emerged as an early favourite online, with Tali arguing that ‘anyone who wore Robert Wun immediately won best dressed’. She also highlighted Emma Chamberlain’s Mugler look and Beyoncé’s appearance as some of the evening’s strongest moments.
For others, nostalgia became the most interesting part of the carpet. Becky, another fashion marketing and journalism student, said she found the overall theme ‘a bit flat’, but admitted certain references still worked.
‘I was low-key obsessed with Sabrina Carpenter wearing a dress inspired by Audrey Hepburn’s Sabrina,’ she said. ‘As controversial as it was, it’s kind of iconic.’
The tension between fashion as art and fashion as luxury also became a recurring conversation amongst students of the LGBTQ+ society. Anne felt too many looks leaned into wealth signalling rather than artistic interpretation.
‘I wished some people referred to more European paintings instead of dressing up in blatant luxury,’ she said.
Abu put it even more bluntly: ‘Fashion is art and there were no artists there.’
That frustration speaks to a wider criticism increasingly surrounding the Met Gala itself. Once viewed as fashion’s most experimental mainstream platform, the event now often exists in a strange space between cultural spectacle and corporate branding exercise. While the Gala continues to raise millions for the Costume Institute, audiences are becoming more sceptical of celebrity displays of wealth during a time of economic instability and global crisis.
Finch acknowledged this contradiction directly.
‘I appreciate the fundraising,’ they said, ‘but I understand why more and more people are tuning out… we’re all thinking of Marie Antoinette.’
LGBTQ+ Society Treasurer, K was even more direct about her disengagement from the event altogether.
‘I did not care or look at the Met,’ she said. ‘I think it’s a sick display of status and wealth, in the worst time literally ever because of the state of the world.’
Her reaction reflects a growing divide in how audiences engage with celebrity culture online. While some viewers still treat the Met Gala as escapist entertainment, others increasingly see it as a tone deaf display of riches.
That may be the Met Gala’s greatest success. Even when audiences complain the carpet lacks originality, the event still dominates timelines and TikTok feeds for days afterwards. Love it or hate it, the Met Gala’s modern focus seems to be making unforgettable moments.
This year, according to London Met students at least, the Met Gala didn’t deliver those moments this time around.
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