Beyoncé’s return to the Met Gala was also Olivier Rousteing’s. The singer, a co-chair alongside Anna Wintour, Nicole Kidman and Venus Williams, arrived late on Monday night (May 4), for her first Gala since 2016, in a jewel-encrusted gown shaped like a skeleton and a coat of gray ombré feathers that needed a team of attendants on the stairs, W Magazine reported.
The dress traced her collarbone, spine, hands and hips in crystals before dropping into a column skirt, with a crystal-covered spike cap and Chopard jewelry on top. Billboard described the whole thing as “designed to look like a skeleton,” with a matching jeweled headpiece. It was the loudest answer to the night’s “Costume Art” theme, in a carpet that W judged short on the drama the theme promised.
On the carpet, she credited the designer. “I’m wearing Olivier Rousteing, who is someone that has been so loyal to me, and I’ve done so many incredible, iconic looks with him,” she told host La La Anthony, per Billboard. “So it’s really about representing him.” Rousteing, who spent 14 years as Balmain’s creative director before leaving in 2025, now had the night’s most photographed dress.
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The look also carried the theme’s body message. Asked about “Costume Art,” whose exhibition celebrates diverse bodies, Beyoncé said the point was “The different juicy, curvy, thin, tall, whatever. Just celebrating whatever God gave you.”
It was a family night. Her 14-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, made her Met debut in a white Balenciaga dress with a bubble hem, crystal-covered Jimmy Choo heels and a matching cropped puffer, an exception to the Gala’s 18-and-over rule. Jay-Z wore a black Louis Vuitton tuxedo with tails and a Briony Raymond brooch.
The history was part of the point. Beyoncé’s last Met was the 2016 “Manus x Machina” night, when she wore latex by Riccardo Tisci for Givenchy, and W saw shades of a black-and-purple Tisci look from 2012 in this one. Her publicist swatted down the speculation that the carpet would launch her next album: “This is unequivocally false!!”
Rousteing’s next job followed in July, when Rabanne named him creative director. For the rest of the night, including Bad Bunny’s aged transformation, read our full Gala coverage.
Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.
