Fashion’s Super Bowl brought out the biggest names in women’s sports.
On May 4th, the 2026 Met Gala invited around 450 elite artists, athletes, and global figures to fundraise for The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, coinciding with the opening of the spring 2026 fashion exhibition.
The 2026 exhibition, which also doubles as the Met Gala theme, is Costume Art. According to Vogue, the exhibition includes “depictions of the dressed body from across the Met’s curatorial departments, pairing garments with art objects spanning some 5,000 years,” with objects “divided into a ‘series of thematic body types.’”
The official dress code for Met Gala attendees was “Fashion Is Art.” Female athletes dominated this year’s event: Venus Williams co-chaired the gala with Anna Wintour, Beyoncé, and Nicole Kidman, and Misty Copeland, Aimee Mullins, and A’ja Wilson served on the official Host Committee alongside other luminaries like Teyana Taylor, Angela Bassett, LISA, Sabrina Carpenter, Zoë Kravitz, and Doja Cat. Swipe to check out the details of the best-dressed sports girlies’ show-stopping looks.
A’ja Wilson
Met Gala host committee member A’ja Wilson took a short break from pre-season to bless New York City with her presence. To dress the most decorated player in WNBA history, designer Prabal Gurung took direct inspiration from her talent. “We’ve seen her on the court, and I had to do justice to what she’s done,” he told WWD. “She’s the gold standard.” For her Met Gala debut, Wilson’s Atelier Prabal Gurung look emulated textured and oxidized gold, a nod to her “Midas Touch.” Golden girl, you the trophy!
Venus Williams
Met Gala 2026 co-chair Venus Williams wore a Swarovski crystal gown referencing her 2022 National Portrait Gallery painting by Robert Pruitt, “Venus Wililams, Double Portrait.” Her necklace is a replica of the one featured in her portrait, a Wimbledon-plate-inspired neckplate that features symbols that represent her heritage, family, and career, while also honoring the Black athletes who came before her.
Naomi Osaka
Naomi Osaka wore a “two-act” custom Robert Wun piece that Osaka said represented “the shedding of the skin and the human anatomy.” The red gown underneath her white overcoat featured over 659,000 stitches of embroidery, which Wun told Vogue took “over 3,280 hours of handiwork” and “thousands” of Swarovski crystals.
Alysa Liu
Alysa Liu made her Met Gala debut in a custom Louis Vuitton gown, hours after the Olympic figure skater was publicly announced as the newest Louis Vuitton house ambassador.
Angel Reese
Angel Reese was a walking DREAM in her pink Altuzarra gown, which she said was “inspired by 18th-century art,” to give “something soft, feminine, and a little undone.”
Paige Bueckers
Paige Bueckers and Coach are a match made in fashion heaven. The Dallas Wings guard wore a three-piece custom suit by Coach that resembled a painter’s palette with intricate beading and paint strokes. Ahead of the gala, she told E! that Coach embroidered a hidden “5” to the sleeve as a nod to her basketball career: “For me, basketball is an art so I feel like it's just all of my worlds collabing and colliding.”
Lindsey Vonn
Lindsey Vonn always gets back up. After her tragic crash at Milano Cortina 2026, the Olympian ski racer underwent eight surgeries that ultimately saved her leg — three months later, she triumphantly conquered the Met Gala steps in custom Thom Browne. Though she practiced her Met walk in her hotel hallway (with a custom Thom Brown cane, mind you!), Vonn ditched the crutches and the cane once she arrived on the carpet. Vonn’s gown featured over 500,000 glass-cut and bugle beads that she told E! took over 4,000 hours to create.
Eileen Gu
Olympic free skier Eileen Gu dominated the Met Gala carpet in a one-of-a-kind Iris van Herpen creation. Gu’s dress was made of 15,000 glass pieces to create the illusion of bubbles and featured hidden technology that produced real bubbles from the dress. Gu told ESPNW that the dress took 2,550 hours to complete. “There’s technology under the dress that enables reality to kind of come together with art,” said Gu. “It’s a play on surrealism, it’s a play on movement, it’s a play on nature, on fun, on whimsy.”
Serena Williams
Serena Williams, who has been attending the Met Gala since 2004, turned heads in a metallic Marc Jacobs minidress inspired by ancient Greek sculptures. Serena was the first of the Williams sisters to co-chair the event back in 2019; the theme that year was “Camp: Notes on Fashion,” and Williams wore a neon yellow Versace gown and matching highlighter-colored Nike x Off-White sneakers.
A’ja Wilson, Eileen Gu, Lindsey Vonn, Paige Bueckers, Aimee Mullins, Angel Reese, Venus and Serena Williams, Alysa Liu, Naomi Osaka, and Misty Copeland’s attendance at the Met Gala 2026 is a visibility report. Female athletes dominating one of the most exclusive and prestigious global fashion events, with many wearing custom luxury and couture pieces, means that women’s sports has reached a new pinnacle in popularity and profitability. Everyone watches women’s sports — even the fashion world.
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Kaitlyn McNab is a contributing writer for TOGETHXR.com and an award-winning culture reporter and editor. Her creative mission is to celebrate and articulate diverse experiences across all narrative mediums.
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