Met Gala guests (and the rest of us) learn the next dress code: 'Fashion is Art'

NEW YORK (AP) — You certainly don’t have to tell Beyoncé this: Fashion, when deployed properly, is nothing less than art.

Now, the fashion-forward superstar will have another chance to make the point. When she co-chairs the Met Gala in May, all eyeballs will be glued to the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see how one of the most watched women on the planet, in her eighth gala appearance, interprets the dress code: “Fashion is art.”

The museum announced the dress code Monday, along with some gala-related details including new guest names. Joining the top co-chairs — Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman,tennis champ Venus Williams and Vogue's Anna Wintour — is a “host committee” chaired by designer Anthony Vaccarello and filmmaker Zoë Kravitz, and featuring names from Sabrina Carpenter and Teyana Taylor to Lena Dunham and Misty Copeland. Additions include actor Angela Bassett and athlete Aimee Mullins.

They, and everyone else attending, will be figuring out what to wear come May 4. The code seems to have been chosen for maximum flexibility. And, quips Andrew Bolton, curator of the Met's Costume Institute: “Hopefully, it will put an end to the rather obsolete 'Is Fashion Art?' debate once and for all.”

For Bolton, though, the show’s the thing, to paraphrase Hamlet. As gala-watchers know, the big party is not only a fundraiser for the institute — a self-funding department — but a launchpad for the annual spring fashion exhibit. Curated by Bolton and his team, this year's show, “Costume Art,” seeks to present fashion as a through-line in the entire history of art.

The exhibit will be the biggest, in terms of objects, that the institute's ever done: nearly 400 in total, or 200 garments and 200 artworks from around the museum, placed in pairs. “It's a beast,” Bolton said, looking a tad exhausted as he guided a reporter around the beginnings of the exhibit on a recent visit.

The idea, he noted, is to examine “the dressed body” in all its aspects, and to make the point that not only is fashion art — something previous shows have shown — but that art is fashion. “It’s reversing what we’ve done before,” Bolton says. “Now we're looking at art through the lens of fashion.”

What that means, in practice, is that you might see an art object in a glass case — say, a vase from ancient Greece. Displayed above the case will be a garment from the museum’s vast costume collection, echoing the fashion on figures in that vase.

Right now, that vase is represented by a small color snapshot, affixed with dozens of others to the walls of a small conference room in the bowels of the museum — along with countless Post-it notes. Bolton has been spending lots of time in this space, which looks rather like a teenager’s room (albeit a very cultured teenager.)

Bolton walks along the walls, pointing out each of 12 sections organized to show the range of bodies — and body types — in art. Some are pervasive, like the classical body or the naked body.

Others have been overlooked, like the disabled body, the aging body, or the corpulent body. Bolton notes that in art, the corpulent body has almost entirely been used as a fertility symbol. “It’s like the notion that corpulence does not exist without fertility,” he says.

Then there's the pregnant body, also much overlooked in both art and fashion history. It's represented here by the pairing of Edgar Degas' “Pregnant Woman,” a naturalist sculpture that gives a rare look at 19th-century maternity, with designer Georgina Godley’s 1986 dress featuring exaggerated padded curves — defined as “a radical feminist critique” of traditional fashion.

The exhibit, which seeks to emphasize diversity in body types, also aims to enable viewers to see themselves in some of the fashions. Thus, mannequins will feature heads with polished steel surfaces — as in mirrors – designed by artist Samar Hejazi.

Bolton, who's curated the Met’s biggest costume shows, nonetheless says he felt special pressure here to do “something spectacular.” That’s because “Costume Art” is inaugurating, with fanfare, a prominent new home for the museum’s fashion exhibits. The new Conde M. Nast Galleries — created from what was formerly the museum’s retail store — will occupy nearly 12,000 square feet (1,115 square meters) off the museum’s Great Hall.

For one thing, that will mean gala guests now can conveniently view the exhibit and then stroll easily to the dinner portion of the evening at the Temple of Dendur — or toggle between the two. A more lasting result: it will prevent snaking lines elsewhere in the museum, once the show opens to the public May 10.

For “Costume Art,” the galleries, still being completed, consist of two main rooms with different heights — one with an 18-foot ceiling, one with a 9-foot ceiling. The idea is for viewers to weave in and out of each space. “There's a permeability,” Bolton says.

He calls the new show, already, one of the highlights of his career — and a statement of intent.

“We’re trying to make a statement here — that this is something WE can do at the Met,” he explains. “We have access to 16 curatorial departments across the museum.” And, of course, access to the institute's more than 33,000 garments. “Really, nobody else has this capacity,” Bolton says.

He hopes the show will inaugurate not only new galleries, but an era of collaboration with the rest of the museum – one that puts fashion, well, forward.

“Costume Art” will run from May 10 through Jan. 10, 2027.

A vintage walking dress is held in preparation for The Metropolitan Museum of Art's spring exhibition, "Costume Art," on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

A vintage walking dress is held in preparation for The Metropolitan Museum of Art's spring exhibition, "Costume Art," on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

A Christopher Kane dress is displayed in preparation for The Metropolitan Museum of Art's spring exhibition, "Costume Art," on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

An Alexander McQueen dress is displayed in preparation for The Metropolitan Museum of Art's spring exhibition, "Costume Art," on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

A vintage walking dress, from left, an Alexander McQueen dress, and a Christopher Kane dress are held in preparation for The Metropolitan Museum of Art's spring exhibition, "Costume Art," on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

A vintage walking dress, from left, an Alexander McQueen dress, and a Christopher Kane dress are held in preparation for The Metropolitan Museum of Art's spring exhibition, "Costume Art," on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — Millions of people in New York City and a large swath of the northeastern U.S. were stuck at home under road travel bans and blizzard warnings on Monday as a fierce winter storm barreled into the densely populated region with heavy snowfall and high winds.

Cellphones across New York City received wailing push alerts Sunday night announcing a ban on non-emergency travel on all streets through noon Monday because of “dangerous blizzard conditions.” Rhode Island and New Jersey implemented similar restrictions. Regional airports saw widespread cancellations and delays, and public transit was suspended in some areas. Even DoorDash announced it was suspending deliveries in New York City overnight.

Blizzard warnings stretched from Maryland to Maine. Snow began falling Sunday as the storm moved north, and the National Weather Service said 1 to 2 feet (30 to 60 centimeters) of snow was possible in many areas, along with low visibility. Officials in several states urged people to avoid venturing out.

Emergencies were declared in New York, Philadelphia and other cities, as well as several states stretching from Delaware to Massachusetts as officials mobilized readiness efforts.

“We expect things to dramatically change here” heading into the overnight, weather service meteorologist Frank Pereira said Sunday. “The storm is continuing to develop, and as it does, as it continues to strengthen and move to the north, we’re expecting conditions to rapidly deteriorate.”

Pereira added that the storm could possibly become a bomb cyclone, which is when a storm drops at least 24 millibars in pressure in 24 hours.

“We’re expecting it to drop by that magnitude at least over the course of the next 24 hours,” he said. “I think when all is said and done, it will meet the definition of a bomb cyclone.”

The weather service said some of the heaviest snow was expected to fall overnight, with as much as 2 inches (5 centimeters) of snow per hour accumulating at times in some areas, before tapering off by Monday afternoon.

New York City and Boston canceled public school classes for Monday, while Philadelphia will switch to online learning. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani called it the “first old-school snow day since 2019.”

“And to kids across New York City, you have a very serious mission if you choose to accept it: Stay cozy,” he said.

Meanwhile, outreach workers worked to coax homeless New Yorkers off the street and into shelters and warming centers.

Various landmarks and cultural institutions announced closures Monday, from New York's Museum of Modern Art to Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Broadway shows were canceled Sunday evening.

The weather service said the storm’s strong wind gusts could cause whiteout conditions and warned of a “Potentially Historic/Destructive Storm” southeast of the Boston-Providence corridor.

“Winds like that, combined with heavy, wet snow, are a recipe for damaged trees and prolonged power outages,” said Bryce Williams, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Boston office. “That’s what we’re most concerned with, is the combination of those extreme snow amounts with that wind.”

In addition to their robust plow operations, New York City officials recruited people to shovel snow, with some beginning work Sunday night to get an early start on the first wave of snowfall, Mamdani said.

With the storm zeroing in, John Berlingieri scrapped plans for a family trip to Puerto Rico. Instead he was preparing his company, Berrington Snow Management, for what could well be a mammoth task: Clearing snow from millions of square feet (meters) of asphalt surrounding shopping malls and industrial parks across Long Island.

Employees spent the last few days recharging batteries on the company’s 40 front-end loaders and replacing windshield wipers on snow-removal vehicles.

“I’m anticipating at least one week of work around the clock,” Berlingieri said. “We’re going to work 24 to 36 hours straight, sleep for a few hours and then go back.”

Izaguirre reported from Albany, New York, and Rush reported from Portland, Oregon. Contributing were Associated Press writers Mark Kennedy in New York; Darlene Superville in Washington, D.C.; and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles.

A woman stops to take photos of Bryant Park in the snow, Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A man walks along a snow-covered sidewalk, Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A pedestrian crosses a snow-covered Sixth Avenue near Bryant Park, Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A pedestrian crosses a snow-covered 42nd Street near Bryant Park, Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A worker with the Times Square Alliance sanitation crew clears snow from the Red Stairs in Times Square, Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A man works in a snowstorm, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Hassell)

People wait to cross the corner of 20th Street and First Ave. during a snowstorm, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Hassell)

A man rides a bicycle in the beginning of an intense snowstorm by 20th Street and First Avenue, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Hassell)