NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — The brightest stars in Hollywood, music, sports and style hit the red carpet Monday for the Met Gala, the extravagant Manhattan charity ball that this year spotlights the intersection between fashion and art.

The A-listers invited to New York’s biggest social event of the year have been asked to dress for the theme “Fashion is Art,” which dovetails with the exhibit “Costume Art” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute.

This year’s function has drawn controversy after Amazon boss Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sanchez Bezos were announced as the lead sponsors and honorary co-chairs of the gala, with some activists upset about the billionaire couple’s involvement.

But for the fashionistas, the Met Gala — traditionally held on the first Monday in May — is simply one of the world’s top red carpets with blinding star power.

Tennis legend Venus Williams and Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman, who are co-chairing the event, were among the first to arrive.

Kidman stunned in a shimmering red long-sleeved Chanel column dress with wide feather cuffs, while Williams glistened in a black crystal Swarovski gown with an elaborate neck plate.

The 45-year-old Williams told Vogue the look was inspired by a painting of her in the National Portrait Gallery.

Music mega-star Beyonce, another co-chair, had yet to make her highly anticipated appearance at the event — her first in a decade.

Rapper Doja Cat, one of several members of a gala “host committee,” wore a draped latex Saint Laurent gown with a demure neckline — but slit up to her waist.

Of course, the entire evening is overseen by Vogue’s global editorial director Anna Wintour — the ultimate tastemaker in US fashion who has helmed the event for 30 years.

The gala is a fundraiser for the Met’s Costume Institute, and this year has raised a record $42 million (after $31 million in 2025), the museum’s CEO Max Hollein told reporters early Monday.

But it is also a social media extravaganza that sees stars don over-the-top looks, vying to create the greatest spectacle.

Last year’s event showcased the subversive style of Black dandyism, and was a rare Met Gala spotlighting men and male fashion.

This year’s exhibit juxtaposes elegant fashion looks with paintings and sculpture: think a Saint Laurent design next to Van Gogh’s “Irises”, or a John Galliano gown for Maison Margiela paired with an antique statue.

“When I think about the show, if there’s one word to describe it, I suppose it would be equitability or equivalency, equivalency between artworks,” the Costume Institute’s curator Andrew Bolton told AFP.

“So there’s no hierarchy between sculpture, painting, fashion, photography and no hierarchy between bodies, between the classical body or the disabled body.”

In the run-up to Monday, a campaign opposing the involvement of Bezos and his wife cropped up in New York’s streets and subways, with some calling for a boycott of an event some see as a gross display of immense wealth.

Behind the campaign is a group founded in Britain called “Everyone Hates Elon” — which, a spokesperson stressed, “targets other billionaires” beyond Elon Musk, the world’s richest person.

Wintour said Monday that the couple had “shown with this event that they genuinely, genuinely care about giving back.”

The Met Gala was first organised in 1948 and for decades was reserved for New York high society — until Wintour transformed the party into a high-profile catwalk for the rich and famous in the 1990s.

The “Costume Art” exhibit, which opens on May 10 at the venerable museum in Manhattan, will seek to explore the “dressed body” in artworks across the centuries.

Socialite Sabrina Harrison arrives for the 2026 Met Gala celebrating “Costume Art” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, on May 4, 2026. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP)

US singer Jon Batiste arrives for the 2026 Met Gala celebrating “Costume Art” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, on May 4, 2026. (Photo by Angela Weiss / AFP)

US model and actress Dree Hemingway arrives for the 2026 Met Gala celebrating “Costume Art” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, on May 4, 2026. (Photo by Angela Weiss / AFP)

US singer Katy Perry arrives for the 2026 Met Gala celebrating “Costume Art” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, on May 4, 2026. (Photo by Angela Weiss / AFP)