India Owns the Met Gala 2026: Isha Ambani, Karan Johar & Others Redefine Fashion as Art

Every year, the Met Gala produces that one moment when you stop scrolling and just stare. This year, it happened more than once — and each time, it was Indian.

The Met Gala 2026 took place on Monday, May 4, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The theme this year was "Costume Art" and the dress code read simply: "Fashion is Art."

What is Met Gala?

The Met Gala is the Academy Awards of the fashion world. It is one of the most exclusive fashion shows in the world that takes place each year in New York.

Although the gala is a charity event to benefit the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it serves as the grand opening of the fashion exhibit of the museum. This year, the event's co-hosts included Zoë Kravitz and Anthony Vaccarello, the creative director of Saint Laurent.

Source - Vogue India

Beyoncé wore a skeleton-themed gown. Rihanna, in shimmering Maison Margiela couture, looked at A$AP Rocky as if she had won the entire event before she even reached the top of the stairs. Sabrina Carpenter wore a dress that was made of film reels. It is reported that Kylie Jenner's Schiaparelli gown took 11,000 hours to create. No one else was able to match the event's offering: stitched into every hem was a legacy of history and craftsmanship.

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The Indians Who Came, Dressed, and Conquered

Isha Ambani

Isha Ambani walked the Met Gala carpet in a custom Gaurav Gupta couture saree woven with pure gold threads by Swadesh artisans. Her blouse was set with over 1,800 carats of diamonds, emeralds, polki, and kundan from her mother Nita Ambani's personal heirloom collection. The piece at the centre of the blouse was a historic sarpech from the Nizam's collection, set with rose- and table-cut diamonds.

Source - Vogue India

Her hair piece — a jasmine-inspired sculpture instead of the usual mogra gajra — was handcrafted over 150 hours using paper, copper and brass. She also carried a mango-shaped artwork by sculptor Subodh Gupta, tying the whole look back to an Indian sensibility that the global audience found both baffling and mesmerising. Good. That's the point.

This was Isha's first time wearing a traditional saree at the Met. She made it count. Stylist Anaita Shroff Adajania has been in this game long enough to know when restraint is the boldest choice — and a gold saree on the Metropolitan Museum steps, dripping with inherited diamonds, is as restrained as it is jaw-dropping.

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Karan Johar

The man who has spent thirty years dressing Bollywood's biggest stars, getting them to look their best on screen, finally walked his own red carpet. And he did it by becoming a painting.

Karan Johar made his Met Gala debut in a custom Manish Malhotra creation inspired by the art of Raja Ravi Varma — the 19th century painter widely regarded as the father of modern Indian art. The look was a black bandhgala layered with a dramatic, sweeping cape that functioned as a moving canvas, dense with Varma's painterly language, brought into couture form.

Source: ZOOM TV

He captioned his post "Framed in Eternity." It was exactly the kind of thing Karan Johar would say, and it was also exactly right. His appearance became one of the most discussed debuts of the evening — not because he wore something wild, but because the choice was so deliberate and so him. He is a filmmaker. He showed up wearing a filmmaker's answer to the theme: a story told through costume.

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Manish Malhotra

The man who designed Karan Johar's look also walked the carpet himself, in his own creation. Manish Malhotra wore a sharply tailored black bandhgala layered with a cape embroidered with the names and signatures of his karigars — the artisans who have worked with him across decades. The cape featured Mumbai's cinematic landmarks, measuring tape motifs, dori work, zardozi, chikankari and kasab embroidery.

It was the kind of choice that takes real confidence. He could have worn something flashy. He wore something that was essentially a tribute to the people in his atelier. In a night full of spectacle, it was one of the most quietly powerful statements on the entire carpet.

Princess Gauravi Kumari & Maharaja Sawai Padmanabh Singh

Real royalty walked the Met Gala steps this year. Princess Gauravi Kumari of Jaipur wore her grandmother Maharani Gayatri Devi's vintage chiffon sari, reworked into a gown by Prabal Gurung. Jaipur pink, a delicate drape, and heirloom pearls and diamonds. The brief was heritage over spectacle — and it landed with the kind of grace that only memory can carry. In a night full of performance, this felt like a private act made public.

Maharaja Sawai Padmanabh Singh complemented her in a deep velvet coat over a classic bandhgala, densely embroidered with zardozi, dabka, and resham work, with a mirrored detail at the back inspired by Jaipur's City Palace. Hundreds of hours of work. He didn't try to reinterpret. He just presented Rajasthani heritage with polish, and let it speak for itself.

Natasha Poonawalla

Natasha Poonawalla is at this point a Met Gala institution all by herself. She arrived this year in a couture gown paired with the Orchid Pectoral by sculptor Marc Quinn — a structured art piece that merged seamlessly with flowing fabric, sitting somewhere between wearable sculpture and high fashion. Diamonds, crystals, and an ease that you only get when you've done this enough times to stop trying too hard. She is simply very good at this.

Sudha Reddy

Sudha Reddy, the philanthropist and businesswoman, came in a custom Manish Malhotra ensemble inspired by Kalamkari art and the Tree of Life motif — with conceptual roots tied to her hometown Hyderabad. Beautiful. Intentional. Culturally grounded. And then there was the jewellery: a 5 million, 550-carat tanzanite pendant from Tanzania's Merelani Hills. Casual.

Ananya Birla

Ananya Birla, the singer and entrepreneur, made her Met Gala debut styled by Rhea Kapoor in a structured black ensemble by Robert Wun, paired with a stainless steel and acrylic sculptural mask by artist Subodh Gupta. The mask was built from traditional Indian silverware — cutlery and everyday objects, rendered as armour. Sharp tailoring, a flared peplum skirt, and a face covered by art. It was the most conceptually committed look in the Indian contingent and probably the most divisive. Exactly right for a debut.

What Is Actually Different This Year

Indian presence at the Met Gala has been building for over a decade now. Freida Pinto in 2011 opened the door. Priyanka Chopra pushed it wider. Alia Bhatt in 2023 and 2024 started a new chapter — one where Indian textiles and craftsmanship weren't just acknowledged, they were celebrated. But 2026 feels like something shifted again.

The Indian contingent this year wasn't just big in numbers. It was big in intent. There was something deliberate and unified about the choices — almost every single Indian attendee made a decision rooted in Indian craft, Indian history, or Indian art. Not as a nod to heritage, but as the actual point of the look. Isha Ambani didn't wear Indian jewellery to accessorise a Western silhouette. The jewellery was the silhouette. Gauravi Kumari didn't put on a dress inspired by Gayatri Devi. She wore Gayatri Devi's actual sari.

FAQs

Who were the Indian celebrities at Met Gala 2026?

Indian names at Met Gala 2026 included Isha Ambani, Karan Johar, Manish Malhotra, Princess Gauravi Kumari, Maharaja Sawai Padmanabh Singh, Natasha Poonawalla, Sudha Reddy, Ananya Birla, Mona Patel and Diya Mehta Jatia.

What did Isha Ambani wear at Met Gala 2026?

Isha Ambani wore a custom Gaurav Gupta couture saree woven with pure gold threads by Swadesh artisans. Her blouse featured heirloom jewellery from Nita Ambani’s personal collection.

What did Karan Johar wear for his Met Gala debut?

Karan Johar made his Met Gala debut in a custom Manish Malhotra creation inspired by Raja Ravi Varma, featuring a black bandhgala and a dramatic cape.

Why was India’s presence at Met Gala 2026 significant?

India’s presence stood out because many looks were rooted in Indian craft, textiles, art, royal history and artisan traditions, making the country’s participation feel intentional and culturally powerful.