Kendall Jenner’s 12th Met Gala Look: A White T-Shirt Transformed Into Winged Victory

Key facts

• Kendall Jenner attended her 12th Met Gala in 2026.
• Zac Posen designed the GapStudio gown for Jenner, inspired by the Winged Victory of Samothrace.
• The dress began with a white Gap T-shirt, manipulated to mimic wet drapery.
• Posen commissioned Seks to create a 3D-printed leather corset base.
• Kylie Jenner wore a Schiaparelli dress with 11,000 hours of embroidery, 2,000 satin stitch balls, 10,000 baroque pearls, and 7,000 pearlescent fish scales.
• The 2026 Met Gala theme was 'Costume Art' or 'Fashion is Art'.
• Posen wrote Jenner a letter proposing the collaboration; she felt it was cosmically fated.

A Cosmic Collaboration Takes Flight

Kendall Jenner has earned her wings at the 2026 Met Gala, centered on the theme of “Costume Art.” On the occasion of her 12th Met Gala, the model turned to Zac Posen, the creative director of Gap Inc., to fashion her a GapStudio look inspired by Winged Victory of Samothrace, the second-century Greek statue of the goddess of victory that welcomes visitors to the Louvre. Though they’d never worked together, Jenner and Posen held each other in high regard. She cites Christina Ricci’s 2011 Met Gala dress—which Jenner calls the “spider dress”—as the Posen look that lives rent-free in her mind. “I’ve had this dress on my mood board for so fucking long!” she says. “It’s so perfect, and she looks so gorgeous and hot.”

A Letter, a Dream, and a Shared Vision

Posen, who has a long-standing relationship with Jenner’s sister Kim Kardashian, always longed to collaborate with the model. So when it came time for the 2026 Met Gala, Posen wrote Jenner a letter. “I said that it would be a dream to collaborate with her for this theme,” he says. “I thought she was the perfect person.” “I’ve always really admired Zac from afar,” Jenner says. But recently, she adds, “I just kept thinking about him.” When it came time for the Met, Posen crossed her mind, “but I didn’t put any action into it at the time,” she says. “And very cosmically, I got an email from him.” Jenner views the entire endeavor as fated. “I believe in the universe guiding you in a certain direction. It came together so perfectly.”

From a White T-Shirt to Ancient Marble

Posen brought a modern sensibility to the ancient statue, using the classic white T-shirt—a Gap staple—as a jumping-off point. “I took a white Gap T-shirt off of my back in my studio and started pulling it and tweaking it and figuring out how—in a contemporary way, in a glamorous way—to interpret the sculpture that influenced humanity and our modern culture,” he says. (Also on the mood board were masters of jersey and drapery: Madame Grès, Azzedine Alaïa, Roy Halston Frowick, Madeleine Vionnet, Geoffrey Beene, and Claire McCardell.) Jenner, who was “super, super, super involved” in the process, was keen to capture the rippling, windswept tunic with an ultrathin fabric, which led Posen to a lightweight cotton-viscose blend that created a wet drapery look. “It’s been really cool to see him work. I can see his wheels turning, which is such a treat for me,” Jenner says. “I love being a part of every step of the process.” The designer added some dimension by layering the tea-dyed liquid jersey with satin-face chiffon and organza to mimic the statue’s fluid drapery.

The Corset Beneath the Drape

Posen also commissioned Abel Cepeda Ljoka and Will Kowall of the New York brand Seks to create the base of the dress, a leather corset to be worn underneath. “We 3D-printed her body and made a mannequin and a bust of it that is the corset underneath this,” he explains. Posen draped the fabric to show off the corset like an exposed breast. A longtime Met Gala attendee, Jenner has her routine down to a science. “I sit there in glam before I get there and I watch that red carpet on the livestream,” she says. “And then to be able to get inside and run into people; I feel every year it’s like my yearly high school reunion.” Still, even on her 12th turn, Jenner admits that she gets some pre-Met jitters: “I’ll probably need a shot before the carpet.”

Sisterly Coordination in Nude Illusion

Two of the mainstays on the Met Gala's best dressed list have arrived! Either Kylie and Kendall Jenner perfectly coordinated their looks, or they had no idea what the other was wearing, but knowing how close the sisters are, we're assuming it's the first option. While they're far from matching, Kendall and Kylie both stepped out in daring nude-illusion ensembles, and honestly, they've both nailed the theme. Kendall wore a white gown designed to look like it's slowly slipping off – with just a peek of a nude bodice similar to Kylie's. Somewhat twinning with her older sister, Kylie stepped out in a Schiaparelli dress, giving the illusion of a dress slipping off. The dress was purposefully designed to look as though it's falling away, with a nude bodice with faux nipples, paired with a carefully designed skirt.

Kylie’s Schiaparelli: 11,000 Hours of Embroidery

The beauty mogul's dress required around 11,000 hours of embroidery work, adorned with over 2,000 satin stitch balls, 10,000 natural baroque pearls and more than 7,000 pearlescent fish scales. Her hairstylist told Vogue that they wanted her beauty look to be an extension of the dress and a structured blowout. “For me, it was about tension between something sculpted and something undone,” Iggy Rosales told the publication. “I wanted the hair to reflect that.” The theme this year was Fashion is Art, with the intention to highlight the relationship between garments and the human body, an intention that both Kylie and Kendall have nailed.

The bottom line

• Kendall Jenner’s 2026 Met Gala gown, designed by Zac Posen for GapStudio, was inspired by the Winged Victory of Samothrace and started from a white Gap T-shirt.
• The dress featured a 3D-printed leather corset base by Seks and layered fabrics to mimic wet drapery.
• Kylie Jenner wore a Schiaparelli dress with 11,000 hours of embroidery, incorporating thousands of pearls, fish scales, and satin stitch balls.
• Both sisters wore nude-illusion ensembles that played with the theme of garments slipping off the body.
• The collaboration between Jenner and Posen began with a letter from Posen, which Jenner described as cosmically fated.
• Jenner has attended 12 Met Galas and has a pre-carpet ritual of watching the livestream and taking a shot to calm nerves.