Jeans at the Met Gala?! Yes, They Belong

When you think of the annual Met Gala, an extremely high-fashion red carpet comes to mind. As was the case at this year’s affair, stars show up in one-of-a-kind couture creations (not to mention jewels worth millions)—displaying the finest designs that luxury fashion houses have to offer. This is not, it should be said, about wearability or practicality: Rather, it centers around displaying just how creative, artistic, and downright over-the-top fashion can be.

It was surprising to many at-home viewers, then, that a number of attendees showed up to the 2026 Met Gala in. . . jeans. A staple in our everyday wardrobes, sure, but hardly a formal or groundbreaking garment worthy of fashion’s biggest night.

Troye Sivan, for one, wore head-to-toe Prada: His black coat and white poplin shirt were paired with devoré-effect jeans (and cool cowboy boots), a reference to the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe’s own look (and, it should be said, feathered coiffure). Model Bhavitha Mandava, meanwhile, wore Mathieu Blazy’s Chanel—her beige muslin half-zip sweater worn over a pair of muslin-printed pants that had a blue jean effect (but, contrary to many reports, were not in fact denim-denim.)

Still: Fashion spectators had a lot to say online about the presence of the humble jean at the Met. One commenter wrote, “Met Gala in jeans? Really?” Another wrote, “I don’t care what the inspo is: Jeans at the Met Gala should be an automatic blacklist.” But what if we told you. . . jeans can be quite effective at the Met, and even downright cool. Hear us out.

Mandava’s look, for starters, was almost identical to the one she wore to open Chanel’s pre-fall 2026 show in New York City—a fitting homage to her own achievements, given she became the first Indian model to ever open a Chanel show that day. Her Met look, then, was personal and intentional, nodding to her own historic career moment. The jean “effect” of her trousers was also right on-theme, too: The Met dress code this year was “fashion is art,” and if a trompe l’oeil design makes you look twice, we’d say that the pants accomplished the mission.

But Mandava aside, a well-placed jean on a red carpet can also subvert a look, making it feel just a little more unexpected and intriguing. The Met, in particular, is a place where fashion is meant to come alive: Outfits are meant to ignite conversations, engender spirited debates, and challenge conceptions of what red carpet attire can be. The designs are meant to create a fantasy. And if a jean helps accomplish those things, why not have a place for them on the Met steps? To disregard them as boring or lazy is, quite frankly, an even lazier take.

If you look at the history of denim at the Met, you can see just how well some of these deliberately dressed-down takes have been over the years. Back in 2012, Jenna Lyons had people talking when she stepped onto the Met steps in full J.Crew: She paired a hot-pink satin skirt—a more traditional evening piece—with a blue buttoned-up jean jacket. The theme that year? Highlighting the work of Schiaparelli and Prada—two designers who were known to challenge the idea of beauty. Lyons: 1, online trolls: 0.

In 2022, actor Kodi Smit-McPhee emerged in a Bottega Veneta ensemble with widely-discussed jeans, too. The theme that year was “In America: An Anthology of Fashion,” and his white shirt, bejeweled necklace, red leather gloves, and stonewashed jeans served as an homage to Casual Fridays—one of the most American sartorial traditions, like, ever. Plus, at the time, Blazy was still the head designer at Bottega, and some of his most prominent pieces during his tenure were jeans and flannels that were actually made out of leather. That’s fabrication innovation, folks.

On the runways, jeans have also served as a tool to infuse a look with a sense of effortlessness and relatability—to render something less stuffy, and more grounded in reality. Every season, designers like Glenn Martens at Diesel also find fresh ways to work with denim—slashing it, splashing it, or tearing it apart to feel new and groundbreaking. Jeans are clearly a mainstay in fashion, so it’s no wonder that many have chosen to incorporate them into their Met Gala looks.

So, yes, call it a hot take, but jeans do have a well-earned place at the Met. Because this is not the Oscars or the Golden Globes, people! It’s less about channeling Old Hollywood glamour and more about encouraging attendees to have fun, take risks, and tell a story or evoke a feeling with their choices. A Met Gala jean is simply for the girls who get it.