It would have been prudent to expect a number of naked dresses at this year’s Met Gala, given the “Fashion is Art” dress code. Whether sheer, semi-sheer or totally transparent, lingerie-inspired, moulded or otherwise, the array of Costume Art interpretations saw Simone Ashley step out in a draped, diamanté string dress, Gigi Hadid don a glittering, transparent Miu Miu gown and Adwoa Aboah pair a Simone Rocha appliqué flower corset with a sheer skirt. This year, the naked trend filtered into celebrity beauty choices, too.
Read more: Met Gala 2026 Red Carpet
On the red carpet, stars eschewed mascara and let their hair hang loose. A huge number of bleached eyebrows transformed foreheads into blank canvases while nails were left deliberately bare, beige or neutral.
For the first meaningful time, naked nails were given their moment in the sun, worn by a handful of the biggest stars attending. Here, we’ve compiled our favourite interpretations from the 2026 Met Gala.
Kendall Jenner
2026 marks the 12th year Jenner has attended the Met Gala, choosing to wear a GapStudio gown designed by the brand’s creative director, Zac Posen. Inspired by the statue of a second-century Greek statue, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, which greets visitors as they step into the Louvre museum, Jenner’s entire colour palette stuck to sand, pearl, oyster, taupe and beige colours. For her manicure, Jenner chose an almost-identical colour to that of her gown – a creamy, cool-toned beige worn on short, square nails.
Margot Robbie
Leave it to Margot Robbie to bring back strapless, metallic dresses. This Met Gala, she wore a Chanel gown with hundreds of gold flower petals lining the train – a piece of work that took the Chanel atelier 761 hours to create, Vogue’s Hannah Jackson reported. On her nails, she chose a sheer, skin-coloured apricot polish on a gently rounded shape. Clean and semi-sheer, the polish looked to have been applied in just one or two very light coats, letting her natural, white nail tip shine through.
Paloma Elsesser
A shimmering vintage vision, Elsesser’s dress was created by patchworking together over 30 dresses sourced on eBay, upon which designer and former Marni creative director Francesco Risso embellished (and painted) metallic details. The Bureau of Imagination dress featured gems of all sizes, sprinkled with glittering shards and swirling eddies of metallic rivers.
It makes sense, then, that she would pare back her beauty choices to let the dress sing. For make-up, she kept to terracotta, reddy-brown tones, with minimal eye make-up and a sheer sweep of cheek colour. For her naked manicure, she chose an extra-long, round shape painted in a sheer, milky beige colour.
Kim Kardashian
With a breastplate finished in an “auto body shop”, Kardashian made her signature statement on the Met Gala red carpet. Wearing an Allen Jones design, Kardashian modelled a satsuma-coloured fibreglass breastplate and cape-like orange and brown skirt. A change from her usual short manicure, Kardashian chose an extended, almond shape, painted in a pastel, demi-matte nude for the event.
