There’s not much pop princess Sabrina Carpenter can’t do – and that includes imbuing her 2026 Met Gala look with as many subtle references as possible.
Read more: Met Gala 2026 Red Carpet
The dress, a custom Dior slit tulle dress by Jonathan Anderson, is an ode to Audrey Hepburn in Billy Wilder’s 1954 film, Sabrina. Look closer, and you’ll notice the semi-sheer bodice and belt are made of reels of film – rhinestone ones, no less – and include stills from Hepburn’s Sabrina. Her hair, a 1930s style, was fashioned into a faux bob, pinned to create large, barrel curls reminiscent of silver-screen stars Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth and Marlene Dietrich.
A circlet headpiece dripping with jewels and adorned with black and white Sabrina film stills, and a quirky French manicure were the cherry on top of her “Fashion is Art”-themed look. For Carpenter, this year’s dress code clearly inspired glamorous throwbacks to the Hollywood of yore, something celebrity manicurist Zola Ganzorigt included in the star’s nail design, too.
“If you look close enough, we replicated the [Sabrina] film reel in the tips of her French manicure,” she told me on Monday evening, recounting the small details she painted on Carpenter’s nails. Ganzorigt (an OPI global ambassador) paired the film-inspired tips with Carpenter’s “signature glazed doughnut base”, using OPI’s Chrome Effects powder in Tin Man Glaze, another nod to the golden age of cinema.
As for her hair, stylist Evanie Frausto fashioned a faux bob by rolling her blonde curls under and pinning them into place. This technique creates the illusion of much shorter hair without needing to make a single chop. The dream! Carpenter’s large barrel curls were pinned just above the nape of the neck, giving a bouncy, full look to the ends of her hair.
