The Met Unveils 2026 ‘Costume Art’ Exhibition, Backed by Jeff Bezos

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York unveils the new theme for its next exhibition, which will take place in spring of next year. Combining archival fashion pieces with works of art depicting the human body, Costume Art will be the first show to occupy the Condé M. Nast Galleries space, and the first to be funded by Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez Bezos, major investors.

Costume Art will be the inaugural exhibition of the new space, with a floor space of approximately 1,115 square meters, located adjacent to the Museum’s Great Hall. This will be the first time that the exhibition has such a large space for its development, a deployment that coincides with the incorporation of the founder of Amazon to the investors of the event.

Focusing primarily on the evolution of Western art from prehistoric times to the present, the Costume Art exhibition features connections between garments from the Costume Institute and objects from the museum’s other collections. The exhibition will be on view from May 26, 2026, through January 10, 2027.

Costume Art combines fashion and works of art at the premiere of the new Condé M. Nast Galleries space from May 2026.

“The combination of fashion and artworks offer a range of connections and experiences from the formal to the conceptual, the aesthetic to the political, the individual to the universal, the illustrative to the symbolic, and the playful to the profound,“ The Met said in a statement.

The sponsorship announcement follows the partnership signed earlier this month between Jeff Bezos and the Cfda Foundation, which aims to fund The Next Thread Initiative, a $6.25 million program that seeks to accelerate sustainable fashion innovation and education in the United States.

The program includes three main areas: the Independent Designer Awards, with grants of between $50,000 and $500,000 to promote pioneering projects in sustainable materials, circular design and low-impact production; the funding of scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students, with endowments of up to $75,000; and the Bezos Earth Award, with grants of between $50,000 and $500,000.75,000, and the Bezos Earth Fund, which manages a $10 billion budget to protect nature and mitigate climate change.