Oof, Valentino had a TERRIBLE night. Valentino dressed several people for the 2026 Met Gala and few of these looks landed whatsoever. Let’s start with Lena Dunham – this is literally what every fashion designer and magazine does to every plus-sized woman: they put her in a glittery sack and throw feathers around her face. Lena explained that her gown was based on Artemisia Gentileschi’s “Judith Slaying Holofernes” and that she was supposed to be “the blood.” Girl, stop.
Dree Hemingway possibly got the best Valentino, but as I said, it’s a low bar.
Tessa Thompson’s Valentino was a reference to Yves Klein’s work. This is cool and costume-y, but that’s only because Tessa is really selling it. SHE is the one making this work.
Colman Domingo’s Valentino is supposed to be a Basquiat reference.
Tyla’s Valentino was supposed to be peacock inspired.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images and Getty Images.
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- Celebrities arrive at the 2026 Met Gala Celebrating ‘Costume Art’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City Featuring: Lena Dunham Where: New York City, New York, United States When: 04 May 2026 Credit: TheStewartOfNY/INSTARimages
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- Celebrities arrive at the 2026 Met Gala Celebrating ‘Costume Art’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City Featuring: Dree Hemingway Where: New York City, New York, United States When: 04 May 2026 Credit: TheStewartOfNY/INSTARimages
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- Celebrities leave The Pierre hotel in New York City to attend the Met Gala Featuring: Lena Dunham Where: New York, New York, United States When: 04 May 2026 Credit: M10s/TheNews2/Cover Images
Lena’s dress is giving a tacky Vegas showgirl look. It’s so unflattering and makes her look bigger than she actually is.
Agreed, and could everyone please stop wearing Rockstud shoes? They are absolutely hideous.
Lena got the dress she deserves. Ugh, she’s the worst.
I keep seeing references to Gentileschi all over the place. It’s like TikTok discovering baroque and trying to be feminist. That dress is a caricature by the way.
Muppet chic.
Big Bird wore it better.
I love this for Lena. I have not missed her at all.
Appreciate Domingo’s bold color choice. And Tessa for having an art reference.
Colman Domingo looks like a crash between Harlequin (from Venice’s carnival) and an italian Carabiniere (sort of policeman known by having a red band on their black trousers)
Has Lena Dunham ever looked good in anything? I’m not trying to be mean, necessarily (even though I intensely dislike her). She just always seems to dress and do her makeup with complete disregard for what would actually be flattering to her body type and features.
I like the IDEA of a look planned around an interpretation of a ruff, but Dree’s dress fails in execution.
I won’t hazard a guess as to how much Tyla’s dress actually cost, but whatever it was, it somehow looks super cheap?
Agree on your first two points and hard agree on the third. The ‘peacock’ look just makes me think maybe a low-rate pageant? Or maybe something Vegas related (derogatory).
I think it looks like something that would’ve been really impressive had it been worn by a queen on like, season 4 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, lol. Now a lot of queens wear more exciting stuff for their Werk Room entrances!
as a plus sized girly, i feel dunham frequently dresses for the body she wishes she had or a body she used to have instead of the one she has currently. she’s always been so weird to me. i get the feeling she wants to be a fashion girl, but hates her body so plays it off as trying to subvert fashion ideals by not picking flattering pieces? i dunno, a lot of arm chair diagnosing in the morning! i will say i think the color looks great on her, especially with the darker hair.
I think Colman’s outfit is perfect, one of the best men’s looks of the night. and I love Tessa Thompson’s too – I read that it was a reference to the indigo plantations (worked by slaves obviously) and that made it a lot more powerful in my mind.
Lena Dunham’s is one of the worst looks EVER.
Colman looks amazing he always gets the theme. And I like Tessa’s but it’s pretty basic, I would like it more if the reference you mentioned is accurate.
As for Lena. That dress is horrific against her skin tone. I don’t get what she’s going with with 90% of the stuff that she wears. It’s like she’s trying to make some sort of point, but it only makes sense in her head? Everything she wears always looks so ill-fitting as if she’s daring you to comment on it because it’s evidence of your shallowness instead of it just looking bad.
I think she’s trying to prove that she’s above *all this* or something and is too cool for these things, but if you’re actually “above it” then you don’t wear a custom designer dress like that. And her hair and makeup is awful. I think she’s waiting for people to criticize her so she can accuse them of body shaming and the reality is that there was a wide range of body sizes there last night and she was still the worst dressed.
ha! i should have scrolled down a bit! i just said above that the only thing i thought the dress had going for it was the color. i think it looks nice on her (but i think we all see slightly different colors on our computers). but i totally agree with becks about how she wants to appear above it all but isn’t really. you phrased it much better than i did. i get the impression she really wants to be a part of the fashion group, but is insecure about it all, so tries to play it off as being above it. but, like you said, people who are not into it would just not attend, let alone pay a bundle to appear. that’s not a statement.
Agree with all of this.
Lena looks awful; Colman looks so fun and sharp.
Colman Domingo looks great but I don’t care much for the others. Tyla’s Valentin is awful. Lena looks predictably bad.
Hi Kitten. Tyla’s dress is indeed awful. All this sheer, all these half dressed dresses = so dull and around for years. It’s no longer the simple “wow, she’s not got much on”. Her dress didn’t work.
especially with the idea of a peacock, which are so flamboyant and beautifully colored.
Yes exactly, Sparrow: tacky and Ice Capades. I am so, SO tired of the sheer trend!
Poor Lena. Everyone is glad she looks bad. Self-sabotage again?
For one thing, she’s way too short to wear a dress like that. I think that’s part of why it looks so terrible on her. And I don’t mind the feathers trying desperately to cover her face, too bad they didn’t quite succeed.
Who keeps inviting her back to this event? Obviously, someone invested in allowing her to purposefully make herself look as grotesque as possible, so that she gets news coverage on worst-dressed lists so that she can then write more “I’m a victim” drivel about it.
I don’t know why but every time I see Lena, I hear nails being dragged along a chalkboard.
Lena seems like she is aggressively attempting to look as bad as possible, which is fine if that’s what she wants to do…but it seems like a lot of effort and expense…maybe I am wrong and she loves this and if so, that’s great.
Choosing to wear no makeup or leg makeup was a choice. Her legs are covered in bruises, this looks like a walk of shame look
I hate anything with feathers on it because usually the birds have been tortured in life and death. Including chicken feathers from broilers, pheasant feathers from game, and/or ostrich feathers that were plucked or supposedly fell out.
So Lena’s getup is a bit NOPE from me, whatever else is going on, which isn’t much on the creative front.
I think Lena gets KateandWilliam levels of contempt. I know nothing about her except for Girls and Tiny Furniture (which I haven’t watched). Again, I have no opinions about her, but the hatred borders on misogyny, IMO.
I think a decent amount of the criticism she’s received has been warranted but the valid criticism has morphed into a seething hatred that I don’t really understand. Like, yes she is annoying and self-involved but she’s also a talented creator, writer, producer, actor etc. You can hate her and/or her work but she’s objectively talented.
Also, people are a little too comfortable picking on her appearance. Like, yes the dress is not good but people shit on this woman’s appearance to a degree that I have not seen–even with celebs who have done things far worse than her.
I don’t want to pile on Lena because clearly Valentino has zero interest in accommodating different body types. Designers, just learn to work with women who are not 6ft tall with the hips of a teenage boy. It’s 2026, and we still don’t know what to do with larger bodies. That’s lazy and incompetent.
I actually don’t think Lena looks that bad. She looks cleaned up for once, and has allowed the dress to be the focus, instead of some hideous facial makeup (I like the dress). Her hair is awful, though
Lena’s mother , Carroll Dunham is a contemporary American artist with decades of work at prestigious galleries and some museum representation . Lena basically grew around art all her life and this she comes out with !?
It’s giving last minute dot com
The hypocrisy of Lena, here you go that’s the next novel .some nerves to be showing up again at an event where she doesn’t fell like a fit- you still don’t !
Dree was on brand with Michele and it delivers , everybody else meh
Carroll Dunham is her father. Both her parents are artists – her mother is Laurie Simmons.
My bad , you are so right !
Damn. Poor Tyla.
Who let Lena loose in the children’s craft isle at Michael’s?