The Met’s New ‘Costume Art’ Mannequins Put Real Bodies First
Curator Andrew Bolton enlists artists Frank Benson and Samar Hejazi for nine new figures redefining a fashion for all.
The 2026 Met Gala is bringing us back the body. With all eyes readying for tonight’s carpet directive, “Fashion is Art,” the corresponding Costume Art exhibition at the Costume Institute, unveiled just this morning, collapses the historical hierarchy between fine art and fashion by grounding both in the act of dressing. For curator Andrew Bolton, this meant bringing bodies, real bodies, to the front.
Amongst the pairings of garments and artworks, expected for the spring show, are nine new new forms largely absent from traditional fashion displays: pregnant bodies, disabled bodies, trans bodies and larger bodies. Bolton saw it as part of his mission to expand the holdings of the department to spotlight voices and designers outside of the European couture canon, and the forms they’re displayed on – beyond the confines industry standard.
Thee mannequins can be seen in two of the exhibitions 12 thematic sections, each organized around a specific corporeal framework. The “Disabled Body” section, for one, features the likes of Tilting the Lens’ Sinéad Burke, model Aariana Rose Philip, athlete Aimee Mullins, Freedom Is Fly founder Antwan Tolliver, model-swimwear-designer Sonia Vera and the late drag legend Goddess Bunny.
Another section, titled “Corpulent Body,” revels in excess and volume, with mannequins taking after musician Yseult, models Jade O’Belle and Charlie Reynolds, and Michaela Stark, an artist and designer whose work, already radiantly, toes the line between fashion and art.
Photo: Anna-Marie Kellen / Courtesy Of The Metropolitan Museum Of Art
Photo: Anna-Marie Kellen / Courtesy Of The Metropolitan Museum Of Art
Photo: Anna-Marie Kellen / Courtesy Of The Metropolitan Museum Of Art
Each model underwent a 3D-scanning process to be digitally translated into garment-ready physical figures by sculptor Frank Benson. Later, heads with mirrors in place of faces were added by Samar Hejazi, another sculptor, drawing viewers into the act of looking, embodying and reflecting.
In an essay penned for the exhibition catalogue, Hejazi explained that even from her earliest conversations with Bolton, the designs were guided by recurring questions: “How might we destigmatize the nonideal body? How can a mannequin allow viewers to see themselves in relation to the garment and the body that carries it? And how might the mannequin’s form invite empathy and connection rather than reinforce distance?”
Last year, Tanda Francis’ bespoke heads for the Superfine exhibition set the bar for mannequins as sculptural objects, furthering the inextricable link between fashion and art.
What’s more is that the 2026 mannequins are here to stay. The nine designs are the newest additions the department’s permanent collection (we’ll likely see them again in future shows), with the hopes of adding more each year. “We are trying to complete the picture,” Bolton said, to capture the full spectrum of forms within and beyond the Met.
