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NYC’s Vogue costume exhibit at the Met goes inclusive — showing pregnant people and dwarves
Sandy Verma | April 21, 2026 9:24 AM CST

The upcoming Costume Institute exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art — which Vogue’s fundraising Met Gala supports — promises to be bigger than ever.

Astonishing photos from the upcoming “Costume Art” show, timed to the eagerly anticipated Met Gala on May 4, reveal an array of wild designs hanging on an eyebrow-raising collection of supersize mannequins.

Instead of relying on the traditional sample size of 2, the exhibit eagerly celebrates a range of shapes, including pregnant, disabled and aging bodies — reflecting a shift playing out on red carpets in recent years.

Images teasing Vogue’s “Costume Art” exhibition at the Met reveal a range of body types dressed in bizarre couture. Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

Stars including Sienna Miller and Rihanna have embraced their pregnant bodies in high-profile moments, turning their pending motherhood into fashion statements.

Curator Andrew Bolton told the AP the intention was “to challenge a history of museum mannequin display that’s very much characterized by thin, abled and standardized bodies.”

Sienna Miller in pregnancy couture at Vogue World in London in September 2023. Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images
A$AP Rocky and Rihanna, pregnant with the couple’s third child, in Paris on June 27, 2025. Aissaoui Nacer / BACKGRID

Real-life models were used to create the mannequins through photogrammetry. They include artist Michaela Stark and Sinéad Burke, an Irish disability activist with dwarfism who was featured on the cover of British Vogue in 2023.

Also included are athlete Aimee Mullins, who wears prosthetic lower legs, Aariana Rose Philip, a musician and model who uses a wheelchair, and French singer-songwriter and plus-size model Yseult.

Besides their shape, the faces of the mannequins are polished in reflective steel so visitors can see themselves, which organizers said is to be a deliberate attempt to help the viewer identify with the model.

A Burberry ensemble by Christopher Bailey made for model Sinéad Burke, shown on a Burke-sized mannequin. Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

“You’re looking not only at the person the mannequin is meant to embody, but also yourself,” Bolton added.

The exhibit opens May 10 and runs through January 2027. It will debut in the museum’s newly expanded Costume Institute galleries and aligns with the gala’s broader framing of fashion as an art form, and it will be used in the museum’s permanent collection, according to the AP.

Sinead Burke wears the custom Burberry trench on the cover of Business of Fashion’s influence issue in 2018. Tim Walker/BOF

As celebrities appear to shrink in size and the fashion industry seemingly pulls back on the once-robust inclusivity movement, the Met’s latest move signals a push to reassert a broader vision of representation.

And while the exhibit will include plenty of classic body shapes, Bolton told the AP this is an opportunity to add new voices to the conversation, not “reject what came before.”

An outfit by designer Maria Grazia Chiuri for the House of Dior, on a mannequin model of French model Yseult. Charles Sykes/Invision/AP
Model Yseult wears the custom Dior jacket at skirt to the Cannes Film Festival in May 2024. Mike Marsland/WireImage

“We’re using it as an opportunity to add new voices and new silhouettes and new presences,” he said. “The figures don’t deny the past, but in a way, I suppose they complete the picture.”

Additional details about designers featured in the exhibit are expected to be released by the museum.


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