Beyoncé Met Gala Looks: Through the Years

After a full decade, Beyoncé will finally make her grand return to the Met Gala steps.

On Wednesday (Dec. 10), Vogue announced that the most-awarded artist in Grammy history would co-chair the 2026 Met Gala, alongside Oscar winner Nicole Kidman and three-time Olympic gold medalist Venus Williams. Given its “costume art” theme, Beyoncé is a natural selection for next year’s gala. A 2016 CFDA Fashion Icon honoree, Queen Bey doused the world silver with her Renaissance World Tour, turned millions into cowboys with her Cowboy Carter Tour, and shifted the paradigm of on-stage performance wear in popular music with her signature high-fashion leotards.

Though she’s opted for the WACO Wearable Art Gala, hosted annually by her New York Times-bestselling mother Tina Knowles, in recent years, Beyoncé has delivered seven iconic Met Gala looks since her first appearance in 2008. That year, she graced the carpet in a strapless, blush pink gown by Armani Privé. She returned three years later for the 2011 festivities in a regal black Emilio Pucci gown that kicked off four consecutive dark-toned fits. In 2012, just a few months after giving birth to Blue Ivy, Queen Bey donned a lacy, black-purple ombré number courtesy of Givenchy, the fashion house that would design each of her subsequent Met Gala gowns. After delivering a fiery, belted look for 2013’s “punk” theme, Beyoncé showed up in a stunning, semi-sheer, funeral-esque number in 2014, the same year as that notorious elevator moment.

For 2015’s “China: Through the Looking Glass” theme, everyone’s favorite “Alien Superstar” shut down the red carpet with what’s arguably her most iconic Met Gala of all time: a bejeweled, skin-tone, see-through gown complete with an instantly memorable high blonde ponytail. Finally, 2016 marked the music icon’s last Met Gala appearance, where she played into the Southern Gothic themes of that year’s Lemonade LP with exaggerated shoulders, dark eye makeup and a skin-tight, pearl-encrusted dress.

Click through the gallery to check out all of Beyoncé’s Met Gala looks over the years.