Artist Amy Sherald’s costume at the Met Gala on Monday may have looked familiar to anyone who saw her record-breaking exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Amy Sherald: American Sublime.
In keeping with the theme of the night, “Fashion is Art,” Sherald dressed as one of her own paintings from the exhibit.
Collaborating with designer Thom Browne, Sherald came as the figure in her 2013 painting, Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance). Depicting a young woman holding an oversized teacup and wearing a red fascinator, the painting won the National Portrait Gallery’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition in 2016 and appeared on the March 24, 2025, cover of The New Yorker. Sherald has said it was inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Browne designed a sleeveless, slitted, floor-length wool dress with starry polka dots on one side, paired with above-the-elbow white leather gloves and matching wing-tip pumps. A furry red Esenshel fascinator matched the shade of Sherald’s lipstick.
“Fashion speaks to how I want to feel and who I want to be when I walk into whatever room I’m walking into,” the artist said last year.
‘Costume Art’
This was the second Met Gala attended by Sherald, who was a member of the committee behind the event. The gala raises money for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute and hints at the museum’s accompanying show, this year called “Costume Art.”
While some guests wore outfits that referenced works by other artists, no one else came as one of their own paintings. Sherald’s approach sparked a range of reactions on social media.
“Look at Amy Sherald rocking her own art in a creative way on the red carpet,” wrote Ulysses Grant Dietz, Curator of Decorative Arts and Chief Curator Emeritus at the Newark Museum. “She’s a hero to me.”
Meg Hemphill of Glam.com wasn’t as kind.
“While we appreciate how literally she took the dress code, the red pom-pom hat and dachshund-shaped purse gave the ‘fit a child-like vibe that didn’t deliver for this prestigious event,” Hemphill wrote.
“Rather than a designer interpreting a work of art, the artist interprets her own image through dress,” observed the writers behind the Instagram platform, @fashioningself.
“Who embodies this theme more than Amy Sherald does?” Browne asked.
Next up: A stage production
American Sublime set an attendance record during its five-month run that ended on April 5 at the BMA. It drew 84,000 visitors, more than double the museum’s original projections. Her exhibit came to the BMA after stops at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Sherald brought it to Baltimore after cancelling an exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery due to concerns about censorship. American Sublime opens at its fourth and final stop, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, on May 15.
For those who haven’t seen enough of her work, Sherald is taking her practice to another level on June 22. That’s when New York’s Public Theater will present a stage production of Sherald’s paintings, for one night only, as part of its Public Forum series of live conversations, debates and performances. Ticket prices range from $75 to $150.
The show has been described as a theatrical exploration of Sherald’s practice that translates the canvas to stage – an event that literally brings her paintings to life, just as she did at the Met Gala. And one of the characters will be Miss Everything, wearing her polka dot dress.
“A special event featuring live performance excerpts and conversation with Amy Sherald and director Zhailon Levingston, joined by an extraordinary group of collaborating artists, including James Ijames, Anna Deavere Smith and more, exploring the evolution of her acclaimed work for the stage,” states the theater’s website.
“We’re creating costumes for characters that are my paintings,” Sherald told Vanity Fair. “They haven’t been created yet, but this is almost like I’m living in the moment, because this painting is coming to life in a way that I’m becoming the character.”
