Beyonce left the cowboy hat at home and dazzled in a custom Olivier Rousteing sculptural skeleton dress with a cream and dust blue feathered train fitted with a diamond crown for "Queen Bey".
The Grammy winner and husband Jay-Z and daughter Blue Ivy stopped to pose as a unit on the carpet together.
Osaka stunned in a dramatic Robert Wun white sculptural fitted dress with exaggerated shoulders and adorned with red feathers and a matching headpiece.
To complete her dramatic look, Osaka's hands were dipped in dripping red paint. A similar look by Wun sits inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute exhibit, Costume Art.
Co-chairs of the evening Nicole Kidman and Venus Williams chose more subdued looks.
Kidman, who attended with her daughter Sunday Rose, flaunted a red sequin gown with a red feather detail around her waist. Sunday Rose wore a fun, pink textured dress with purple flower details.
Williams chose a sparkling black off-the-shoulder gown with a dazzling bejewelled neckpiece in homage to a painting of herself done by Robert Pruitt for the National Portrait Gallery.
The annual gala on Monday evening, US time, is attended by stars from across music, film, TV and fashion, raising money for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and celebrating the opening of the Costume Institute's spring exhibition at the New York museum.
With all the fanfare around The Devil Wears Prada 2, Met Gala co-chair Anna Wintour opted for a cool mint ensemble - not the trendy cerulean blue from the first film.
US influencer Emma Chamberlain arrived in a breathtaking Mugler by Miguel Castro Freitas hand-painted dress.
The star was dipped in a rainbow of colours from her decolletage down to the spiral train of her body-hugging dress with fringe falling down the cuffs of the long-sleeve gown.
Madonna, in typical fashion, made the carpet her stage. A group of women circled around the musical icon in colourful dresses as they held onto sheer fabric wrapped around her pirate ship headpiece on the carpet.
Bad Bunny went full costume, carrying a cane and dressing up as an older version of himself with grey hair and special effects makeup to add years to his face.
The artist joked with Vogue it took 53 years to finish the look.
Instead of opting for a body-hugging gown, Kim Kardashian wore a bright orange metallic body plate from the '60s designed by Allen Jones.
And singer and fashion powerhouse Rihanna shut down the carpet as the final guest to arrive much earlier than in years past.
Dressed in a metallic cocoon-like dress, Rihanna emerged onto the carpet with her partner A$AP Rocky.
"I feel like a pearl out of an oyster," Rihanna said to reporters on the carpet.
Unlike the 2025 blue carpet, this year's carpet appeared intentionally forgotten by time.
The carpet featured patches of overgrown grass peeking out from the stone steps with manicured shrubs lining the side railing and white wisteria dangling from the roof.
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