Met Gala 2026 is here, and billionaire heiress Isha Ambani embraced the “Costume Art” theme in a custom saree by designer Gaurav Gupta. The saree has been woven with pure gold threads and features hand-painted Pichwai-inspired motifs in soft gold and earthy tones. It has been handwoven by master artisans of Swadesh, and she was styled by Anaita Shroff Adajania. It took over 25 artisans and more than 1,200 hours to create this piece.
“Isha’s look reimagined the saree as a living canvas, merging art, craft and couture. The design draws from India’s rich textile and artistic heritage, incorporating hand-painted and embroidered elements with a sculptural drape to position the dressed body as an artistic medium in a contemporary context,” wrote Anaita.
Isha ensures that she wears pieces from her mother Nita Ambani’s wardrobe. For the Met Gala, she paired her saree with a bodice adorned with diamonds and metallic zardozi embroidery that, according to Anaita, “was sourced from her mother, Nita Ambani’s personal collection, underscoring a legacy of Indian craftsmanship, including a historic sarpech piece at the back, once part of the Nizam’s collection.” The bodice was crafted by Kantilal Chhotalal and features over two hundred old mine-cut diamonds, each hand-sewn onto it.
Her look was completed with a jasmine-inspired hair sculpture, an artistic reinterpretation of the traditional mogra gajra, handcrafted over 150 hours by Brooklyn-based artist Sourabh Gupta using paper, copper and brass.
For her look, Isha was dressed head to toe in Brand India and carried a Subodh Gupta mango sculpture, “a symbolic nod to her heritage and a literal embodiment of art in hand,” wrote Anaita.
Met Gala theme and dress code
“Costume Art”, the theme for the 2026 Met Gala, explores the intersection of fashion and art. The dress code for the evening is “Fashion is Art”. According to the Met, “the dress code will invite guests to express their own relationship to fashion as an embodied art form.”
