To what extent, and under what conditions, can jewelry truly be considered art? Where, if anywhere, is the boundary between craftsmanship, rarity, and historical significance? These categories are often conflated, their borders porous and difficult to define. The 2026 Met Gala may have been the ideal occasion to examine the question. The event of events, held on the night of May 4 – traditionally the first Monday of the month – inaugurated the exhibition “Costume Art” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, curated by Andrew Bolton. Its dress code, “Fashion Is Art,” invited guests “to express their relationship with fashion as a form of bodily art and to celebrate the countless representations of the dressed body throughout art history.” There was no shortage of theatrical gowns inspired by iconic paintings and sculptures, inevitably heightened by jewelry chosen to intensify their dramatic effect. Rihanna wore a look embellished with more than 115,000 crystal beads, designed by Glenn Martens for Maison Margiela, paired with an imposing ear styling. Her jewels included Glenn Spiro’s “Old Mughal Golconda” earrings, featuring two exceptionally rare pear-shaped natural diamonds totaling more than 51.9 carats; Briony Raymond Sloan diamond pavé clip earrings; and two additional “Reverse Elixia” diamond pavé clip earrings by Sarah Ysabel Narici’s brand DYNE. She also wore a Victorian diamond rivière bracelet with rose-cut stones by Joseph Saidian & Sons, along with three diamond rings: one a 1930s piece by Suzanne Belperron, the others by Fred Leighton. Beyoncé, co-chair of the evening, also embraced this aesthetic richness. Her custom look by Olivier Rousteing, likewise embroidered with beads, included a feather stole and headpiece. For jewelry, she chose a Chopard necklace from the Garden of Kalahari collection, featuring a 6.41-carat brilliant-cut center diamond alongside an additional 140 carats of diamonds set in 18-karat Fairmined white gold. She also wore a bracelet set with two emerald-cut diamonds weighing 21 and 14.7 carats respectively, surrounded by a further 36.74 carats of diamonds from the same Garden of Kalahari collection. These two looks alone make clear that the jewelry primarily served to amplify the garments. More rarely did it construct an autonomous narrative. Does art not require a recognizable intention, the ability to generate meaning beyond ornamentation? What appeared on the bodies of the 450 personalities attending the red carpet were the usual – albeit astonishing – one-of-a-kind jewels drawn from historic and contemporary collections: impressive carat weights and rare gemstones adorning pieces that, in too many cases, remained distant from a truly artistic essence.And yet, Zoë Kravitz wore a pair of asymmetric earrings by Jessica McCormack that could genuinely be considered works of art. Actor Adrien Brody wore an elaborate brooch created by his longtime designer, the artist Elsa Jin: a small masterpiece celebrating lightness and grace.
Model Cara Delevingne chose the De Beers Individuality earrings from the high jewelry collection Forces of Nature, an exquisite tribute to Art Deco. All examples that demonstrate how jewelry can carry and sustain meaning, surprise, and value. Its effectiveness depends on the clarity of the concept. Without creative intention, it risks remaining opaque. From an evening declaring “Fashion Is Art,” could one not have expected a more assertive jewelry language, one capable of speaking in its own voice? In many cases, jewelry accompanied the fashion effectively. More rarely did it take the floor.
