Blake Lively made her grand return to the 2026 Met Gala on Monday night, arriving in an archival Atelier Versace gown from spring 2006 after missing the event since 2022. It was her 11th Met Gala appearance, and the look was built around the night’s “Fashion is Art” dress code.
The gown was not a simple throwback. It was shaped with three-dimensional architectural elements inspired by 18th-century Venetian Rococo paintings, a draped bodice embroidered with gemstones in powdery pinks, yellows, corals, peaches and lilacs, and four three-dimensional structures at the hips that evoked a Baroque church. The skirt ran four meters, or more than 13 feet, before dissolving into a painted sunset-like sky.
Donatella Versace praised the return, saying Lively looked stunning in archive Atelier Versace and noting that she has had many iconic Versace moments at the Met, with Monday no exception. The designer’s comments underscored how closely the actress’s red-carpet identity has been tied to the house, especially at fashion’s biggest stage.
Lively also carried a custom Judith Leiber Couture bag that included colorful artworks made by her four children. Jana Matheson, speaking about the project, said the team always enjoys it when Lively reaches out with special projects and called her love of sparkle and touch of whimsy a dream-client quality. She added that this season’s clutch, featuring the children’s artwork, was especially meaningful, and that the new four-sided minaudière shape let each child’s drawing be included.
Lively shares three daughters and one son with husband Ryan Reynolds, and the bag turned that family tie into the night’s sharpest detail. Matheson said there was no better way to bring four little ones to a black-tie event than by carrying them on the clutch.
The return fit a pattern. Lively had last attended the Met Gala in 2022, when she wore a Statue of Liberty-inspired gown that patinaed on the carpet. Four years earlier, in 2018, she chose an ornate red-and-gold Versace design for the “Heavenly Bodies” theme. Monday’s appearance carried the same message as those earlier turns: when Lively shows up at the Met, she does not just attend. She builds a moment around the house that has come to define some of her most memorable red-carpet work.
