Watch: Tommy Hilfiger Teases “Big Surprises” at Met Gala 2026
He’s so gorgeous, we can’t say anything to Joe Alwyn‘s face.
After all, the Hamnet actor made his first Met Gala appearance in 10 years, hitting the red carpet for the 2026 event in honor of the “Costume Art” exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute.
Joe looked dapper as he posed on the steps outside of the Met in a taupe tunic and black trousers, letting his gold cummerbund take center stage. He finished off his look for the “Fashion Is Art” dress code with some subtle rose-colored makeup around his eyes. (See all the stars at the Met Gala here.)
The 35-year-old had fans speculating that he would be making his Met Gala return this year after he was spotted leaving The Mark Hotel—where tons of celebrities get ready every year for fashion’s biggest night—in the days ahead of the May 4 event.
As for the Met Gala’s significance to Joe? Well, while he last attended in 2016 alongside his Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk costar Garrett Hedlund, it was that evening where his six-year romance with Taylor Swift allegedly began.
Fans largely believe that the former couple first crossed paths there due to the lyrics of Taylor’s song “Dress” in which she sings, “Flashback when you met me / Your buzzcut and my hair bleached,” which aligns with their respective hairstyles at the Met Gala that year.
Ultimately, though, their love story came to end in 2023—she’s now engaged to Travis Kelce—with him later admitting why he has been reticent to speak publicly about their relationship and breakup.
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
“As everyone knows, we together—both of us, mutually—decided to keep the more private details of our relationship private,” Joe told The Sunday Times in 2024. “It was never something to commodify and I see no reason to change that now.”
He emphasized, “There is always going to be a gap between what is known and what is said. I have made my peace with that.”
For Taylor’s part, while she has mostly addressed their six-year relationship through her songwriting, she did offer some rare comments on her 2023 splits from Joe and Matty Healy in the Eras Tour: End of an Era documentary series.
“There were points in this tour where the tour was really the only thing keeping me going in my life,” Taylor admitted in the doc. “But there were never points in the tour where I thought, ‘Oh I want to quit the tour because the tour is hard.’ No, my personal life was hard.”
“I went through two breakups on the first half of this tour,” she added. “That’s a lot of breakups, actually. This show is what gave me purpose and what I could use to get me out of bed. The tour has never been the hard thing in my life. The tour has been the thing that allowed me to find purpose outside of the s–t that was going on in my life.”
Of course, Joe isn’t the only major star to attend the 2026 Met Gala. Keep reading to see all the celebs at this year’s event…
Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
Photo by Julian Hamilton/Getty Images
David Fisher/Shutterstock
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
Mike Coppola/Getty Images
Mike Coppola/Getty Images
Matt Crossick/PA Images via Getty Images
Matt Baron/Shutterstock
Mike Coppola/Getty Images
David Fisher/Shutterstock
David Fisher/Shutterstock
Mike Coppola/Getty Images
Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
Mike Coppola/Getty Images
Theo Wargo/FilmMagic
Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
Photo by Kevin Mazur/MG26/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
John Salangsang/Shutterstock
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
Matt Baron/Shutterstock
Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
Tune in to E! today, May 4, starting at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT for every must-see moment from the Met Gala 2026.
