New Delhi:Isha Ambani wore a sari inspired outfit woven with 1,000 diamonds and 800 other precious stones, Sudha Reddy sported a USD 15 million necklace and Ananya Birla hid behind a glittering steel mask by Subodh Gupta...
the three businesspersons were among India's rich and famous making a statement at the Met Gala 2026.
With them at fashion's biggest night on Monday was philanthropist and entrepreneur Natasha Poonawala, and Gauravi Kumari and Sawai Padmanabh Singh, members of Jaipur's erstwhile royal family.
The annual event, held each May at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, is being co-chaired this year by Beyoncé, Venus Williams, Nicole Kidman and Anna Wintour. This year's theme, Costume Art, was complemented by the dress code Fashion is Art.
Attending the event is not cheap.
The Met Gala is strictly invitation only with individual tickets reportedly costing around USD 100,000. A full table can run up to USD 350,000 or more. The seats and tables for celebrities is usually purchased by fashion houses, luxury brands and corporations.
Ambani, who has become a regular at the annual New York fashion gala, wore a custom Gaurav Gupta Couture ensemble that pushed the boundaries between jewellery and textile and the blouse alone took 500 hours and 40 artisans to complete.
The jewellery-integrated blouse was made with over 1,000 diamonds and precious stones totalling over 1,800 carats, including heirloom old mine diamonds, rare emeralds, and traditional polki and kundan elements drawn from her mother Nita Ambani's personal collection. According to the designer, the garment was transformed into a "living surface of inheritance and form".
It was paired with a handwoven gold tissue saree, the border of which was hand-painted by artisans and embroidered with motifs drawn from the Ajanta frescoes -- among the earliest recorded depictions of the sari in Indian art.
A sculptural resin-draped cape, created by folding the gold tissue saree into a preserved, fluid structure, completed the look. The entire ensemble was crafted over 1,200 hours by more than 50 artisans, the designer said in a statement.
Hyderabad-based businesswoman and philanthropist Reddy arrived in a regal navy blue velvet lehenga by Manish Malhotra. The outfit featured intricate gold zardozi embroidery on the bodice, paired with a dramatic floor-sweeping long cape adorned with vibrant multicoloured floral and botanical embroidery in gold, red and green.
The centrepiece of her ensemble, however, was a historic necklace valued at more than USD 15 million from her personal collection. It featured a Victorian-finished chain of large triangular and pear-shaped rose-cut diamonds set in floral clusters.
At the centre of the necklace is the "Queen of Merelani", a 550-carat deep violet-blue tanzanite pendant from Tanzania's Merelani Hills.
Poonawalla, who also returned to the fashion gala, made a conceptual statement by opting for a sculpture -- the Orchid Pectoral -- crafted by British visual artist Marc Quinn, paired with a white couture gown by Dolce and Gabbana. The structure, cast in white resin, was conceived by Quinn exclusively for Poonawalla.
"I see the Orchid Pectoral as a piece of fashion inspired by my artwork. In this iteration, it only exists with its meaning activated when Natasha wears it, rather than as a sculpture in its own right," Quinn said in a statement.
"What has always excited me about fashion is that, unique amongst art forms, it involves the living body and the life of the wearer. It's a piece of art that can only exist as fashion," he added.
Anaita Shroff Adajania handled the styling for both Ambani and Poonawalla.
Birla's look was a collaboration between Indian contemporary artist Subodh Gupta and British designer Robert Wun.
Gupta crafted a mask in stainless steel -- his signature material -- that served as both a disguise obscuring the wearer's identity and a statement of foreboding strength, her team said.
Wun's couture, reinterpreted the codes of everyday workwear, pushing the ordinary into the realm of the extraordinary. The look was styled by Rhea Kapoor.
The two erstwhile royals attended together in outfits designed by Prabal Gurung.
Gauravi's blush pink draped saree gown drew directly from the wardrobe of her grandmother, the legendary Maharani Gayatri Devi. Her gown incorporated one of Gayatri Devi's own chiffon saris into the garment itself. She accessorised with layered pearl strings, a diamond pendant necklace, chandelier earrings and stacked bangles.
Singh opted for a black embroidered sherwani paired with a teal blue velvet achkan coat featuring intricate floral and vine embroidery in gold and blush tones.
He completed the look with a multi-layered polki and pearl necklace.
The charity money collected at the high on optics event is used to support the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute's operating budget, which covers staff salaries, conservation labs, and archival storage for over 33,000 costumes and accessories.
The gala is also seen as an occasion to enhance the cultural capital of the rich and often attracts criticism for it.
This year, the appointment of Amazon's chief Jeff Bezos and wife Lauren Bezos as honorary co-chairs and lead sponsors, has kicked up a major controversy with protestors calling for boycott over Amazon's labour practices and its alleged alleged connection to immigration enforcement (ICE).