Cardi B at the 2026 Met Gala.Credit : Kevin Mazur/MG26/Getty

NEED TO KNOW

Cardi B revealed on the red carpet that she attended the 2026 Met Gala despite the fact that she was “actually sick” and had a “fever”
She wore a custom Marc Jacobs gown inspired by German artist Hans Bellmer’s life-sized female dolls for the gala
The event’s theme, “Fashion Is Art,” coincided with The Met’s “Costume Art” exhibit pairing art with garments

Cardi B wasn’t completely on the “up” while attending the 2026 Met Gala.

On Monday, May 4, the 33-year-old rapper revealed on the red carpet that she was not feeling well prior to the big style event and had not gotten any better as she took the steps at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“You wanna know a secret? I’m actually sick and I have a fever,” the Bodak Yellow musician told reporters as she went up the Met Gala steps, according to an X post shared by Variety.

However, a fever was not going to keep Cardi down as she attended the event in a custom Marc Jacobs gown — from his fall 2025 collection — which had the rapper in head-to-toe lace. The gown featured two large masses around her shoulders and at the bottom of the dress.

Cardi B at the 2026 Met Gala.Mike Coppola/Getty

The dress incorporated various colors like purple, pink and orange in different sections that blended into a nude shade. The outfit also included light pink gloves underneath the satin on her hands and black leaf stitching along the dress.

According to Vogue, the silhouette of the dress takes inspiration from German artist Hans Bellmer, who was often recognized for the life-sized female dolls he would produce.

Vogue revealed in February that the 2026 Met Gala dress code would be “Fashion Is Art,” which reflects the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s spring 2026 exhibition titled “Costume Art.” The announcement came about two months after the event’s co-chairs —Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams and Anna Wintour — were announced.

The curator in charge of the new “Costume Art” exhibit, Andrew Bolton, said the exhibition will address “the centrality of the dressed body in the museum’s vast collection,” by pairing paintings, sculptures and other objects spanning the 5,000 years of art represented in The Met, alongside historical and contemporary garments from the Costume Institute.

Cardi B attends the 2024 Met Gala celebrating “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion”.Dia Dipasupil/Getty

Cardi is no stranger to donning eye-catching looks to the Met Gala. For last year’s event, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” she wore a luxurious ivy-colored Burberry suit created by Daniel Lee.

Underneath, the star wore a silk devoré shirt with ruffled accents at the neckline and cuffs, complemented by green velvet tailored trousers that matched the coat. The look even featured a cutout in the back, showing off the musician’s floral tattoos.

Cardi also shut down the Met Gala carpet in 2024 while wearing a voluminous black dress with a matching beehive-style headpiece. The previous year, she went viral on social media for wearing an impressive four outfits for her fourth outing at the event and its afterparty.

She left her hotel in a bejeweled pink dress with a tulle headpiece before switching into a silver wig and a chunky black headband, which she called her way of “representing the house of Chanel and Karl at the same time.”