Olympian Eileen Gu's Bubbly 2026 Met Gala Dress Was A Unique Labor Of Love

"It BLOWS bubbles?! This is the best dress ever," wrote a Reddit user on a board devoted to the topic of Olympian Eileen Gu's 2026 Met Gala dress, designed by Iris van Herpen. When gold-medal skier Gu stepped onto the gala carpet, she instantly surged ahead with one of the fan-fave looks of the night, while also immediately becoming a contender for the list of memorable Met Gala looks that have entered the fashion hall of fame. But she didn't just look good, she's also one of the celebs who nailed the 2026 Met Gala theme and looked like walking art. "This dress itself is art, but also the bubbles coming out makes it feel like performance art! Amazing!" agreed another Reddit fan.

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As you might expect, this piece of fashion art was no easy feat to accomplish. Avant-garde Dutch designer van Herpen collaborated with artist duo A.A. Murakami to create the "Airo" dress. "Hidden beneath the garment, microprocessors precisely coordinate the release of pressured gas and bubbles, sequenced through a dedicated digital interface and calibrated to operate autonomously," read the post on van Herpen's Instagram page. Basically, a noiseless bubble machine was placed under the dress and used a mix of air and helium to create buoyant bubbles. The dress, which Gu called, "A masterpiece," took 2,550 hours of work over 15 weeks to create.

If you love looking at pics of Olympians rocking the red carpet, one of the standout looks from this year has to be Eileen Gu at the 2026 Met Gala. And it was all the little details that came together to make the entire moment, from head to toe, flawless. For example, in a fascinating video from Iris van Herpen's team about creating the dress, one of the artists on the project explained to Gu how one of the glass bubbles on her dress was actually an on-off switch to control the bubble machine.

Then there was her beauty. Rikke Gajda was the hair pro behind the bouncy updo with curled tendrils that mimicked the airiness and movement of the dress. Makeup artist Alicia Martinez gave the gold medalist a soft, ethereal look, where her cheeks had the same glassy glow you'd see on the surface of a bubble. Gu finished her look with naked shoes, and we can't think of a choice that suited the ensemble better. The payoff of all these elements was clear: This look was one of the most talked about from the 2026 Met Gala, with an outpouring of fan love, including from Met envelope-pusher Katy Perry, who wrote on Gu's 'gram, "My fav look this year! Ethereal Goddess. Whimsy!"