the roundup #024
it's met monday!!!
Happy Met Monday!!!
Arguably, this is the only Monday where people wake up with a little more pep in their step as our friends across the East River prepare for the iconic walk up the Met steps later this evening under this year’s theme ‘Costume Art’ with the dress code “Fashion is Art.” Which I will say, I am feeling slightly more hopeful about this year, since the entire premise seems to be simply: take a damn risk. Something that, historically, has proven to be a far more difficult assignment for Met Gala attendees than it should be since I am still a bit haunted by 2021’s In America: A Lexicon of Fashion theme. The utter confused mess of it all has effectively caused my brain to black out most of the night, leaving only fragments intact. Namely, Aurora James’ “Tax the Rich” dress draped across AOC lower back side, and the Timothée Chalamet interview with Keke Palmer surviving the wreckage. And honestly, that might be for the best. Still, it is interesting how much that moment continues to echo into today, and what I would expect to see on the carpet now feels like a continuation of that tension rather than a departure from it.
Do not be surprised if we see tiny “ICE OUT” pins adorning suits and gowns tonight, especially given the irony sitting underneath the surface. One of the biggest corporate backers for the evening, Amazon, provides cloud services (AWS) for ICE, acting as the digital backbone for storing data and running the software used to track and manage deportations. This includes a reported $25 million contract renewed in late 2025.
While the Met is usually an exciting night for me, I will admit it has left a slightly sour taste in parts with a big letter B(ezos), and it is clear many are feeling that same tension, especially following this weekend’s protest displays around “Boycott Bezos.”
But as always, there is much ahead as the day unfolds toward fashion’s biggest night. And for those who are new here, hi, hello, welcome to the Roundup brought to you by me (@theseptember18), where I round up everything happening in fashion, beauty, culture, and my life.
Let’s dive in.
This weekend alone had my head spinning in the best kind of overstimulated way. From hearing the new Kacey Musgraves album, which feels like Golden Hour’s slightly more grown, emotionally self-aware sister (I have been playing it on loop like it is a personality trait), to a track-filled weekend in Miami where Mercedes took a win at the Miami Grand Prix (go Kimi!), to Golden Temp winning the Kentucky Derby under the leadership of female trainer Cherie DeVaux, marking a historic first as the first woman trainer to win.
But with the wins came a significant loss. As of Saturday at 3am, Spirit Airlines ceased operations after 34 years, following a failed $500 million government bailout and mounting debt, leaving more than 17,000 employees without jobs. Which now raises the very real question of who exactly is going to be responsible for keeping “half-price flights to anywhere” culture alive in the skies.
There is still plenty up in the air, or in some cases, a noticeable lack of it. Fashion, however, has been in full send mode. Between the nonstop chatter flooding feeds about Chanel’s Cruise show and what can only be described as either a show or shoe/ food moment depending on who you ask, the fashion internet is fully in frenzy mode.
On the newness front, Olivia Jade is officially in her founder era, launching a new Instagram (or “finsta” depending on your level of trust) for her brand O.Piccola, set to debut a bronze and glow balm. Louis Vuitton has also appointed Alysa Liu as its newest house ambassador following her appearance at the F/W 26 show in Paris this March. And Miu Miu, never one to do anything simple, introduced its newest fragrance Fleur de Lait this weekend, complete with a box of kinetic sand for recipients to scoop through to collect their prize. Because of course it is.
There is always, always, always much more to share, but as I get back into the swing of things I hope you enjoy this week’s roundup waiting for you below. Enjoy!
Today is the day—and with only hours left before the Met Gala carpet begins to unfold, it’s time to get fully caught up on what we’re about to see.
First things first: the Met Gala isn’t just fashion’s biggest night out. It’s a charity event and fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, traditionally marking the opening of the department’s spring exhibition. Year after year, it raises staggering sums for the museum—recently reaching record-breaking figures in the tens of millions, including a reported $31 million in 2025 alone.
And in 2026, that fundraising power opens the door to one of its most conceptually ambitious exhibitions yet.
This year’s theme, “Costume Art,” was selected by Costume Institute curator Andrew Bolton, and it’s being brought to life with major support from both Condé Nast and the Bezos family as key funders of the exhibition. The show will debut inside the Met’s new Condé M. Nast Galleries, a massive nearly 12,000-square-foot space designed specifically to elevate fashion within a fine art context.
So what exactly is “Costume Art”?
At its core, the exhibition explores the dressed body as a subject of art across centuries and cultures. It pairs garments with artworks spanning roughly 5,000 years, pulling from across the museum’s departments to create a dialogue between fashion and fine art. Instead of treating clothing as separate from the art world, the exhibition places it directly inside it—framed alongside painting, sculpture, and historical objects.
The concept is structured around “body types” as thematic categories. These range from the familiar—like the “Naked Body” and the “Classical Body,” already deeply represented in art history—to more contemporary and often underexplored ideas such as the “Pregnant Body” and the “Aging Body.” The result is an exhibition that doesn’t just show clothing, but interrogates how the human form itself has been represented, idealized, and overlooked across time.
Now translate that into Met Gala terms: tonight’s dress code, “Fashion is Art,” is essentially an open invitation to interpret all of this on the red carpet. Guests are being asked to treat the body as a living canvas, collapsing the distance between wearer and artwork. Expect looks that feel less like outfits and more like installations—where silhouette, symbolism, and construction matter just as much as sparkle or silhouette.
The evening is co-chaired by a lineup that signals exactly how expansive this vision is: Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and Anna Wintour, with honorary support from Jeff Bezos as a major sponsor presence.
And the host committee only widens the frame: Anthony Vaccarello, Zoë Kravitz, Sabrina Carpenter, Doja Cat, Gwendoline Christie, Alex Consani, Misty Copeland, Elizabeth Debicki, Lena Dunham, Paloma Elsesser, LISA, Chloe Malle, Sam Smith, Teyana Taylor, Lauren Wasser, Anna Weyant, A’ja Wilson, and Yseult.
The event will be streamed exclusively through Vogue across its digital platforms, including YouTube and TikTok.
Famesick: A Memoir by Lena Dunham
I am a little late to the Girls universe, but this weekend I finally went down the Lena Dunham rabbit hole, so naturally this jumped to the top of my TBR. Famesick reads like a deeply personal excavation of fame, body, identity, and the emotional aftershocks of being perceived at scale. Knowing Dunham’s writing, I am expecting something unfiltered, self-aware, and uncomfortably honest in a way that somehow still feels very intentional.
Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K. Reilly
This has been sitting on my radar as one of those quietly beloved literary fiction picks that feels both chaotic and tender in equal measure. Greta & Valdin follows siblings navigating love, identity, and the general awkwardness of existing as a person in the world, all wrapped in very sharp, dry humor.
June Baby by Shannon Garvey (set to release May 12th)
A coming-of-age novel about a young woman named Ruth, who, after losing her mother, spends a transformative summer on Block Island with a renowned photographer, Diana Beckett. As she navigates grief, first love, and her own ambitions of becoming a writer, the story unfolds in that tender in-between space where everything feels both fragile and formative. It has the makings of a quiet, emotional read that lingers long after the last page.
The Lowe Job by Grace Alexander (set to release June 16th)
Give me a Margo’s Got Money Troubles comp and I am immediately in. This follows a woman caught having an affair with her married politician boss, with the fallout sending her mother into full Kris Jenner mode, scrambling to turn the scandal into a family advantage.
Our Perfect Storm by Carley Fortune (set to release tomorrow)
Carley Fortune is an automatic yes for me in the romance department, so this is already queued up for immediate reading. Our Perfect Storm feels like classic Fortune energy: emotionally layered, quietly devastating, and centered on timing, longing, and relationships that do not arrive in neat or convenient ways.
omg thank you for including me in this incredible roundup
Thank you for sharing Fashion Soup, Taylor!