Young Singaporean Fashion Designer Grace Ling Made Her Met Gala Debut, Here’s What She Wore
Among all the A-list celebrities at Met Gala 2026 was a homegrown talent: 29-year-old fashion designer Grace Ling, who has dressed celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Jenna Ortega.
The guest list for the annual Met Gala in New York City is a roll call of the apex figures in fashion, entertainment, sport and, increasingly, the high-powered worlds of commerce and Big Tech.
This year, among the 450 names in 2026 was a Singaporean one.
Home-grown fashion designer Grace Ling made her debut at the ritzy fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute on May 4, wearing an aluminium breastplate by her namesake label and custom shoes by another prominent Singapore export, footwear brand Charles & Keith.
Ling, 29, said in a statement: “Being invited to the Met for the first time feels incredibly special to me. It’s a moment I’ve always seen as more than just an event and I wanted to create something that expresses my world fully, from head to toe, where every element feels intentional and interconnected.”
See also: 20 Met Gala 2026 Celebrity Looks We Can’t Stop Thinking About
The annual gala held on the first Monday in May is one of the most closely watched events on the fashion calendar, typically attracting over billion global video views. Stars like Beyonce, Venus Williams and Nicole Kidman chaired the 2026 edition with content Anna Wintour. Tickets were priced at about US$100,000 (~S$127,000) each.
Ling is based in New York and has dressed stars like reality TV mogul Kim Kardashian, singer-actress Jennifer Lopez and actress Jenna Ortega. She opened her first boutique in the city in February 2025.
Her answer to the ‘Fashion Is Art’ theme was a metal bodice, thorny and windswept. The piece was 3D-printed in aero-aluminium and plated with platinum. “We want to push technology in couture,” the School of the Arts (SOTA) graduate wrote on Instagram on May 6.
She paired the sculptural, faintly apocalyptic top with a trailing black skirt that pooled at her feet.
Charles & Keith collaborated with Ling on a pair of witchy stilettos: black and elongated with a mirrored metallic heel. A slim claw-like toecap added a biomorphic accent.
This article was adapted from The Straits Times.