Serena Williams made her presence felt ahead of the 2026 Met Gala, arriving at Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour’s exclusive pre-Gala dinner in Greenwich Village, New York City, on Sunday, May 3, in a look that immediately divided opinion online.
The 44-year-old tennis legend wore a floor-length strawberry-red sequined gown by designer LaQuan Smith, featuring a long-sleeved silhouette, a keyhole back cut-out, and a leg slit that extended high enough to reveal her glutes as she moved. The bold look was put together by her stylist, Kesha McLeod, and completed with slingback Christian Louboutin pumps and diamond drop earrings.
Williams was at the party in support of her older sister, Venus Williams, who is co-chairing the 2026 Met Gala alongside Beyoncé and Nicole Kidman. The annual event, held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, carries the theme “Costume Art” with a dress code of “Fashion Is Art.”
As photographs and video clips from the evening spread across social media, reactions came in fast and split sharply. Critics were blunt in their assessments. “So vulgar, so inappropriate,” one commenter wrote, while others described the dress as “tacky” and suggested Williams needed a new stylist. The slit’s extreme height and the exposure of her back drew particular attention, with some viewers noting she appeared to tug at the dress while walking.
However, a vocal group of supporters pushed back, with fans calling the look striking and praising her confidence. “She’s killing it in that dress,” one wrote, while another added, “Wow, so pretty.”
Fashion publications took a more contextual view, noting that Williams’ ensemble is part of a broader red-carpet trend this season. Several high-profile celebrities, including Gwyneth Paltrow at the 2026 Oscars and Devon Lee Carlson at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party, have debuted similarly daring silhouettes that emphasise bare skin and high-cut slits. Marie Claire described the look as “the cheekiest of cheeky slits” and positioned it within what it called the year’s leading nearly-naked trend.
Sunday’s appearance was Williams’ second pre-Gala outing of the weekend. On Saturday, May 2, she attended a separate pre-Met party hosted by Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos in a ruched gray sculptural minidress by Magda Butrym, accompanied by her husband Alexis Ohanian. That evening ended with its own minor moment when Williams shared on Instagram that her stockings had ripped.
Serena previously co-chaired the Met Gala in 2019 and has been a consistent presence at fashion’s biggest night for over a decade. In 2023, she announced her second pregnancy on the event’s red carpet. She and Ohanian share two daughters, Olympia, 8, and Adira, 2.
With Venus set to walk the official red carpet on Monday as co-chair, the Williams family is firmly at the centre of the 2026 Met Gala’s most talked-about storylines, even before the official festivities begin.
