SINGAPORE – 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 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.

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.

PHOTO: AFP

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.”

The benefit held on the first Monday in May is one of the most closely watched events on the fashion calendar, typically attracting a billion global video views on organiser Vogue’s site alone. Stars like Beyonce, Venus Williams and Nicole Kidman chaired the 2026 edition with Vogue overseer and parent company Conde Nast’s global head of 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.

Grace Ling’s answer to the Fashion Is Art theme was a silver-toned bodice that looked thorny and windswept.

PHOTO: REUTERS

She paired the sculptural, faintly apocalyptic top with a trailing black skirt that pooled at her feet.

Charles & Keith collaborated with Ling on the witchy stilettos: black and elongated with a mirrored metallic heel. A slim claw-like toecap added a biomorphic accent.

Grace Ling holding up her custom heels by Charles & Keith, designed for the 2026 Met Gala.

PHOTO: CHARLES & KEITH

A closer look at Ling’s custom Chares & Keith heels.

PHOTO: CHARLES & KEITH

TikTok’s Singaporean CEO Chew Shou Zi was also in attendance with his wife, investor Vivian Kao. In 2024, he was one of the honorary chairs for the Met Gala, along with then-creative director of Loewe Jonathan Anderson.

This year, funding for the bash came from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who together with his wife Lauren Sanchez is also an honorary chair.

The billionaire’s sponsorship has made for an especially contentious edition, with protesters papering the city with calls for a boycott in the days leading up to the event and a detractor crashing the red carpet before he was removed by police.