The artist behind Emma Chamberlain’s Met Gala gown on why it took 40 hours to paint

FastCompany: When influencer, podcaster, and entrepreneur Emma Chamberlain stepped out on the carpet at the 2026 Met Gala, it was in a swirl of acrylic ink and thick, glossy paint. She looked like a painting come to life—as if, with each next step, a prismatic smear of color might follow in her wake. Chamberlain was wearing a custom-made Mugler gown by creative director Miguel Castro Freitas. But what lay on top of the dress’s expert construction is what turned it into a head-turning spectacle: The entire piece was painstakingly hand-painted, from hem to neckline, by artist Anna Deller-Yee .

She relied entirely on real fine-art supplies to achieve the final look, a process that took 40 hours of painting, four days of drying time, and a 6-foot-long shipping crate to transport the resulting gown from Paris to New York City. The theme of this year’s Met Gala , which took place on May 4, was “Fashion Is Art.” The concept was inspired by “Costume Art,” a soon-to-open exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that celebrates the “centrality of the dressed body” through depictions and interpretations of the human form.

Several celebrities took this theme to its most logical endpoint by directly recreating works of art, including Lauren Sánchez Bezos as John Singer Sargent’s Madame X , Gracie Abrams as Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Block-Bauer I , and Madonna as Leonora Carrington’s The Temptation of St. Anthony, Fragment II . Chamberlain took a different approach. Rather than reinterpreting a single piece of art, her garment pulls inspiration from a wide body of Impressionist and Expressionist works, aiming to capture their focus on visible brushstrokes and atmosphere.

The final product turned Chamberlain into a kind of canvas, transforming each detail of Deller-Yee’s craft into a statement in its own right. [Photo: Theo Wargo/FilmMagic/Getty Images] Building on a history of fine art and fashion Deller-Yee began her career as a print designer for the Italian apparel brand Marni in 2021. She specializes in hand-painted prints, alternating between creating works that can be digitally scanned and painting directly onto finished garments, depending on the project.

The artist’s uniquely analog process has since catapulted her work into the global spotlight, including through partnerships with Nike; Nicki Minaj, whose 2024 Met Gala outfit she designed in collaboration with Marni; and Vogue legend Anna Wintour herself. Deller-Yee is now represented by the creative agency Hugo & Marie as part of its in-house artist bureau. For her second-ever Met Gala project, Deller-Yee says Castro Freitas, who she’s worked with as a Mugler collaborator since 2024, approached her directly.

“When Miguel arrived [at Mugler], we started to work together on prints, and the work became more and more elaborate, and also more and more intimate, in terms of really sitting down with him and understanding his vision for the brand,” Deller-Yee says. One day, she recalls, she received a message from the Mugler team about an upcoming opportunity to collaborate on a gown for the Met Gala. “I was, like, ‘Wow, that’s a huge amount of trust to place on somebody that you’ve only known for a few seasons.’ But I could already feel that we were getting along very well,” she says.

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The article discusses a high-profile collaboration that showcases the intersection of fashion and art, which is significant for brand identity, while also providing insights into the value of craftsmanship in branding strategies.