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‘Is God Is’ Star Janelle Monáe (40) Unfurls Cobalt Wings at the Academy Museum Gala, and the Carpet Takes Flight

ByHrvoje Milakovic Published on
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Few people treat a red carpet like a stage quite the way Janelle Monáe does. The multi-hyphenate artist has built a reputation on gala looks that read as living sculpture, from half-black, half-white tweed suits to gowns made of electrical cables. When she steps onto a carpet, it tends to become the main event.

The sixth annual Academy Museum Gala took place on October 17 in Los Angeles, with Charlize Theron, Colman Domingo and John Carpenter honored and Taylor Swift set to perform. The event, nicknamed the “Met Gala of the West,” lands right after Fashion Month, so it usually rewards ambitious fashion.

Janelle Monáe’s Academy Museum Gala look delivered exactly that. She spread her wings, literally, in a cobalt Robert Wun couture gown with a mermaid skirt and massive, shimmering wings extending from the bodice.

In the carpet clip, the gown glitters from collar to hem in electric-blue sequins that shift toward black near the bottom, giving the dress an oil-slick sheen. The mermaid skirt flares out at the floor, and the wings fan out from her décolletage with pointed tips that reach down toward her hips. Sheer black sleeves and bright blue gloves add to the insect-meets-couture effect.

She kept her hair in a short, sleek black bob, and the wings frame her face like a sculptural collar. The overall effect is theatrical but polished, a butterfly in full flight on a carpet that suddenly looked a lot flatter beside her.

Monáe wasn’t the only guest with wings on the brain. Elle Fanning wore a custom Valentino gown with a butterfly bodice and a multicolored skirt and cape, and Amandla Stenberg wore a butterfly-adorned dress straight from Zimmermann’s Spring/Summer 2027 runway.

The motif gave the night an unexpected thread, but Monáe took the concept to the extreme. Her wings are the largest and most dramatic of the bunch.

The gala look follows a very different Met Gala moment in May. For the 2026 Met Gala, Monáe wore a custom Christian Siriano gown built from real electrical cables, moss, succulents and circuit board fragments, with 3D butterflies and dragonflies scattered across it. By one count, it featured 5,000 black crystals, eight succulents, four moving butterflies, two dragonflies and a motherboard.

She paired it with a butterfly barrette clipped into her chin-grazing black bob, and her hairstylist described the concept as living sculpture. Butterflies have clearly become a through-line this year, and the gala gown turns that idea into pure glamour.

Monáe’s gala history is full of memorable swings. In 2023, she wore an oversize half-black, half-white tweed suit by Thom Browne over a hoop skirt, which earned rave reviews. At last year’s Met Gala, she wore a pinstriped suit and a deconstructed overcoat created with costume designer Paul Tazewell and Thom Browne for the “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” theme.

In 2024, she attended in a silver cutout Vera Wang gown. The range, from menswear to couture to conceptual art, is a big reason every new appearance gets so much attention.

Monáe shared the Academy Museum Gala carpet with an enormous guest list. Taylor Swift, Kate Hudson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kerry Washington, Hunter Schafer and Amanda Seyfried all attended, along with Chase Infiniti and Wunmi Mosaku.

In a field of gowns that leaned classic, with black velvet and sleek columns, Monáe’s cobalt wings stood out as the biggest swing of the night. It was a reminder of what the gala can be when guests commit to the spectacle.

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The look works because it is committed. The wings are large enough to be a statement but balanced by a streamlined mermaid skirt, and the electric-blue color keeps it playful. It never feels like a costume, because the construction is precise and the sequins read as couture.

It is also deeply on brand. The ‘Hidden Figures’ star and ‘I Like That’ hitmaker has always treated fashion as another medium, and this gown is a perfect example. Few other guests could carry that much volume and still look like themselves.

What do you think of Janelle Monáe’s dramatic cobalt-blue Robert Wun couture gown at the 2026 Academy Museum Gala?

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