Teyana Taylor, the Oscar-nominated star of One Battle After Another (and every red carpet she walks) is making the most of her breakout year. The actor, singer, and single mom began her working life as a dancer and choreographer—her first job, at age 15, as on Beyoncé’s “Ring the Alarm” video. She dusted off those early career skills Saturday as she hosted The Dirty Rose, a Met Gala 2026 weekend burlesque show and party where cameras were banned…except for Vanity Fair‘s.
The lush and beautiful room inside the Times Square EDITION (a co-host of the event) filled up quickly, with stars including Sarah Paulson, Naomi Watts, and Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna. The show, when it began, was highly interactive with the star-studded audience, with dancers—including Taylor— leaping from stage to audience and back again, gravity no object.
Also on stage was Danielle Brooks, who MCed the evening and performed a knockout song and dance number. Not on stage—but he might as well have been—was Baz Luhrmann, who held court at a booth with a lamp glowing in the middle, proof that you can always trust a director to score the table with the best lighting.
Model Alex Consani is a repeat burlesque customer of Taylor’s, as she was also on hand at the Coming 2 America star’s Met Gala 2024 pre-party. Like this one, the 2024 event was kept under wraps, with Taylor saying then that the actual idea for The Dirty Rose “has been on paper for years…So when the opportunity finally came, it was one of those things where I was already ready so I didn’t have to get ready.”
Throughout the night, Taylor was outfitted in Calvin Klein Collection custom designs. She began the evening in a hand-embroidered crystal and pearl embellished bodysuit, paired with an oversized fringed ivory organza coat and nappa leather gloves. Later in the show, she reappeared in a red crystal bodysuit with an under-bust body cut-out and heart patch, this one paired with red nappa fringed gloves.
Those gloves presumably came off at the end of the night, when the audience’s hunger was sated. After a group of glamorous bell hops brought out suitcases filled with silver flasks that were handed out to the audience. The mysterious drinks within paired well with the platters of chicken fingers and fries from Raising Cane’s that were distributed throughout the crowd.
