“This is the first Met where I’ve done something crazy that I don’t think anyone will do,” supermodel Anok Yai told Vanity Fair as she was getting ready for the Met Gala 2026. “No one’s going to show up in another prosthetic wig, right?”
Although Bad Bunny and Heidi Klum both used prosthetics for their Met Gala looks, it was the first Monday in May regular Yai, prepping for her “lucky number seven” Met Gala, who donned the evening’s only silicone-based hair. The unorthodox updo included a nod to the Greek mythological character Medusa, complete with a knotted snake adorned on the back of Yai’s head.
Inspired by Renaissance paintings, Balenciaga creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli reimagined Yai as the Black Madonna, a figure seen throughout religious art. “I’m always nervous,” the Sudanese American model says. “But this time, I’m, like, extremely nervous.” The custom Balenciaga couture, complete with black ruched detailing, an oversized hood, and black leather gloves, required 15 people working around the clock for a week to make. “The train is about five or six meters—taller than me,” Yai’s stylist, Carlos Nazario, joked from their room in New York City’s Pierre Hotel. “It’s going to make for a very dramatic entrance for a very dramatic night.”
Sitting for hours with prosthetic artist Malina Stearns, Yai admitted to only a single claustrophobia-related “crashout” during her prosthetic-fueled transformation. That “hot and messy” feeling wasn’t helped by her pre-Met Gala entourage. “There are, like, a hundred people in this room,” she quipped. Yet, Yai, who was the second Black model to open a Prada show and has repped brands such as Estée Lauder and Givenchy, wouldn’t have it any other way. As she told VF, “The collaboration is what makes everything look so much better.”
