To sum up Kylie Jenner’s 2026 Met Gala look, we’ll use three words: chic surreal illusion. The reality TV star and beauty founder, a mainstay in Met Gala’s best-dressed lists, does it again this year in a Schiaparelli dress that gives fluid sculpture movement as she walks down the red carpet. “The dress feels like it’s slipping away,” celebrity hairstylist Iggy Rosales tells Vogue. “It becomes this living sculpture.”
The beauty look, according to Rosales, had to be an extension of the dress. To do that, he and celebrity makeup artist Ariel Tejada studied how it moves and sits, testing various hairstyles, textures, and brows to match. “We even tested no brows just to see how far we could push it,” adds Rosales. (Instead of no brows, she debuts bleached brows.)
For hair, Rosales wanted to portray the same tension the dress showcases. While it is very controlled and precise, there is something more fluid and exposing underneath. “For me, it was about tension between something sculpted and something undone,” he says. “I wanted the hair to reflect that.”
He starts by giving the hair a smooth blowout, using the Kenra Professional Platinum Blow Dry Spray before curling the hair and pinning each section to set in place; he uses the Kenra Professional Perfect Medium Spray to give hair a strong hold that can still move; and after setting the curls, he takes them down and brushes and sculpts them, giving the mid-section more precise shaping around the face and a kiss curl over the eye area. The ends are completely brushed out to give them a softer and slightly undone feel. “It feels like it’s unraveling in a really intentional way,” he says. To finish, he spritzes a touch of the Kenra Platinum Dry Texture Spray for added airy texture.
Working with Kylie is easy, says Rosales, and he loves the freedom of creating something bigger than just a fabulous hairdo. “It’s the freedom to really create something,” he says. “You’re not just doing glam—you’re building a full moment, [and] when everything aligns (the dress, the hair, the makeup), it feels like you’ve created a character, not just a look.”
Kylie Jenner’s Past Met Gala Looks
Karwai Tang
Kevin Mazur
