Getting Ready With Louisa Jacobson in Dilara for 2026 Met Gala

The “Gilded Age” actress wore custom looks designed by Dilara Findikoglu for the gala and after parties.​The “Gilded Age” actress wore custom looks designed by Dilara Findikoglu for the gala and after parties. 

Louisa Jacobson’s Met Gala Monday started bright and early at 4 a.m. The actress is currently filming the fourth season of “The Gilded Age,” and arrived at The Mark Hotel for gala prep straight from the series’ backlot set in Long Island City, N.Y.

“ It’s where we built a fake 61st Street and Fifth Avenue. So I went from fake Fifth Avenue, to real Fifth Avenue,” Jacobson said on Monday afternoon, as her stylist Edward Bowleg arranged a tray of jewelry nearby in her suite. “I was walking along 78th and Fifth, and there was this big huge mansion on the corner, and it was reminding me of Bertha’s mansion in the show,” she added, calling out the central matriarch portrayed by Carrie Coon.

“It’s nice to continue on this show after having built relationships with all of these actors, and have their characters build relationships with each other over the years,” Jacobson added. “It makes it very easy to then do our jobs, because we really feel like we know each other in a world together.”

The Met Gala capped off a busy weekend for Jacobson.

“ My best friend from childhood got married this weekend. So it’s been a packed, packed schedule,” she said, detailing the round-the-clock activities of the past few days: late night wedding celebrations, an early Met Gala fitting on Sunday morning, errands and a facial, memorizing her lines for Monday’s early shoot, followed by another evening fitting.

Jacobson was getting ready to wear a custom look by Dilara Findikoglu, and praised the designer’s dark, gothic Victorian aesthetic which incorporates unexpected mediums. “We’re in a trend of minimalism right now, and that tends to be how I dress in normal life, but I thought for an event like this, I didn’t necessarily want to go to the minimalist quiet luxury route,” Jacobson said. The actress recalled a dress worn by Hari Nef that featured spoons and knives, and another dress accented by shells and safety pins worn by Cate Blanchett.

“ The theme is ‘Art and Fashion,’ and I see a direct merging of those two things in her work,” Jacobson added. “She’s so artful in the way she uses materials and builds mosaics and form and shape onto her pieces. I also thought it was like an interesting nod to ‘The Gilded Age,’ because she has so many corseted pieces.”

Working in conversation with the designer, Jacobson shared that she wanted the look to be a departure from the tailored suiting that she was used to wearing, toward something more ethereal — but not traditionally feminine.

“Ever since I cut my hair and dyed it blond, I’ve been thinking a lot about Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘Romeo and Juliet,’” said Jacobson, adding that she was transfixed by the ballroom scene of Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 film where Romeo and Juliet first meet. “ He’s wearing that chainmail armor at the masquerade ball, and she’s dressed as an angel. A lot of the time, I feel like both of those people,” said Jacobson, adding that Milla Jovovich as Joan of Arc in 1999 film “The Messenger” was another inspiration for the sculptural look, an armored bodice of safety pins and metal pieces with a dirty and tattered cream chiffon train.

“The Arms and Armor section of the Met is one of my favorites; I always go there whenever I go to the Met,” Jacobson said. “I think armor is such a wonderful intersection of function and form, and also aesthetic beauty and art,” she added. “This look doesn’t function; it’s not functional in that sense. Like — I won’t be able to sit. But for this particular event, I think it serves an intellectual function, which is to represent the rising feeling among many of us to protect ourselves and deflect both literal and figurative weapons.”

Beyond debuting her Dilara look on the steps leading into the Met Gala, Jacobson was looking forward to seeing her sister Grace Gummer — who later dropped by as Jacobson was getting ready — and catching up with friends throughout the evening.

“ I’m gonna know a good amount of people who are going, so I’m just excited to see faces that I haven’t seen in a while and catch up and have fun, and ogle at everyone’s looks,” Jacobson said. “It’s really exciting to see the outfits in person.”