Connor Storrie’s Met Gala Debut Had Fans Screaming

Connor Storrie walked up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Monday night like he’d been doing it for years. He hadn’t. This was his first Met Gala — and he absolutely knew it.

The Heated Rivalry star made his debut at the 2026 Met Gala in a look that started as one thing and became something else entirely the moment he hit the carpet. Leaving The Carlyle Hotel in a sleek black blazer, Storrie made his way to the steps — and then, in a move that has since set social media completely ablaze, he took the jacket off. What was underneath: a black-and-white polka-dot halter top with a floor-length bow train that cascaded behind him, and arms that have no business existing on a person who was waiting tables in Los Angeles just one year ago.

The crowd screamed. Photographers yelled, “Do that again!” He obliged, flipping the trailing fabric back and forth, letting it flutter in the breeze. Of course he did.

The Look, Broken Down

Storrie attended the gala as a brand ambassador for Saint Laurent — the French house signed him in January, right as Heated Rivalry fever was reaching its peak — and creative director Anthony Vaccarello dressed him accordingly. The look was a riff on the house’s iconic Le Smoking tuxedo: wide-legged black trousers, a black blazer (pre-removal), and that now-famous polka-dot piece — technically a Lavallière top in polka-dotted silk muslin — with a ruffled turtleneck and a dramatically long scarf that trailed several feet behind him like a train. It was, in Storrie’s own words to GQ, “super-duper YSL, super Saint Laurent.”

“We went with a very classic Saint Laurent silhouette: a smoking jacket, super-wide shoulder, very black, very, very classic YSL,” he told GQ. “A wide, uber-straight leg. And then I have this floor-length bow that falls off the back of it. It’s like a pussy-bow top without the sleeves, but then the bow goes in the back and it creates this waterfall train that’s underneath the blazer that we will reveal. So you get kind of a two-beat moment.”

That two-beat moment was very much the point. Stylist James Yardley, who has been building Storrie’s fashion identity since the show launched, told WWD: “From the outset, we knew it was always going to sit within that classic Saint Laurent space, which felt appropriate for his first Met with the brand. My role was to refine and shape what they presented so that Connor felt confident and comfortable in it.” The goal, Yardley said, was something that felt “confident, elegant and authentic” — and the restraint of the look, he added, was its own kind of statement.

For accessories, Storrie pinned a jeweled Jean Schlumberger by Tiffany & Co. Fleurage brooch to his neckline, added diamond drop earrings from the same house, and wore an Omega Constellation Observatory watch in 18-carat moonshine gold — a piece that retails for £49,500, with an 18-carat gold dial that harks back to the first Omega Constellation from 1952. Against the more restrained black of his outfit, it made a quietly spectacular statement. His signature golden curls were styled flat, with strands finger-curled onto his forehead in what Teen Vogue accurately called “baby bangs.”

A Year Ago, He Was Waiting Tables

The scale of Connor Storrie’s ascent is genuinely hard to wrap your head around. As recently noted by Vanity Fair, it was only a year ago last week that Storrie and his Heated Rivalry co-star Hudson Williams were officially announced to lead the cast of the Crave series. Before that, both actors had been waiting tables — Storrie in Los Angeles, Williams in Vancouver. Then the queer hockey drama debuted on HBO in November 2025, captured over 10.6 million U.S. viewers, and turned them both into overnight stars.

Since then, Storrie has presented at the Golden Globes, carried the Olympic torch at the 2026 Winter Olympics, hosted Saturday Night Live in February, signed with Saint Laurent, become a Tiffany & Co. ambassador, and graced the cover of The Hollywood Reporter‘s Power Stylist issue alongside Yardley. This past Saturday night, he landed in New York, dropped his bags, and immediately went straight to 30 Rock — where SNL talent booker Keri Powers, whom he’d bonded with during his own hosting stint, asked if he wanted to introduce Olivia Rodrigo’s new single, “Begged.” He said yes. His nine-second cameo, four words spoken, drew “giddy shrills” from the studio audience.

The Met Gala, then, was simply the next logical step.

“I feel good,” he told GQ ahead of the night. “I mean, I love my look. I’m really happy with what Anthony pulled together, and I’m really happy with the guidance and the ideas that James had. And it’s really cool to watch something start out as just a conversation and a concept and come to fruition.”

As for nerves? He didn’t have any — or at least claimed not to. “I’m really not nervous, to be honest with you,” he said. “I feel like people have explained to me a million times exactly what’s going to happen, and I’m like, I still don’t really know what that looks like. I think it’s going to be a beautiful zoo. It’s going to be some chaos, I can imagine. But yeah, I mean, I feel good.”

He was also refreshingly self-aware about the gender gap in red carpet preparation. “I hear stories of girls being in their cars for an hour not being able to sit,” he said. “I’m sure some of them have started whatever extravagant hair and makeup they have six hours before we even have to get ready to go. So I think comparatively to a lot of other people who are involved, I think I have it pretty easy.”

The Katy Perry Moment, the After-Party Look, and What’s Next

Inside the gala, Storrie had one of the night’s most charming photo moments: standing next to Katy Perry, who arrived in an all-white Stella McCartney ensemble with a chrome-paneled mask that completely obscured her face, Storrie held his own hand over his face in a deadpan mirror of her look. Two faceless attendees at fashion’s biggest night. It was very funny, and very him.

The night didn’t end at the museum. Storrie headed to GQ’s after-party at Twenty Two in Union Square and changed into a second look entirely: a tan blazer and slacks, a flowing chocolate-brown cape, matching shoes — and nothing underneath the jacket. Just his torso, on display, as if the jacket removal on the carpet had been a preview of coming attractions.

His co-star Hudson Williams was also in attendance at the gala, arriving in a powder blue Balenciaga suit — the two of them, once again, dressed by different stylists and once again making the internet lose its mind simply by existing in the same orbit. At the Vanity Fair Oscars party in March, they accidentally matched in sheer looks. Williams’s stylist Anastasia Walker posted about it afterward: “Me and [James Yardley] didn’t plan this lol.”

The 2026 Met Gala, themed “Costume Art” with a dress code of “Fashion Is Art,” was co-chaired by Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and Anna Wintour — though the event carried some political undercurrent this year, with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos serving as honorary chairs amid protests and notable absences from stars including Meryl Streep, Zendaya, and Bella Hadid.

For Storrie, none of that seemed to cloud the night. He showed up, he took the jacket off, and the crowd screamed. Heated Rivalry season two starts filming this summer, with a spring 2027 release targeted — and Storrie is also in talks for the A24 comedy Peaked and circling the film Turpentine.

He told Vogue Adria recently that he’s been consciously trying to stay grounded through all of it. “I put a lot of energy into staying grounded in where I am, what I’m doing, who I’m speaking to,” he said. “Someone being loud doesn’t make them right. I’ve also realized I need a creative outlet. Making music, writing, planning films. That brings me back to my center. That’s where I have control. Where I’m not just playing a role.”

Based on Monday night, he’s playing it pretty well regardless.