aespa Karina’s “2026 Met Gala” Outfit Hit With Majorly Divided Reactions

aespa Karina‘s outfit at the 2026 Met Gala has sparked a major divide among netizens.

aespa’s Karina

Karina recently attended the Met Gala, wowing netizens with her unedited visuals.

aespa Karina’s Unedited Visuals In “Getty Images” Spark Hot Reactions

Karina’s Prada outfit took inspiration from Korean fashion, with the design being based on the hanbok.

Prada Ambassador Karina wore a #Prada white satin dress featuring a tablier neckline embroidered with jet beads and silver crystals, paired with a black satin evening cape, silver leather sandals, Prada Fine Jewelry Couleur Vivante earrings in white gold, peridots, amethysts and… pic.twitter.com/aYNflyIrAT

— PRADA (@Prada) May 5, 2026

Many fans loved that Karina’s look centred on traditional Korean fashion.

theme is "costume art" and karina chose to wear a durumagi, a traditional korean costume, making sure to say korean fashion is art pic.twitter.com/XOZhKzCFoK

— karina loops (@KRNFILE) May 4, 2026

so elegant, south korea's princess pic.twitter.com/LQSkPiFJFT

— karina loops (@KRNFILE) May 4, 2026

Yet, while some loved the Korean theming of the dress, others weren’t as positive about the styling.

Many thought Karina’s visuals shone, but they felt the designer needed to make the hanbok-inspired look stand out with colors and patterns rather than sticking to black and white. In particular, over the past few years, many designers have made modern versions of the hanbok, and many thought the big designers needed to take notes, especially for huge events like the Met Gala.

karina u look a mess mama

— E ☆ (@6inchsooyaa) May 4, 2026

i get the hanbok inspired look i just don’t understand why they made it so plain and boring when traditional hanboks are so full of patterns and colors :/ would’ve made perfect sense with the theme too if they pushed it a bit further https://t.co/Jpu5vhsYGz

— ✣ (@userlesbien) May 4, 2026

Okay I see the vision but I need these fashion houses to understand that if you're going to do a hanbok you need to lean into vibrant colors since that's one of the things they're known for!!!!!!!!!! https://t.co/qpqBJpgH5r

— Olivia// MAMA (1:22) ☽̶☾ (@octobersoo) May 4, 2026

every other kpop girl chewing rose up even karina’s boring ass look at least she did something interesting w the hair and specifically asked for a hanbok like

— ☁️ (@auraofthegarden) May 4, 2026