NYC engineer makes 2026 Met Gala magic with…

Janelle Monáe’s 2026 Met Gala ensemble was more than just a fairly costume. It was a shifting work of artwork. 

And Cameron Hughes was the one who acquired it going. 

“I made the four living butterflies and two dragonflies featured on Janelle Monáe’s Met Gala gown by Christian Siriano,” Hughes, 32, an animatronics engineer from Manhattan, solely told The Post of the hardwired handiwork he created for the 10-time Grammy nominee.

Janelle Monáe rocked wires, greenery and machinery at the 2026 Met Gala. WireImage

Monáe wowed among the crème de la crème at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual fundraiser Monday, the star-studded opening ceremonies for the Costume Institute’s spring exhibition, “Costume Art.”

She, alongside incandescent icons Beyoncé, Heidi Klum, Rihanna and others, ascended the museum’s staircase in required apparel constant with the night’s costume code, “Fashion is Art.” 

The en vogue edict ordered A-listers and couturiers alike to curate appears that celebrated clothes as masterpieces on par with The Met’s historic work, sculptures and artifacts. 

Beyoncé and the who’s who of Hollywood descended upon NYC’s Upper East Side in their trendy interpretations of this 12 months’s Met Gala theme, “Fashion is Art.” Matt Baron/Shutterstock

Siriano took the duty and ran with it, whipping up a moss-and-wire robe impressed by Monáe’s imaginative and prescient for the frock, “art overtaking the machine.”

“The earth is overpowering the machine and the technology,” Siriano explained to E! of the quantity, made with live moss, eight succulent plants, 230 electrical wires, 5,000 black crystals and Hughes’ mechanical animals.  

It was a collaborative slay as the Manhattanite was tapped to be a part of just two weeks before the big show, as the three powerhouses — Siriano, Monáe and Hughes — all labored together on it. 

“Christian designed the whole dress in, like, six or seven days,” continued Hughes. “Everything was, like, basically done once I stepped in with the butterflies and the dragonflies.”

Chris Hughes, a design engineer, teamed up with Monáe and Siriano to make Met Gala 2026 magic mere days before the big event. Courtesy Cameron Hughes

Hughes beforehand engineered a shifting “Clock Monocle” for Monáe, whose stylist found his robo-artistry on Instagram, at the 2025 Met Gala, honoring “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, so rejoining forces for this 12 months’s fête was an automated no-brainer. 

To mobilize the animatronics, Hughes, with a bachelor of wonderful arts from Syracuse University, used micro servos — tiny, light-weight actuators programmed to control exact motion and positioning in robotics — to enliven the winged bugs.

Using his personal 3D printer and laser cutter, the New Yorker cranked out a kaleidoscope of butterflies and dragonflies to complement Monae’s robe. Courtesy Cameron Hughes

The artistic says he was piecing together robotic parts up until the very last minute. Courtesy Cameron Hughes

Hughes told The Post he nicknamed the controller “The Electric Lady,” after Monae’s sophomore album. Courtesy Cameron Hughes

From the closet-turned-design studio he constructed in his house, the innovator churned out a complete of 9 butterflies and dragonflies, made of silk organza and silk taffeta, via his in-house 3D printers and laser cutters.  

“Making [the butterflies and dragonflies] was because I did everything on the computer,” he revealed with a chuckle. “I despatched the designs to the printer and the cutter, they made the elements, and I just glued them together.

“I was at the studio, putting stuff together, gluing things in place like the day before the gala.”

Hughes created a small controller, a machine nicknamed the “Electric Lady” after Monáe’s second studio album, permitting the songstress to control the pace of the wings. 

“There was a little button controller on the actual dress near her hip,” he said, noting that each part of the craft is “really expensive” to make. “I also made an iPhone app so that she can control the wings from her phone, too.” 

For the “beating heart” purse Hughes manufactured to full influencer Sabrina Harrison’s Met Gala getup, the visionary used 5 nano servos and carbon fiber. 

Hughes collaborated with NYC jewellery professional Chris Habana to produce the pulsating pocketbook. Courtesy Cameron Hughes

Adorned in gold steel plates by jewellery designer Chris Habana, the pulsating purse — initially programmed for Wi-Fi activation — in the end functioned via an on-and-off swap Hughes put in for concern of web connectivity points on the revered walkway. 

He spent almost 10 days tweaking the eye-catching accent to heart-pounding perfection. 

It was a labor of love that makes his work a cut above. 

Hughes spent 10 days making Harrison’s Met Gala masterpiece. Getty Images

“[In fashion] everything has already been done with beading, embroidery and all of that,” said Hughes. “Robotics is just a new process, a new way of making beautiful things.” 

The stylish machines are making his dream come true, too. 

“Designing for the Met Gala is exciting; it’s like a dream,” said Hughes. “I always want to be on the cutting edge of cultural conversions — using fashion and technology to create for the world.” 

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