Gigi Hadid explains how Bradley Cooper inspires her on the red carpet

Gigi Hadid needs to “think happy thoughts” when posing on the red carpet.

Gigi Hadid has admitted Bradley Cooper inspires her red carpet poses.

The 31-year-old model explained she needs to “think happy thoughts” when posing for the camera and one of the easiest ways to do that is to turn her mind to the Maestro actor – who she has been dating since 2023 – or her five-year-old daughter Khai, who she has with former partner Zayn Malik.

But Gigi finds both the most important people in her life help her to “serve” different expressions.

Speaking to Ashley Graham and Cara Delevingne on Vogue’s red carpet live stream at the 2026 Met Gala on Monday (04.05.26) night, she said: “I try to bring my mind to a happy place.

“What we do in our job is just go to a happy place. Think of happy thoughts and the smile comes through the eyes and it makes you come to life.

“First happy thought, Khai my daughter, and then my man.

“When I think about Khai, maybe I’m giving joy. And then I’ll serve something else to Bradley in the camera.”

Cara replied: “Bradley, you’re a lucky man.”

Although Gigi walked the red carpet at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art for the event alone, she reunited with the 51-year-old actor inside the building, with photographs from the event showing Bradley dressed in a black suit and white collared shirt.

For her 11th appearance at the Met Gala, Gigi wore a custom black Miu Miu gown which features hotfix crystals, patchwork flames, and floral embroidery and paid homage to her favourite looks from the fashion house’s history.

And the idea came together just a few days before the fashion extravaganza, because initially Gigi’s look was inspired by the “floral and flame embroidery” of the spring 2011 dress, but she found it didn’t work.

She explained to Vogue.com: “The patchwork really wasn’t sitting on my body in the way that I anticipated from the sketch.

“I think the most special moments come when you have to rush it a little bit.”

And so Gigi went back into the archives, where she discovered Miu Miu’s spring 1998 collection.

She said: “I love how the body and the skin spoke through the material.”

The dress was then “built” onto Gigi’s body over the weekend, with the designers starting with a sheer base inspired by the 1998 collection before hand-lacing patches inspired by 2011 onto the model.

She said: “We all sat in a hotel room two days ago, literally, and Scotch-taped the patches onto me in a way that felt celebratory.

“It’s built on the body. The body is the canvas…

“The Met is my favourite night because it’s a creative collaboration based on a theme, which makes me feel like we’re all back in high school art class together.”