The 2025 Met Gala is a tailored celebration of Black men’s fashion and individuality
After a historic announcement of all-Black male co-chairs, the Met Gala revealed the 2025 dress code as “Tailored for You.”
Black style is taking center stage at the 2025 Met Gala, and this year’s theme celebrates its legacy and innovation. As attendees step into the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute exhibition, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” they’ll be challenged to interpret the dress code — “Tailored for You” — through their own creative lens.
Just like the exhibit, the evening’s fashion directive is a tribute to the refined, sharp tailoring of men’s fashion. Inspired by Monica L. Miller’s seminal work, “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity,” this year’s Met Gala will spotlight the intersection of fashion and Black identity, particularly through the concept of the Black dandy — a figure who uses personal style as both self-expression and defiance.
“Dandyism can seem frivolous, but it often poses a challenge to or a transcendence of social and cultural hierarchies,” Miller said, per Vogue. “It asks questions about identity, representation, and mobility in relation to race, class, gender, sexuality, and power. This exhibition explores dandyism as both a pronouncement and a provocation.”
Honoring the legacy of Black dandyism, the Met Gala has made history by selecting its first-ever all-Black male cohort of co-chairs, featuring fashion visionaries Pharrell Williams, Colman Domingo, A$AP Rocky, and Lewis Hamilton. Further amplifying Black excellence, Anna Wintour, who has led the Met Gala for decades, unveiled the event’s star-studded host committee which features the likes of André 3000, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Grace Wales Bonner, Simone Biles and Jonathan Owens, Jordan Casteel, Dapper Dan, Doechii, Ayo Edebiri, Edward Enninful, Jeremy O. Harris, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Rashid Johnson, Regina King, Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee, Audra McDonald, Janelle Monáe, Jeremy Pope, Angel Reese, Sha’Carri Richardson, Olivier Rousteing, Tyla, Usher, and Kara Walker.
“It’s a big moment for the country. For acknowledging where we are and where we want to be. … We’re at a crossroads as we think through what it means for all of us to be here together,” Miller, who will serve as the exhibit’s guest curator, explained. “I’m happy that we can talk about complicated history, about slavery, and revolution.”
As the Met Gala’s red carpet dazzles with Black brilliance, the exhibition itself will be a rich tapestry of cultural artifacts and archival treasures. Expect to see works by Zora Neale Hurston and Nikki Giovanni, vintage issues of Jet magazine, rare photographs of W.E.B. Du Bois, garments once worn by Frederick Douglass, and designs from trailblazers like Dapper Dan, Foday Dumbuya, and the late Virgil Abloh.
Mark your calendars: the 2025 Met Gala is set for May 5, promising a night where fashion, culture, and history collide in an unforgettable celebration of Black style.
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