Stars lean into Met Gala’s 2025 theme: ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style’
Hello! Ellie and Morwenna from the Guardian’s fashion desk here in London. We’ll be watching the Met Gala – fashion’s Oscars/Baftas/Olympics – so you don’t have to, guiding you through the probable hits and possible misses from a starry guest list which includes Zendaya, Ariana Grande, Rihanna, and multiple Jenner/Kardashians.
To recap on what you’re watching: as ever, the Met Gala takes place on the first Monday in May as the opening of New York’s Costume Institute exhibition. There is always a theme, and usually some sort of accompanying text, and this year’s it’s called “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” which will look back at 300 years of Black fashion alongside the history of Black dandyism.
To get you up to speed, do have a read of this brilliant piece by the Guardian’s Sasha Mistlin from earlier this week. Last month, Sasha interviewed Monica L. Miller, whose 2009 book, Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, interrogates of the strategic use of fashion by Black men throughout history, which is the inspiration behind both the exhibition and gala.
The theme is notable for various reasons, not least because it’s the Met’s first ever fashion exhibition devoted entirely to designers of colour so is being viewed by some as a wider effort to incorporate more diversity into the collection. It’s timely too. Previous galas have been criticised for being tone-deaf, little more than peacocking, and a parade of privilege and elitism.
In her preview piece for the Saturday paper, Jess Cartner-Morley describes this year’s theme as an “intellectually minded celebration of diversity [which] lands at a moment when the Trump administration is pushing back robustly against both diversity and intellectualism”.
However you view it, the event itself has huge cultural and celebrity cachet, helped no end by Anna Wintour and her assembled co-hosts: Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, ASAP Rocky and Pharrell Williams with LeBron James as the honorary chair.
This is handy given the main thrust of the gala is making money. A choice guest list of designers, celebrities and other notables will have bought tickets or a table at great cost. An individual ticket is $75,000, or over £55,ooo, while a table of ten goes for more than a quarter of a million pounds. Donations also roll in from donors. Proceeds then go to the Costume Institute, which is dependent on the gala for its main operating costs, though it’s worth mention that the gala itself costs a lot of put on too … The gala’s arrival is fleeting: stars arrive, walk up the stairs, and disappear inside. There is a party with dinner and music, more on what that involves later. And there is almost always Rihanna.
Fashion-wise, what does that mean? We can probably expect some radical tailoring, a little menswear-as-womenswear, flamboyant spins on the modern dandy and a diverse raft of designers. But what we want to see is a celebration of fashion at its most multicultural, expressive and absurd. Fashion as high art.
We all know that the red carpet is now an economy unto itself, a strangely cultivated branding exercise for celebrities and marketing tool by the fashion industry built on an illusion that the gowns and dandy suits are an expression of a celebrity’s personal style when in fact, they’ve been picked by a stylist. But that doesn’t stop it being wonderful to watch.
Key events
Morwenna Ferrier
Styled by the keen-eyed Gabriella Karefa Johnson, model Gigi Hadid has arrived complete with a victory roll and a shimmering Miu Miu gown which seemingly references the golden age of cinema – the 1940s throwbacks are two-a-penny.
It’s actually a reference to the little known American fashion designer and costumer, Zelda Wynn Valdes, who is thought to have designed the first Playboy bunny costumes. “I like to think it’s the sort of thing she might have designed for me”, said Hadid on the red (blue) carpet.
Morwenna Ferrier
Pamela Anderson arrives not on a wing and a prayer, but a brand new bob and pillowy shaped silver sequinned gown by Tory Burch. It’s a good distraction from the many, many column inches that will likely be dedicated to her no-make-up make up. It’s a dignified, dialled up sort of glamour – though it’s not entirely clear what it has to do with the theme …
Ellie Violet Bramley
Whoopi Goldberg has shown up to the red carpet wearing a brilliantly tailored look by the master of playful tailoring, New York-based designer Thom Browne. It apparently took 350,000 sequins to make.
She says she opted for silver finger caps because she “couldn’t get a manicure”, which will go down in history as the ultimate humblebrag.
Earlier today, co-chair Colman Domingo appeared at the Metropolitan Museum’s private view for its forthcoming exhibition, and the real reason we’re all here.
Do watch this video; it’s a rather moving take on the Black male experience over history as well as legendary fashion journalist André Leon Talley, and why being involved this year matters so much to him.
Morwenna Ferrier
Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are a lot of black looks tonight. It’s a little dull, a little on the nose, but to be fair Sydney Sweeney has found a Miu Miu gown with interesting fringed shoulders that’s somehow both unifying and elongating (her “third year with the brand!”, she said proudly) – the whole thing is inspired by Kim Novak, she says. The kiss curl is a nice touch.
Fashion fans brave downpour in New York to see stars at the Met Gala
Edward Helmore
In case you’re wondering, it is pouring in New York. Edward Helmore has filed this dispatch from the damper-than-damp fans huddled outside the museum:
Fashion fans braved heavy rain to get a glimpse of the stars making their way to the Met Gala, while others – local residents – expressed frustration that they could get passed police security blocks to get home
Ariana Degado, 18, standing outside the Carlyle hotel, said he was there to see Bad Bunny – if possible. “I like his style. He’s different from other Black celebrities. He dresses however he wants. Not masculine, not feminine. He’s more like whatever.” Her friend, Kaitlyn Gonzales, said she was waiting for Milly Cyrus.
Leandra Nef, a stylist from Zurich, Switzerland, said she was keen to see how the stars interpreted dandyism: “It’s very important but not easy. I can imagine they might be scared to do something wrong but at the same time it’s a huge opportunity to work with Black performers and people of color.
The theme of the ball said Winst, who works security for luxury stores, said he, too, was cool for Black people to be appreciated for their style and contributions to culture. If white people turn up trying to look Black, “it’s just all part of inclusion, I guess, “ he said.
Djassi DaCosta-Johnson, whose sister Yaya DaCosta, an actor, was going to the gala, said it was an important moment “especially with the assault on our culture and the history of this country.”
“These types of things do feel a bit like reparations because art and music and fashion is culture and we are constantly recreating it. Regardless of whether its recognised by the white echelons of society, they have always bought into and used it their advantage. So this is grand display and a beautiful celebration.”
Ellie Violet Bramley
This is US Olympic athlete Simone Biles’s second time attending the Met Gala, and this time she is also on the host committee. Although, she said in the run-up, that hasn’t been too taxing a role that she couldn’t focus on what to wear. “No big, big job … just show up, have a good time, wear a beautiful fit, and then just walk the carpet,” she said. Although, on the red carpet, she has said that getting ready for the Met was more stressful than preparing for the Olympics.
Last time she attended she wore a dress that weighed around the same as a coffee table. This time her electric blue dress (sure we are seeing the coattails of ALT again) with a sharply tailored collar looks lighter, even if the train is exuberantly long. No double somersaults with a triple twist tonight, then, but plenty of sartorial prowess.
Morwenna Ferrier
No prizes for guessing what Pharrell Williams, the creative director of Louis Vuitton, is wearing tonight.
A cropped double breasted jacket in white pearls might not sound particularly subversive. It’s black tie with a modish, dandy flavour. But like his predecessor, Virgil Abloh, Williams’ appointment as the head of the biggest menswear fashion brand in the world is a marker of the power of Black cultural capital – not to mention hiphop, class and class politics – on a global scale, so he is a key figure tonight. He’s also a chair. Also, the flares are a great touch.
Co-chair Colman Domingo debuts second look
Ellie Violet Bramley
The night is still oh-so-young and co-chair Colman Domingo is already onto his second look (still custom Valentino designed by creative director Alessandro Michele), having shed his André Leon Talley-coded cloak in favour of a joyfully pattern-clashing look of grids and polka dots. It’s busy but it works! The polka dots on the brooch have apparently been hand-painted on.
That’s already two looks down – can he beat the total of four different looks that Lady Gaga wore to the 2019 Met Gala? Only time will tell.
Morwenna Ferrier
And lo, we already have our first trend: pinstripes.
Following Teyana’s voluminous zoot suit, here is Emma Chamberlain, who is hosting Vogue’s red carpet coverage, in a deconstructed backless dress and train by Courrèges that manages to reference both the 00s and the jazz age. The silverwear was found by her stylist, Jared Ellner, on eBay. Earlier, the TV reporter Zuri Hall also wore a strapless bustier gown in pinstripe by the American designer, Bishme Cromartie. Pinstripes are a key but fairly safe reference of Black dandyism. Expect we’ll see a lot more tonight.
Ellie Violet Bramley
And here comes another of this year’s co-chairs. Fresh from the heat of Miami, where he has been competing in the Grand Prix, to the steps of the Met… Lewis Hamilton, one of this year’s co-chairs, has arrived wearing what is apparently a custom design by the British designer Grace Wales Bonner. The hat, the brooch; he has not come to play.
Bonner, a 34-year-old London-based menswear designer and the person responsible for bringing the Adidas Samba into modern ubiqiuty, was herself on the committee and also has a number of works in this year’s exhibition.
As you might expect for such a famously intellectual designer, her look for Hamilton is rich with references. As she told Vogue: “For Lewis’s look, we brought together a range of influences, from Barkley L. Hendricks paintings, to Black spiritual dressing and some of the brand’s craft signatures. There are stories told through jewel adornments and special trims, with symbolism in baobab flower motifs and natural materials like cowrie shells and mother of pearl buttons.”
A non-red carpet for fashion’s biggest night
Morwenna Ferrier
A word about the red carpet: it’s rarely red. Last year it was green and white, and this year it’s midnight blue, and dotted with hyper-realistic daffodils to match the fake floral hedge backdrop. The whole thing is then laid over the staircase leading up to The Metropolitan Museum.
You might have seen them in Gossip Girl, The Thomas Crown Affair or Sex and the City. They were only built in 1975 but have long transcended their original purpose as an entrance to become an iconic piece of New York infrastructure and what Elle Deco calls, “New York’s front porch”.
Here’s a great quote from Town & Country by former Costume Institute curator, Harold Koda, who describes them as “like a ziggurat leading up to a building four blocks long. Walking up to the entrance was, for someone interested in art, like scaling the Acropolis.”
Morwenna Ferrier
Here’s Teyana Taylor in custom Marc Jacobs. What a look: a three piece homage to the Zoot suit (note the high-waisted, tight-cuffed, pegged trousers) with pillowy shoulders, platform heels and a cape with the words: Harlem Rose. Under that hat is a satin durag too.
A bold, provocative getup that subverts gender stereotypes while being a little bit provocative. I just hope she kept the cape out of the rain.
Ellie Violet Bramley
Last year Colman Domingo wore work by the designer Willy Chavarria and namechecked the late André Leon Talley as an inspiration behind the look. This year, surely, surely that bright blue cloak is a reference to Talley’s own Met Gala look from 2011 when the theme was Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty.
But we are likely in for even more sartorial treats from the Met Gala co-chair as the night goes on. Domingo is reportedly collaborating with Alessandro Michele, the Italian creative director of Valentino, for his red carpet looks this year and has hinted that he will wear more than one outfit representing ‘great moments in tailoring for men of colour’.”
LeBron James bows out of Met Gala due to injury
Morwenna Ferrier
Uh oh, time for the gala’s first set back: just a few hours before he was due to step onto the steps as an honorary chair, LeBron James has backed out due to injury sustained during first round of the NBA playoffs.
“Unfortunately because of my knee injury I sustained at the end of the season I won’t be able to attend the Met Gala in NY tonight as so many people have been asking and congratulating me on! Hate to miss an historical event!” he wrote on X. King of the tunnel ‘fit, James was named an honorary chair for the event. Pharrell Williams, Lewis Hamilton, Colman Domingo and A$AP Rocky are however still set to serve as chairs.
This combination of photos show Anna Wintour, from top left, Pharrell Williams, Lewis Hamilton, Colman Domingo, from bottom left, A$AP Rocky, who will serve as co-chairs, and LeBron James, who will serve as honorary chair for the 2025 Met Gala. (AP Photo) Photograph: AP
One of six athletes named to the committee, James’ injury was later diagnosed as a Grade 2 MCL sprain. Some fans were unclear as to why he couldn’t attend, though a quick glance at the number of steps he’d have to take should answer that. More on the staircase soon.
Ellie Violet Bramley
One thing we can expect from this year’s installation is the fabulous, looming presence of the late André Leon Talley to be played out on the red carpet and beyond. He was, as Anna Wintour wrote in Vogue last month, “a dandy among dandies and he radiated joy.”
Once US Vogue’s editor-at-large and Wintour’s right-hand man, before she reportedly “threw him under the bus”, his Met Gala get-ups – in fact his get-ups in general (he wore full Louis Vuitton to play tennis) – were never inconspicuous or uninteresting, so are sure to provide ample inspiration tonight.
It was, Wintour wrote, “his instinct for self-presentation” that made him so incredible. “He understood that, especially as a Black man, what you wore told a story about you, about your history, about self-respect. And so, for André, getting dressed was an act of autobiography, and also mischief and fantasy, and so much else at once.”
He gave up attending the Met Gala himself, writing in his explosive memoir, The Chiffon Trenches, how he left his final Met Gala mid-evening: “I stood up. Vera Wang asked where I was going; I told her the men’s room, but instead I swept and swirled down the back corridors of the Met to my waiting car. On the way home, I swore to myself: I will never attend another Anna Wintour Met Gala for the rest of my life.” But his legacy will live on tonight.
Anna Wintour leaves hotel under five umbrellas amid downpour in New York
Ellie Violet Bramley
We have had our first Anna Wintour spotting of the evening.
Footage has emerged via a pop culture account on X of the Vogue editor-in-chief leaving her hotel under the cover of not one but at one stage, by our count, 5 umbrellas. Rain and bobs that impeccable clearly don’t mix.
Stars lean into Met Gala’s 2025 theme: ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style’
Hello! Ellie and Morwenna from the Guardian’s fashion desk here in London. We’ll be watching the Met Gala – fashion’s Oscars/Baftas/Olympics – so you don’t have to, guiding you through the probable hits and possible misses from a starry guest list which includes Zendaya, Ariana Grande, Rihanna, and multiple Jenner/Kardashians.
To recap on what you’re watching: as ever, the Met Gala takes place on the first Monday in May as the opening of New York’s Costume Institute exhibition. There is always a theme, and usually some sort of accompanying text, and this year’s it’s called “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” which will look back at 300 years of Black fashion alongside the history of Black dandyism.
To get you up to speed, do have a read of this brilliant piece by the Guardian’s Sasha Mistlin from earlier this week. Last month, Sasha interviewed Monica L. Miller, whose 2009 book, Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, interrogates of the strategic use of fashion by Black men throughout history, which is the inspiration behind both the exhibition and gala.
The theme is notable for various reasons, not least because it’s the Met’s first ever fashion exhibition devoted entirely to designers of colour so is being viewed by some as a wider effort to incorporate more diversity into the collection. It’s timely too. Previous galas have been criticised for being tone-deaf, little more than peacocking, and a parade of privilege and elitism.
In her preview piece for the Saturday paper, Jess Cartner-Morley describes this year’s theme as an “intellectually minded celebration of diversity [which] lands at a moment when the Trump administration is pushing back robustly against both diversity and intellectualism”.
However you view it, the event itself has huge cultural and celebrity cachet, helped no end by Anna Wintour and her assembled co-hosts: Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, ASAP Rocky and Pharrell Williams with LeBron James as the honorary chair.
This is handy given the main thrust of the gala is making money. A choice guest list of designers, celebrities and other notables will have bought tickets or a table at great cost. An individual ticket is $75,000, or over £55,ooo, while a table of ten goes for more than a quarter of a million pounds. Donations also roll in from donors. Proceeds then go to the Costume Institute, which is dependent on the gala for its main operating costs, though it’s worth mention that the gala itself costs a lot of put on too … The gala’s arrival is fleeting: stars arrive, walk up the stairs, and disappear inside. There is a party with dinner and music, more on what that involves later. And there is almost always Rihanna.
Fashion-wise, what does that mean? We can probably expect some radical tailoring, a little menswear-as-womenswear, flamboyant spins on the modern dandy and a diverse raft of designers. But what we want to see is a celebration of fashion at its most multicultural, expressive and absurd. Fashion as high art.
We all know that the red carpet is now an economy unto itself, a strangely cultivated branding exercise for celebrities and marketing tool by the fashion industry built on an illusion that the gowns and dandy suits are an expression of a celebrity’s personal style when in fact, they’ve been picked by a stylist. But that doesn’t stop it being wonderful to watch.
