The 2025 Met Gala Theme and Co-Chairs Have Been Revealed; Honoring the Black Dandy and All His Complications
The Costume Institute 2025 is taking it up a notch delving into the cultural fray with its upcoming exhibition on the Black dandy: a look at race, gender, class and masculinity. The Costume Institute's spring 2025 exhibition is titled “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style"
On Wednesday, Oct. 9, Vogue shared details about the star-studded event, which is held annually on the first Monday in May at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. 2025 gala will take place on Monday, May 5 and honor the Costume Institute's spring 2025 exhibition under the title “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.”
The exhibition draws inspiration from Monica L. Miller’s 2009 book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity and will "feature garments, paintings, photographs, and more — all exploring the indelible style of Black men in the context of dandyism, from the 18th century through present day." Miller will serve as a guest curator for the show with Costume Institute Curator in Charge Andrew Bolton.
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According to Vogue, Miller said that dandyism could be defined as “dressing wisely and well.” She also described it as “a strategy and a tool to rethink identity, to reimagine the self in a different context. To really push a boundary—especially during the time of enslavement, to really push a boundary on who and what counts as human, even.”
Miller adds that the exhibit will “illustrate how Black people transformed from being enslaved and stylized as luxury items, acquired like any other signifier of wealth and status, to autonomous self-fashioning individuals who are global trendsetters.”
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| Back left to right: LeBron James, A$ap Rocky, Lewis Hamilton Front left to right: Pharrell Williams and Colman Domingo |
The 2025 Met Gala co-chairs are Colman Domingo, F1 driver Lewis Hamilton, A$AP Rocky, Pharrell Williams and Anna Wintour alongside honorary chair LeBron James. The group is a mix of Met Gala veterans as well as newcomers.
It’s been 20 years since the Metropolitan Museum of Art dedicated one of its costume exhibitions to the attire of men, and that was “Braveheart: Men in Skirts.” And it has never focused an exhibition squarely on the subject of race. But its Costume Institute show — the one that regularly opens on the first Monday in May with a gala bedazzled with actors, musicians, politicians and famously famous people — will examine the complicated story of the Black dandy. The Costume Institute is not known for leaping into the cultural fray, but with “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” it’s jumping into the deep end. The Black dandy is a locus of our ambivalence about race, gender, class and masculinity.
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| André Leon Talley |
One can conjure up an image of an outré dandy: Prince with his ruffles and velvet; Andre 3000 during his hip-hop heyday with the dapper hats, the bold glasses and the cacophony of colors; fashion editor André Leon Talley with his floor-length bespoke caftans. Some might insist that they were all examples of frivolousness and superficiality. Others admire them for their creativity and personal grandeur.
In recent years, menswear has been the source of upheaval and transformation in fashion. It’s menswear designers who’ve engaged most intriguingly with gender as a continuum rather than a binary. It's not merely the clothes that are remarkable, it is the effort that make the powerful statement. The personal decision to dress in certain pieces to acknowledge that Black men hold their body in high, loving regard even if society too often doesn't.
The dress code for the 2025 Met Gala will be announced early next year.