The Met Gala is back for 2025 in New York City, with a spotlight on Black style and tailoring. Here's what to know about this year's theme explained.
Much of the buzz around fashion's biggest night revolves around the so-called theme, which is based on the spring exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute and the night's dress code.
The 2025 spring exhibition is titled, "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style," and the accompanying dress code is "Tailored for You."
This year's co-chairs are Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, A$AP Rocky, Pharrell Williams and, of course, Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour. LeBron James will be an honorary chair, and there will also be a host committee made up of 25 other stars.
What is the Met Gala theme this year?
The 2025 Met Gala theme is "Tailored for You," going hand-in-hand with the museum's spring exhibition, celebrating Black style and the history of dandyism.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The 2025 theme explores Black style and the history of dandyism.
"We're going to see lots of suits, I think in all shapes, sizes, colors," says Complex Editor-in-Chief Aria Hughes. "I think designers are going to play in different ways, and then hopefully lay in some storytelling. I hope to see some archival pieces from Black designers, like a Patrick Kelly or a Willi Smith. So I'm really hoping that people have fun with it."
Hughes said the stars to watch include André 3000 and Slick Rick, whose Bronx roots helped influence style in hip-hop.
"I really want to see André 3000. I think that he's been someone who has used dress in such a powerful way. Sometimes it's incredibly rebellious and fun, sometimes it's very conservative," she said. "I also think it's important to have a southern lens, he's from Atlanta. So I think him bringing that to the red carpet will be incredibly important."
She also expects to see Grace Wales Bonner's designs somewhere on red carpet.
"Her work has been about the study of Black male identity and then reflecting that through fashion in a very modern but historical way," she said. "So I think she's a current day designer who really embodies Black dandyism."
What exhibition is the 2025 Met Gala theme celebrating?The gala serves as an annual benefit for the museum's Costume Institute, dating back to 1948.
The institute says this exhibition is the first in more than 20 years to focus exclusively on menswear.
"It's incredibly significant, because this is the first time in the Met's history that they are centering Black identity and Black designers. So that acknowledgement from that institution is huge," Hughes explained. "And I think as we face a lot of Black history being erased, this is just kind of combatting that."
"So in many ways, Black designers are getting the same treatment as their white peers, whose work is preserved in museums. So they'll have this same chance," she continued. "And I think just from a mass-level with the gala, now people are understanding the influence of Black identity on fashion."
The exhibition was inspired by Guest Curator Monica L. Miller's book, "Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity."
"Fashion and dress have been used in a contest of power and aesthetics for Black people from the time of enslavement to the present, and dandyism has long served as a vehicle through which one can manipulate the relationship between clothing, identity, and power," Miller wrote in a statement when it was announced in February. "The history of Black dandyism illustrates how Black people have 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."
"Superfine: Tailoring Black Style" opens May 10 and will be on view through October 26. Entrance is free with museum admission.
What is Black dandyism?Dandyism was once used to describe aristocratic style, but the term later evolved with the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Miller writes in her book that dandified Black servants in 18th century England were forced to wear gold, brass and silver collars with padlocks to signify their owners' wealth.
Slaves arrived in America with few or no belongings, and treasured what they had left, Miller writes. Stripped of their identities, they often added their own flair to their tailored Sunday best looks for church or holidays.
Post-Emancipation, Black Americans had a chance to reclaim their autonomy, paving the way for the Harlem Renaissance. From the 1920s to 1930s, the neighborhood became a hub for Black cultural expression.
The renaissance was a time of living and dressing boldly for Black Americans. Women donned furs and beaded dresses, while men experimented with tailored fabrics, billowing silhouettes, fedora hats and two-toned oxfords.
One prominent style to arise was the zoot suit -- defined by high-waisted draped pants and oversized jackets with large shoulders and lapels. The suits were subversive by taking up space and, because of fabric rations during World War II, owning one was an act of protest.
So what makes someone a dandy today?
"It's really someone who is dedicated to dress, like they see dress as a discipline, in the same way viewing working out as a discipline or studying music as a discipline. So they view it as a discipline, and a lot of the times it shows up in tailored clothes, but... it's not only people who wear suits, it's become more casual and I think just more free and fluid," explained Hughes.
Hughes also noted a recent interview where Dapper Dan said there are two kinds of dandy -- "the ascot dandy and the sweatsuit dandy."
"Ultimately, it's someone who wants to use clothes as armor in a way to impact the way in which people perceive them and fight stereotypes that are sometimes rooted in racism," she said.
Dandyism isn't just for men. Janelle Monáe, who sits on the Met Gala's host committee, is known for her dandy style, with tailored suits, ornate bowties and oversized hats.
What were past Met Gala themes through the years?The 2024 Met Gala theme was "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion," and the accompanying dress code was "Garden of Time."
Stars wore nature-inspired designs, including lots of nude looks from the likes of Emily Ratajkowski, Mona Patel, Rita Ora and Karol G. Tyla carried an hour glass clutch and wore a gown made of sand, and Doja Cat went for a wet look with dripping mascara and soaked white dress.
In 2023, the gala honored the late designer Karl Lagerfeld, with references to his unique style and combination of black, white and leather, as well as his beloved cat Choupette.
There was a two-part theme for 2021 and 2022: "In America: A Lexicon of Fashion" and "In America: An Anthology of Fashion." The first part explored the country's evolving culture, and some of the night's designs incorporated masks in wake of the COVID pandemic. The second part celebrated American identity through fashion's eyes, with lots of "Gilded Glamour."
Before that, 2019 brought "Camp: Notes on Fashion" and Zendaya's dazzling light-up Cinderella dress, and 2018's theme "Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination" saw Katy Perry in a giant set of angel wings from Versace.
CLICK HERE for more of the most iconic looks over the years.
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Renee Anderson