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Stars to 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.
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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 he 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 to 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.
