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On Monday night, the party of the year will ask the question: can Vogue keep diversity in fashion in Trump’s America?
The Met Gala, the knotty point where fashion meets politics, will be in the spotlight. The annual event has become a pop cultural phenomenon by reinventing party dressing as a world of internet-breaking daredevil stunts. Kim Kardashian wearing the dress in which Marilyn Monroe serenaded John F Kennedy, Lady Gaga changing outfits four times in front of the cameras and Katy Perry dressed as a cheeseburger serve the thrills for the social media generation that a James Bond car chase did for their parents.
But the gala is also the opening night of the Costume Institute’s annual fashion exhibition, which this year addresses a politically charged theme of dandyism, race, masculinity and the underrepresentation of black creativity in western museum culture.
Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, which opens to the public on 10 May, is about how black men in America and Europe have used clothes as self-expression. This intellectually minded celebration of diversity lands at a moment when the Trump administration is pushing back robustly against both diversity and intellectualism.
With popcorn-worthy dramatic timing, a show that honours America’s immigrants and celebrates understated elegance and inclusive definitions of masculinity has an all-singing, all-dancing moment in New York, under the gaze of a government that stands in baseball-hatted opposition to all of the above. Donald Trump’s second term has seen a dramatic pushback on diversity and inclusion programmes.
And while other culture wars of the Maga era are happening on elite campuses, the high-profile opening night red carpet will put Kardashians, supermodels and sports stars at the centre of the conversation.
The party also puts in the spotlight the editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, who has led Vogue in vocal support for Democrats at a moment when loyalty to Trump has become all-important in American public life. Wintour will host the party flanked by co-chairs A$AP Rocky, Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, Pharrell Williams and LeBron James.
The fashion on the Met Gala red carpet – and at the afterparties, for which second looks are standard – reach many more people than will visit the exhibition. This year’s dress code is “tailored for you”. Bespoke suiting, pocket squares and cravats, bow ties and shiny shoes are expected to make a strong showing on the red carpet.
A high representation of black designers is anticipated, to reflect the spirit of the show. The British Vogue editor, Chioma Nadi, will be wearing a suit by Martine Rose. Privately, some celebrity stylists are reporting anxiety among white celebrity clients around how best to respectfully dress for an event that celebrates black culture. Williams has tipped Rihanna and her partner, A$AP Rocky, as the couple to watch on the red carpet. “Those two, they come through with a blowtorch,” he said.
Hamilton appears in the current issue of Vogue in a tuxedo with a bow tie and a large Tiffany diamond earring worn as a brooch. In an accompanying letter, Hamilton wrote that he hopes the night “sparks conversation and reconfirms the connection between fashion and self-expression, and how deep it runs in black culture”. He added that “particularly in the States, in terms of people pulling back on diversity … I think this Met Gala sends a really strong message that we must continue to celebrate and elevate black history.”
Domingo told Vogue that at a preview of the exhibition he “got really emotional” on seeing “these dark, beautiful mannequins with wide noses and shiny dark skin, lean and beautiful [that were] specially made for the show”. A flamboyant dresser, who attended last year’s Met in an ivory tuxedo with a floor-length cape accessorised with a spray of calla lilies, Domingo said style “has been key to our survival as people of colour to imagine ourselves in a different situation. It’s not just about clothes. It’s about how we – men, women, people of colour – sort through the world to find images that allow us to exist in spaces that aren’t always available to us.”
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Domingo is collaborating with Alessandro Michele, the Italian creative director of Valentino, on red carpet looks. He has hinted that he will wear more than one outfit, representing “great moments in tailoring for men of colour”.
Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, who wore a gown emblazoned with the words “Tax the rich” at the 2021 gala, is thought to be on the guest list. But as a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum, the gala has always courted America’s wealthiest people. (Tickets cost about $75,000.) Elon Musk has attended twice, in 2018 and 2022. Ivanka Trump has made 12 appearances, most recently in 2016.
Observers are watching the guest list closely to see whether Wintour extends any olive branches to Trump’s inner circle. Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez made their Met debuts last year, although sources have reported they are skipping this year’s party in favour of preparations for their wedding in Venice this summer.
The exhibition is a collaboration between the Costume Institute head, Andrew Bolton, and the guest curator Monica L Miller, and is inspired by Miller’s 2009 book, Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity. Miller’s book chronicles how dandyism developed as both an aesthetic and a strategy, pushing at the boundaries of political and social possibility.
“Dandyism can seem frivolous, but it often poses a challenge to or a transcendence of social and cultural hierarchies,” Miller told the Met.
