On Monday evening, stars crowded the steps of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art for the 2025 Met Gala in their finest suiting and tailoring, accessorised with hats, capes and brooches – all their best interpretations of this year’s “Tailored for You” dress code.
The 2025 Met Gala’s “Tailored for You” dress code – inspired by the Costume Institute’s Superfine: Tailoring Black Style exhibition exploring political and aesthetic constructs of Black dandyism – emphasised menswear and tailoring. But for many attendees, tribute to the theme and its source material, Monica L. Miller’s 2009 book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, went deeper by enlisting Black creatives, stylists and costume designers to help them do so.
“To me, dandyism is about intentionality,” Pharrell Williams, who dressed himself alongside guests including Doechii, Zendaya and Sabrina Carpenter, told Vogue. (Louis Vuitton sponsored this year’s exhibition.) This intentionality was evident in Lewis Hamilton’s cream Wales Bonner suit, with influences ranging from the paintings of late artist Barkley L. Hendricks (a leader in Black portraiture) to Black spiritual dressing, designer Grace Wales Bonner told Vogue. It was clear in Tems’s gown, courtesy of Ozwald Boateng, the first Black designer with a prestigious Savile Row storefront, which harkened back to Boateng’s first full womenswear collection that he debuted at New York’s Apollo Theater in 2019, to mark the 100th anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance. And it was evident in Aimee Lou Wood’s Ahluwalia shorts suit, which designer Priya Ahluwalia created as a nod to the Congolese Sapeurs because she wanted to engage with Congolese culture to call attention to the escalating violence in Congo.
Black stylists were out in force. Matthew Henson styled two co-hosts, Pharrell Williams (in Louis Vuitton) and A$AP Rocky (in his own brand-slash-agency AWGE). Jason Bolden styled stars including Nicole Kidman (in Balenciaga), Cynthia Erivo (in Givenchy) and Yara Shahidi (in Fear of God). Jason Rembert styled Adrien Brody, also in custom Fear of God. Solange Franklin styled Ego Nwodim in Christopher John Rogers. Chaise Dennis styled Tramell Tillman in Thom Browne. Black costume designers and visual artists also got in on the action.
It was the weight of this year’s theme – as the Trump administration continues to strip funding for the arts and denounce diversity, equity and inclusion efforts across the country – that made room for so much nuance and storytelling in attendees’ looks.
“We saw so much storytelling at this year’s Met Gala because Black people, for so long and so often, had their histories deliberately stolen, distorted or denied,” says cultural critic Louis Pisano, who writes newsletter Discoursted. “Across the diaspora, people were separated from their languages, cultures, families, even their names. So the act of remembering, of naming your ancestors, of honouring your lineage and culture becomes radical – which is exactly what Miller wrote about in Slaves to Fashion.”
Paying homage
This act of honouring and paying homage formed the basis of many of Monday evening’s looks.
Many attendees’ looks took inspiration from – or were an ode to – their own family members. The main reference for Ayo Edebiri’s Ferragamo gown was her father. “He’s one of the dandiest men I know, whether he’s power-clashing to go to the office or in traditional Edo clothes at the Emmys with me,” she told Vogue. “He got married to my mom in leather trousers and tuxedo tails, which is pretty iconic.” Her own look featured a leather coat with long, tail-like sleeves. Diana Ross’s gown, meanwhile, paid tribute to her own family legacy, her children and grandchildren’s names embroidered onto the dress. The look was conceived of in collaboration with her son Evan, and Nigerian designer Ugo Mozie.
Other attendees paid tribute to prominent Black historical figures; male and female dandies. Keke Palmer’s pearly Vera Wang dress was a nod to Dorothy Dandridge, the first-ever Black Academy Award nominee for best actress. FKA Twigs’s Wales Bonner cocktail dress was inspired by 1920s dancer Josephine Baker. Ego Nwodim honoured late Black fashion designer Patrick Kelly in a look by independent designer Christopher John Rogers.
Anne Hathaway was one of a crop of attendees that paid homage to André Leon Talley (whose passing, co-curator Andrew Bolton said at the press preview, was, in part, “the catalyst for the show”). Hathaway’s look was designed by Carolina Herrera’s Wes Gordon. Herrera was a close friend of Talley’s, and to get the look right, Gordon turned to the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), where the late journalist’s archive is housed. Working with experts is the approach many non-Black talent and designers took for the 2025 Met Gala. It was a wise move, experts say.
“This year was kind of a tricky beast because the theme was so politically charged and there was a higher margin of error for non-Black guests to get it horribly wrong, but I am happy that people really dug into historical references that worked for them,” Pisano says. They did so with the help of Black independent and emerging designers, costume designers, stylists and artists. “I think people went above and beyond to make sure they were being respectful,” he adds.
Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid and Ashley Graham all worked with stylist Gabriella Karefa-Johnson on their Met looks. Jenner wore a tailored look by independent British fashion designer Torishéju Dumi. The Torishéju look is an homage to queer nightclub singer Gladys Bentley, and also draws on Torishéju’s Nigerian heritage, the designer told Vogue. “The British Empire really, really had an effect on Nigerian style and what they wore and how they dress. They started to trade clothing for spices, etc., and they would pair that with their own traditional attire. It’s still present in the day-to-day attire in Nigeria.”
Hadid’s look went the other route. Rather than a Black independent designer, she wore custom Miu Miu. The look, though, was inspired by the designs of Zelda Wynn Valdes, a Black designer known for her ability to finesse tailoring to female bodies – and for designing the Playboy Bunny waitress uniforms. “[Gabriella] thought of so many ways to interpret this theme. The dress is a celebration of Zelda – this is a dress maybe she would have designed for me, combining both tailoring and glamour,” Hadid told La La Anthony on the red carpet.
Onlookers were impressed by the way these stars – more pertinent, their teams – paid tribute to the Black dandy while honouring and celebrating existing Black creatives, whether historical figures or working designers. “Now that’s how you interpret as an other in a Black space,” costume designer and stylist Aziza Duniani posted to her Instagram Story atop a photo of Hadid’s gold Miu Miu ensemble. “Shout out to [Karefa-Johnson].”
Collaborative efforts
Some designers took things a step further, and collaborated with Black creatives during the design process. Vogue livestream host Teyana Taylor’s look, for instance, was designed by two-time Oscar-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter in collaboration with Marc Jacobs (see her classic MJ Kiki boots). Janelle Monae’s Thom Browne look was created in collaboration with Oscar-winning costume designer Paul Tazewell, who was the first Black man to win the award for Wicked.
“It’s so cool that there were so many collaborations between fashion houses and costume designers this year. There’s so much precision and storytelling that goes into costuming, especially with tailoring, silhouette and historical references – so bringing those skill sets into the Met Gala makes perfect sense,” Pisano says. “This year’s theme in particular called for more than just beautiful clothes. It asked for narrative, context, craft. Collaborating with costume designers really helped deliver on that.” (The Ruth E. Carter/Marc Jacobs/Teyana Taylor moment was Pisano’s personal favourite.)
It wasn’t just costume designers that got tapped in, either. Director Janicza Bravo wore custom Tory Burch that reconceived artist Rashid Johnson’s paintings as fabric. The final look was the result of a collaborative effort from all three. “Working with Rashid was an incredible honour. His work confronts history, identity, and race with sensitivity and courage, and he holds up a mirror – sometimes literally – to humanity. To interpret his work was one of the most inspiring and daunting challenges of my career,” Burch says. “We used a mix of techniques and fabric manipulations to capture its intensity and depth: traditional embroideries, flocked velvet, painted foil, micro-sequins, 3-D silicone…I didn’t want it to feel classical or precious.”
With this one under her belt, Burch is open to more such collaborations in the future. Met Gala 2026, perhaps?
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