Questlove’s Dapper 2025 Met Gala Suit Featured Over 30,000 Pearls—and Pays Tribute to His Father
Last night, Questlove walked the 2025 Met Gala red carpet in dapper style. The musician, DJ, and all-around artist embraced the Tailored for You dress code and the evening’s focus on Black dandyism, wearing a slick suit by Gabriela Hearst. It certainly wasn’t your run-of-the-mill two-piece: Embroidered with over 30,000 freshwater pearls, the design took over 270 hours to complete and was constructed by artisans in New York City. (It took 78 hours to embellish the jacket and 48 hours to embellish the suit trousers alone.) “That’s the work that we passionately executed for a music king such as Questlove,” Hearst tells Vogue of the labor-intensive outfit, with Questlove adding, “It’s very heavy. I feel royal.”
To bring Questlove’s intricate look to life, Hearst began the design process by consulting with Dr. Cherise Smith, the Joseph D. Jamail Chair in African American Studies in the Department of African African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, and Dr. Rikki Byrd, the Assistant Professor of Visual Culture Studies in the same department. “Dr. Byrd and Dr. Smith taught us about the signifiers of our designs in the context of Black dandyism,” says Hearst. “That gave birth to the concept of taking something classic like pinstripes, and reimagining it in a way that would celebrate Questlove’s brilliance.” Aligned on the pinstripe focus, Hearst and Questlove then discussed ways to innovative and update the classic suiting design.
For Questlove and stylist Kate March, it was also important to incorporate the sharp silhouettes that he grew up seeing worn within his own family. His father, the notable soul singer Lee Andrews, served as the leader of Lee Andrews the Hearts for years—and was a prolific suit-wearer himself. “There was a portion of my dad’s life in which he wore nothing but suits—for decades, even in summer,” says Questlove. Some of the artist’s earliest memories involve seeing his father suit up. “As a way to keep an eye on me when we were touring, my father made my job in show business taking care of his wardrobe,” says Questlove. “I was seven—running his clothes to the dry cleaners, steaming the suits, his shoes, and his accessories.” (For a finishing touch at the Met, Questlove added jewelry by Brooklyn-based artists Bernard James and Burkindy from Burkina Faso, as well as shoes by Ferragamo designer Maximilan Davis.)
He and Hearst kept those memories in mind, and were inspired to create a suit with a more elongated, double-breasted shape in his honor—and the use of pearls also gave it an unexpected, fresh feel. The two also cited pinstripe suits worn by Sammy Davis Jr. and Duke Ellington as inspiration. “We thought about Black dandyism in relationship to Black men in music,” says Hearst. For Questlove, the spirit made for the perfect end result. “Coming from a family of uncles and a dad who wore nothing but tailored zoot suits in the 1950s and 1960s—I used to make fun of their photos hanging in my grandma’s house all the time—the irony isn’t lost on me that now I get to follow in their footsteps and having fun while doing it,” he says.
Though last night wasn’t Questlove’s first Met Gala, the star adds that there was indeed a special mood in the air at the Met. It was also a full-circle fashion moment for him on the red carpet, given that there was a time in his life when he would never be caught in a formal suit. “Because my dad’s generation was so gung-ho on ‘respectability politics,’ I eschewed suits like the plague,” he says. “And then The Tonight Show came, and suits are in my vocabulary. My first month on the show, Prince was so impressed with my mohair double-breasted suit that he tipped me $50 just for looking ‘so damn clean.’” It’s hard to top such a moment, but tonight’s Met Gala was a close runner-up. Of his memorable outfit, he says, “I wish my photo could hang in my grandmother’s house back in the 1970s.”
