Inside A$AP Rocky’s Harlem-Inspired Met Gala Look

You gonna say Brooklyn flyer than Harlem?

I m gonna go with that and I m gonna stick there.

I m sticking with that.

That s how we know you not from Harlem.

[laughing]

[soft music]

Vogue, what s the deal?

It s me again, him, ASAP Rocky,

the prettiest motherfucker alive.

And we at my final fitting for the Met Gala.

I should have switched my glasses man.

Should have had the black ones on.

[Producer] You wanna switch right now?

Yeah, because I feel like

this is giving Flavor Flave right now.

Yeah, I m in my element.

Shout out Ray Ban and all that.

Yeah, that s pretty flago, yeah.

We in my hotel suite right now, my space.

I tend to usually bring my own items that either I designed

or things that I bought from other designers just

to fill in the space cause I feel like most hotels,

I don t like their decor.

So what I do is I supply everything for myself

to make it feel like home.

This is my cactus right here.

This is a cactus cover that we selling.

It s a collaboration

between my brand HOMMEMADE and Gufram, the legendary brand.

This is a Puma tool bag right here that I designed

because a good friend of mines, he gave me a tool bag

and he said this is necessary for a dad.

So I felt like all dads, all moms

and all people alike should have this tool bag.

You feel me?

We got the Vogue with yours truly.

Who the handsome fella right there man, you let me know.

I think fashion was always like my first expression.

Culturally, I m honored to be a co-chair.

Every year feels exciting.

My involvement this year, it s just crazy,

it s a dream come true and I m honored

that this is highlighting Black excellence.

Aight Vogue, let s try these fits on this year.

Gotta call my boy Matt Hanson out here.

Yo Matt, grand entrance.

[laughing]

There he go.

Vogue, I would like to introduce y all man.

Maybe he don t even need no introduction.

This is my big brother.

Not only that, this is the stylist

that I ve been working with for about 15 years now,

Matthew Henson.

What s up, Vogue?

You know.

Big brother, let s walk them through

these collections man.

We have several versions of the same jacket.

Rocky wanted to do something really new

and original from his own brand Awge.

You see, you gotta zoom in on that.

You see that?

You heard that name?

Oh aight.

[laughs]

He wanted to pay homage to New York

and one of the biggest and most well-known jackets is

A Marmot.

Is a Marmot jacket,

which is a really crazy outdoor technical jacket.

Made of really beautiful waterproof material,

but it s got an incredible shape.

So what we wanted to do is try

to do something in a tailoring silhouette that kind

of mimicked the shape of a Marmot,

paying homage to that and this is what we came up with.

So this is the first time I m seeing it,

you re seeing it since it came from the factory.

Marmots are like a Harlem tradition in the wintertime,

everybody has a Marmont on or a Moncler.

So we just wanted to like pay homage to Harlem,

like he said.

Y all see when you see people with the orange,

lime green, red, blue, like all those colors stemming

from way back in the day.

We talking about 2002, you know, all the way

to now, current days.

Like that was our like teenage jacket.

That was our Bear or our Mountain Gear or our North Face.

That s what they was for us back then.

Shout out to Harlem man.

Now let s try on these fits.

[light music]

Scene one, take two.

Yo, so this is one option.

The oversized look, you know, very elegant with the tie

with the Marmot, pop the collar one time on em.

Some red bottoms on the feet.

Rocky said that he wanted to do something a bit different

than what we ve been doing.

We ve been doing [camera clicks]

suits for probably close to like two years now.

Especially since the beginning,

we were just doing everything

[camera clicks] with young designers,

a lot of street wear.

But I do like this dressed up moment,

embracing your fatherhood.

It s been great and I think this blends the two

because it s not so strict in the tailoring.

It s a bit fun.

The fabric is a fresco wool

and the details are the same

as like any other technical jacket.

Creating with Matt is dope cause he s like a blank canvas

allows you to be you.

I like fuckin with people that s not afraid

to color outside the line.

And I think the element of surprise,

I think people are expecting you

to wear like a certain type of brand.

And I think you come in, you know

in Awge really makes a statement,

especially in the direction you re pushing the brand.

Anna s whole thing was like make sure

you are wearing a Black designer this year to the Met gala.

Don t wear anybody that s not Black.

And I was like, I m a Black fuckin designer,

I m gonna wear mine.

She was like, yes you should wear yours.

[soft hip hop music]

[Producer] You guys ever have disagreements?

I fight him all the time

and it s just like he fights me, I fight him.

And that s what makes our relationship dope

because we know how to fight productively.

It s certain things that I do that he doesn t fuck with.

He never liked the babushka stuff to begin with

but he was like, you know what, I get it.

I fuck with it. [laughing]

You know what I m saying?

You were right about the babushka.

It was actually a functional thing at that time.

Something was going on. For sure.

And I was kind of shocked.

But you know what it was.

It worked out really well

And it became a big thing.

People are still doing that.

We agree to disagree and shit happens.

And look, he still made it look good on

that carpet at that gala.

We can go back and forth as much as we want,

but we already know it s always gonna be.

[laughs] Always.

[light hip hop music]

So y all, this is the final look.

This is what I m feeling like is the one, not the two.

The jacket is a wool twill

with a matching wool twill vest.

And then we did a custom boxer in satin

with all details, matching wool pant.

The shoes are classic lace up collaboration between Awge

and Christian Louboutin and the matching tie as well too.

So some of the details on the jacket are

that it has an internal closure system as well

as an external closure system.

So usually on a technical jacket you just have like a zip up

the front because that s all you really need.

But we did this a little bit more nod

to Rocky s sartorial side.

So we made this similar shape as the Marmot,

but we made it more sartorial

and did it with a double breasted closure

so the jacket can close completely the same way

[ASAP Rocky] That a tux or a blazer close.

Exactly.

So you can get really evening with it

and have this, you could open it this way,

you can have the collar stand.

It s super versatile.

You can go whichever way that you like.

He gave me that good Ralph Lauren.

Exactly.

It s now collar. To see right there.

I think your dad era is my favorite era so far.

I did love the beginning days when you were starting

to figure out how the industry worked

and all the traveling we were doing back then.

That was pretty insane times, I did enjoy those moments.

I m glad those moments are over.

I m a bit too old for that

so I m really enjoying this moment.

You and me both.

Yeah, yeah, that was, that was some crazy days.

But nah, I really feel like this is your best moment,

super proud of you bro.

See I m a whole dad, I think we embodied that.

We go into that intentionally now.

You know that s just me.

It s a part of me now.

So it goes hand in hand with everything moving forward,

since I became a pappy.

Jewelry for the night of the Met Gala,

I ll be wearing Bulgari and Pavé Na Teo.

I got permanent grills so I m gonna wear grills for sure.

I can t take these out. [laughing]

My hair will be by Tashana Miles.

She s my hairstylist.

And I think we want to kind of go, we want opulence,

but we still want to make sure

that it still feels a little subtle

and classy for the evening and appropriate

for what they call Black dandyism.

When you think about Harlem, when you think about fashion,

when you talk about the old days of the origin

of all of this shit, right?

Prohibition era, 1940s, film war or mid-century,

1950s, Civil Rights movement.

All of those like decades that I just mentioned,

all had the same uniform.

Children, babies, men and women all dressed alike.

They were all tailored and suited to a T.

That changed when, you know, more urban

and more street wear became more of a like a,

I think a everyday normality.

And I just want to bring back that feeling of,

you know, elegance, Harlem elegance, ghetto fabulous.

That s what I am, that s what I embody.

Everybody want to dress like a Harlem motherfucker

right now.

We talking about Pelle Pelle s, construction boots,

all of this shit we started.

I mean I m not gonna say Harlem started grills,

but we definitely put on for our generation

about 15 years ago with the grill,

Harlem brought back the grills.

Harlem brought back Jeremy Scott, we brought back Tim s,

we brought back Uptowns,

nobody s wearing Nike and none of that.

And now Harlem just brought back Puma.

Harlem, Harlem.

I feel like it s a New York thing,

but I feel like it s okay for you to be okay

with Brooklyn being the best dressed borough.

That s all I m trying to say.

Brooklyn is, you gotta cross the bridge to see the fashion.

That s it, that s what I m saying.

[laughing]

Yeah, you a hater bro.

Yeah, once you come over the bridge,

you on something else, but you have to cross the bridge

to see what s really going on, you know what I m saying?

You gonna say Brooklyn flyer than Harlem?

I m gonna go with that and I m gonna stick there.

I m sticking with that.

That s how we know you not from Harlem.

[laughing]

This is for all my youngins out there.

I m gonna give y all some tips

for when you going to the Met Gala.

Number one, when you get to the Met Gala,

make sure that you don t OD on snacks.

You don t wanna show up

to the red carpet looking bloated.

That s rule number one.

Rule number two, listen, when you step out that car

and you see all those fans

and all those supporters and kids

and people yelling your name and shouting, embrace it all.

Love it cause it s all real love.

Number three, when you get to the Met Gala,

make sure you re on time and not like me and my lady.

Number four, number four

and one of the most important rules of the Met Gala,

always, always bring your best fit.

Bring what you think is gonna shit on the whole night.

Make sure ain t nobody fuckin with you.

Make sure you ain t looking like nobody else.

Express yourself, you know, don t be scared to do that.

This Met Gala I m looking forward to being there on time.

Like I said, I really have a great time every time I go,

so I just plan on having like a fuckin hell of a night

and enjoying myself, shits and giggles the whole night.

I think we should make it normal

for celebrating Black excellence.

[light music]

Yo Vogue, that was my final fitting.

I m about to sign off.

It was a pleasure having y all here with me,

but I gotta get some beauty rest so I can prepare for this

Met Gala, shout outs to Vogue.

Shout outs to ASAP, shout outs to Harlem

and shout outs to life in general, happy to be here.

Peace, taking off ASAP.

[light music]

Sheesh.

You see this sexy thing? [whistles]

My shorty got the little fatty on her too.

You see that forehead?

You know who it is.

[light music]