Black men have always brought a varying degree of swag to the Met Gala each first Monday of May. For 2025, the fashion industry’s biggest red carpet moment and Black fashion history will intertwine thanks to this year’s theme.
“Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” is the first theme ever to focus solely on Black designers and celebrate the style contributions of Black men through dandyism. The 2025 theme is also the first in more than two decades to highlight menswear.
“I want it to feel like the most epic night of power, a reflection of Black resiliency in a world that continues to be colonized, by which I mean policies and legislation that are nothing short of that,” musical multi-hyphenate and Louis Vuitton menswear director Pharell Williams told Vogue ahead of the epic night of celebrity and style.
Williams will also serve as one of the 2025 Met Gala co-hosts along with Lewis Hamilton, Colman Domingo, and A$AP Rocky. NBA superstar LeBron James will be the honorary chairfor the fundraising gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
“Every year, The Met Gala brings together cultural figures and style icons from across a wide array of fields to celebrate and support art and fashion,” said Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and Chief Executive Officer, in a statement about this year’s gala. “This spring’s event will mark the opening of the exhibition Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, a profoundly scholarly show centering an important legacy of Black-led sartorial innovation and creative expression that continues to inspire and shape our world today.”
The Met Gala 2025 theme is inspired by its Costume Institute’s annual spring exhibition. This year it is based in large part on “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity,” a book written by Monica L. Miller. She is guest curator of the exhibit and makes history as the first Black curator of a Costume Institute exhibition.
“Historical manifestations of dandyism range from absolute precision in dress and tailoring to flamboyance and fabulousness in dress and style,” Miller writes in the exhibit catalog.
“Whether a dandy is subtle or spectacular, we recognize and respect the deliberateness of the dress, the self-conscious display, the reach for tailored perfection, and the sometimes subversive self-expression.”
Vogue will livestream the gala starting at 5 p.m. CST on Vogue.com, its YouTube channel and across its other digital platforms. Teyana Taylor, La La Anthony and Ego Nwodim will host the stream.
Living It content is produced with funding by the ARPA for the Arts grants program in partnership with the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis and the Community Development Administration.
