This year’s Met Gala theme centred on Superfine: Tailoring Black Style − an exhibition exploring 300 years of Black dandyism, resistance, and identity through fashion. With a menswear-focused dress code and a powerful curatorial lens, it marked a historic first for the Costume Institute. But as always, it raised a question: how do radical style traditions translate on a red carpet funded by $75,000 tickets?
What is the Met Gala?
The Met Gala − formally the Costume Institute Benefit − is an annual fundraising event hosted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
It happens on the first Monday of May and kicks off the Costume Institute’s spring exhibition.
The basics
Exhibition: Superfine: Tailoring Black Style
Exhibition curators: Andrew Bolton and guest curator Monica Miller
Dress code: Tailored for you
Co-hosts: Joining Anna Wintour are A$AP Rocky, Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, Pharrell Williams, and honorary chair LeBron James
Money, money, money
This year, the gala raised over $31 million for the Costume Institute’s work – like garment restoration and conservation.
The whole night is an extravagant show of wealth, from tickets that cost $75,000 a pop, to costly beauty transformations that go beyond aspiration and into the absurd.
Superfine: Tailoring Black Style
The exhibition explores Black dandyism and the role of fashion in Black identities over the past 300 years. It’s broken into 12 sections – Distinction, Ownership, Beauty, Jook, Cool, Presence, Heritage, Freedom, Disguise, Respectability, Champion, and Cosmopolitan.
The exhibition draws on the 2009 book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, whose author, Monica L. Miller, is a guest curator
What is Black dandyism?
A dandy is someone who prioritises elegance, tailoring, and personal style over all – often to subvert social norms
Black dandyism emerged as a form of resistance: using fashion as armour, power, and identity in the face of racism and exclusion.
Tailored for you
Based on the exhibit, the night’s dress code “tailored for you” honoured the exhibit but allowed for varied interpretation. As expected, guests’ outfits were characterised by menswear, expert tailoring, and self-expression.
This is the first dress code in over 20 years to focus on menswear, and the first time ever for the Institute to focus specifically on Black identities.
Colman Domingo
Gala co-chair wore Valentino, which perfectly fits the theme and represents the modern dandy.
Diana Ross
Wore a dress custom-made by Nigerian designer, Eleven Sixteen by Ugo Mozie.
Teyana Taylor
Wore Marc Jacobs in collaboration with costume designer Ruth E. Carter.
Janelle Monae
Wore Thom Browne.
Jeremy Pope
Wore archival Maison Margiela from A/W 97/98.
Sources
Credit
- Feature image of Tyla wearing Jacquemus by Theo Wargo
- All images sourced from The New York Times
- Read more of our Explainers here
