This year, the boring, black suit strikes back. The 2025 Met Gala was an ode to tailoring, an important reminder of the unacknowledged, unseen labour and engineering that goes into the simple clothes we take for granted.

This year’s theme was Tailored for You, a nod to the menswear and suiting spotlighting the Met Costume Institute’s spring exhibition, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style. This is a long-overdue first exhibition to feature only Black designers and fashion, and the first in over a decade to focus solely on menswear. The museum has overlooked the contributions of Black people to culture, in much the same way as the centuries of innovation, technology and craft that make up something as simple as the T-shirt or a pair of blue jeans have been overlooked.

More than just a love letter to pattern and garment construction, the exhibition focuses on Black dandies and reminds us how fashion, and more specifically tailoring, can be a powerful tool for resistance and connection, and that we can bring it into our daily practice.

The Met Gala was established in 1948 to raise funds for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute – the only museum department that doesn’t benefit from state funding.  What began as a society event has turned into fashion’s biggest night out, where the ultra-rich and ultra-famous demonstrate the industry’s highest levels of creativity and craftsmanship. The ultimate flex of what artisans and designers can do, it’s an opportunity to engage the general public in the importance of fashion and the people who make up the industry, which includes every single person who wears clothes.

However, what began as a straightforward New York high society fashion event has since evolved into one of the biggest nights in global media – generating over $1 billion in earned media value. It also generates millions of impressions and engagements online, many of which express extreme disappointment when attendees show up to the beige carpet in a boring, black suit.

But nothing is boring about a Black suit.

As demonstrated by the book, which inspired the exhibition, Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, written by co-curator Monica L. Miller, fashion for Black men in the diaspora has always been a game of making the most out of less. Beginning in the 18th century, Miller traces how clothing became a tool to reclaim dignity under enslavement and colonialism, and how Black dandies appropriated the aesthetic of their oppressors for creative expression and personal freedom.

In 1839, the “Body Meter,” an adjustable metal cage, was used to standardise sizing in fashion

Tailoring is an essential part of the formation of the Black dandy identity. Mainstream Euro-American fashion has always excluded non-white bodies. For example, the standardised sizing that dominates mass manufacturing today was created in late 1930s America through the study of a small pool of white women, dictating what the accepted body would be. In her book, Miller discusses how enslaved people would dedicate time to acquiring something as small as a button or bead to set themselves apart or connect with the cultures and lands from which they were separated. Whether having to adapt the coarse, low-quality clothing provided by slave holders or alter ready-made items for excluded figures, tailoring was both a matter of practicality and aesthetics.

For white dandies, the practice of restraint and minimalism in dress was a demonstration of control and masculinity. For Black men, who had no choice but to practice minimalism, having little access to fashion because of socio-economic restrictions, dandyism turned having less into an art form. When you only have one suit for church or special events, it needs to be a good one. Dandies took special care in understanding how their clothing was constructed, establishing and following rules about proportion, fit and accessorising, and taking meticulous care of their items through laundry and storage. You can see how traces of this exist in Black culture today with the almost comical obsession with crease-free, clean sneakers in streetwear subcultures.

For people so restricted in every other part of their lives, the alteration and personalisation of clothing was a kind of open rebellion. Because much of the work of tailoring goes unseen, when done correctly, the ideal body can be shaped through padding, interlining and shaping undetectable to the naked eye. In addition, dandies could appear to assimilate to the dominant culture by adopting Western dress codes but enhancing their suits with hidden details and accessories that can only be seen upon extra-close inspection.

So, for this year’s Gala, the most on-theme looks were the duplicitous ones: ensembles that appeared simple or plain at first glance but offered a world of heritage and expression under a magnifying glass.

On his Instagram account, Lewis says: “Every detail has been deeply considered—there’s a lot of emotion and meaning woven into this. This is more than a suit, this is ancestral history”

See Lewis Hamilton’s Wales Bonner ensemble, a monochromatic cream look with cowrie shells, sequins, and beads artfully applied to the coat cuffs. These embellishments blended perfectly into the restrained look while nodding to the use of cowrie shells in African textiles.

A$AP Rocky’s umbrella resembling a gun had 90 carats-worth of diamonds on it and referenced his gun trial earlier this year

In a nod to his Harlem roots, rapper A$AP Rocky adapted the technical, outdoor jackets of New York brand Marmot into an overcoat for his suit. The piece retained the functional aspects such as the internal closure and incorporated traditional tailoring aspects such as the use of wool and double-breasted shaping.

 Shirts, jackets or tunics were worn by Dogon or Bamana men in Mali for protection from both wild animals and dangerous spirits and were often embellished with small objects, animal horns, mirrors, jewellery, and leather pouches. Credit: Tim Hamill / Hamill Gallery 

Silent TikTok star, Khaby Lame (feature image) wore a waistcoat covered in pocket watches, reminiscent of the hanging ornaments of Dogon hunters’ jackets (above), bridging African and European style. Not surprising, as this is one of the few collaborations between big brands and independent Black designers like Ugo Mozie of Eleven Sixteen.

White Lotus star, Walton Goggins, wore an ‘inside-out’ Thom Browne overcoat, with a pleated skirt back detail in a combination of tonal wool suiting, black double duchess silk and exposed canvas, finished with external silk and cotton-covered shoulder pads and tailoring hand stitches

For more literal celebrations of clothing construction, there was Walter Goggins’ Thom Browne outfit – a deconstructed suit showcasing the padding and temporary stitches in the tailoring process. Jenna Ortega stunned in a sculptured Balmain gown composed entirely of metal rulers used in pattern making, a poetic ode to couture and craftsmanship.

The pattern-making rulers were placed vertically along Jenna Ortega’s body to enhance the silhouette 

What’s made the Met such a landmark event in the global calendar is how much we look forward to the most outlandish and spectacular outfits. But much in the same way this year’s gala set a new precedent in celebrating of Black fashion (raising a record-breaking $31 million), perhaps it will also set a precedent for how we can embody the Black dandy in our everyday lives.

Most of us will probably never have the opportunity to attend a high-society ball at $75,000 a ticket, and, hopefully, we’ll never have to endure slavery or colonialism again, but we can still carry the principles of fashion under restriction with us. From the gala’s blue carpet to the museum exhibition, we were reminded not only of the subversive power of fashion but that we can do a lot with very little. Whether it’s taking the time to mend our clothing, hand-washing an item, learn how to sew, or researching sustainable brands, we can all be tailors and dandies.

 

• Feature image: Khaby Lame made his Met Gala debut, styled by Ugo Mozie, in a custom BOSS pinstripe suit by Marco Falcioni adorned with vintage pocket watches reminiscent of the garments worn by Dogon or Bamana men
• Note about the author: Khensani Mohlatlole is a fashion writer turned fashion historian. Follow her on Instagram and YouTube