What to expect today at the MET Gala 2025?

Like every first Monday in May, the MET -New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art- once again becomes the epicenter of the global discourse on fashion. This year, under the title “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style”, the exhibition proposes a journey through black tailoring as a vehicle of resistance, power and identity, from Harlem to Lagos, from Savile Row to Atlanta.

Curated by Andrew Bolton and with spatial design by Tadao Ando, the MET exhibition brings together more than one hundred pieces that reveal how the costume – a traditional symbol of Western power – has been rewritten and re-signified by the African diaspora over the centuries. The conceptual starting point comes from Monica Miller’s 2009 book, Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, which explores how black dandyism has historically functioned as an act of cultural and political transformation.

So, it’s expected to be an evening in which attendees’ clothing will become a political tool, and tailoring an act of cultural reclamation of Afro culture around the world. The dress code? “Tailored for You”. An invitation to wear a suit… or something with much more subtext. Here we talk about reinterpreting tailoring from an Afro-descendant perspective, with references to Harlem dandyism, where dressing well was an act of resistance, and figures like Dapper Dan turned elegance into a language of their own from the corners of the neighborhood. Also present are the zoot suits of the 1940s, the Congolese sapeurs and that whole universe where dressing impeccably -when your body has been historically marginalized, criminalized or exoticized- is, in itself, an act of affirmation.

What we will see tonight on the red carpet of the MET could therefore be a history lesson. References to the great codes of Afro-descendant elegance are expected: wide suits, bright colors, noble fabrics, African prints reinterpreted with English cut. Accessories such as hats, walking sticks, pocket handkerchiefs, gloves and brooches will become symbols of something much greater: collective memory.

On the red carpet, names like Rihanna, A$AP Rocky, Zendaya or Beyoncé are sure to eat up the gala (again), but with an extra burden of responsibility. It’s not enough to look good: you have to be well read. And in that context, there are names that will inevitably be present, either in the collective imagination or through the red carpet looks. Martine Rose, or Grace Wales Bonner, with her Caribbean heritage; Dapper Dan, an absolute pioneer in transforming logomania into an urban code from Harlem; Tremaine Emory and his signature Denim Tears, who makes textiles a battlefield against colonial amnesia; and, of course, the legacy of Virgil Abloh, who twisted the rules of classic tailoring from within Louis Vuitton to introduce an unusual cultural reading into the paradigm of contemporary luxury.

The hosts will also play an important role. Pharrell Williams as co-host of the gala and creative director of Louis Vuitton Homme, embodies the evolution of the 21st century black dandy and his presence is not only symbolic; it is a statement of principles on how luxury can – and should – dialogue with history, identity and also the future. We are also eager to see how the other hosts will develop the theme: Lewis Hamilton, actor Colman Domingo, raper A$AP Rocky and LeBron James. 

And will the big fashion houses bet on collaborations with racialised designers, will they risk reinterpreting their archives from a critical point of view, or will we see simple looks that remain superficial?

After the general confusion caused by the last MET gala, tonight’s one hopes to become one of the most significant in recent years if the challenge is taken up, taking into account that the theme of the exhibition has a political background.