The first Monday in May is about to be superfine. With the 2025 Met Gala less than two months away, we can prepare to see precision and elegance as this year’s theme is set to showcase the artistry of Black fashion.
Hosted by the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Met Gala is an annual event serving as the grand opening for the institute’s spring exhibition. Each year, it follows a specific theme, challenging attendees to interpret and embody its essence through their looks.
Superfine: Tailoring Black Style
For 2025, the theme “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” will bring designers, celebrities, and cultural icons worldwide to explore and examine the Black dandy. The term “dandy” initially emerged in Europe as a way to refer to middle-class men who embraced social circles, indulged in fine dining, appreciated the arts, and lived lavishly and extravagantly. Their style was equally distinctive, often featuring custom trousers, knee breeches, silk ties, overcoats, and top hats.
The exhibition will showcase how Black individuals, particularly men, have used dandyism as a means of self-expression, resistance, and identity formation. Guest curator Monica L. Miller’s book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity initially inspired this idea for the 2025 Met Gala.
The event will showcase various historical and contemporary garments, with a focus on menswear. Andrew Bolton, one of the curators for the Costume Institute, acknowledges the ongoing renaissance of men’s fashion as he noted in a press release by The Met: “At the vanguard of this revitalization is a group of extremely talented Black designers who are constantly challenging normative categories of identity. While their styles are both singular and distinctive, what unites them is a reliance on various tropes that are rooted in the tradition of dandyism, and specifically Black dandyism.”
This Year’s Co-Chair’s
There will be four co-chairs of the 2025 Met Gala: Colman Domingo (actor and playwriter), Lewis Hamilton (F1 driver), A$AP Rocky (rapper) and Pharrell Williams (musician and record producer).
Each of these figures will embody what it means to be “Superfine,” bringing their distinct approach to fashion and self-expression as the co-chairs of this year’s Met Gala.
“They’re all men who aren’t afraid to take risks with their self-presentation. They take advantage of classic forms, but they also remix them and break them down in really new ways,” Bolton told Vogue about the co-chairs.
With a theme so deeply rooted in historical significance, we can expect to see an amazing display of outfits on the red carpet. Precision tailoring, rich textures, and bold silhouettes will be emphasized, staying true to the classic essence of Black dandyism.